The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, and Western Texas

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER VIII.

  The Umbiquas came at last; their want of precaution showed theircertainty of success. At all events, they did not suspect there were anyfirearms in the block-house, for they halted within fifty yards fromthe eastern tower, and it required more than persuasion to prevent Rochefrom firing. The horses were not with them, but before long we saw theanimals on the other side of the river, in a little open prairie, underthe care of two of their party, who had swam them over, two or threemiles above, for the double purpose of having them at hand in case ofemergency, and of giving them the advantage of better grazing than theycould possibly find on our side. This was an event which we had notreckoned upon, yet, after all, it proved to be a great advantage to us.

  The savages, making a very close inspection of the outer buildings, soonbecame convinced of the utter impossibility of attacking the place byany ordinary means. They shot some arrows, and once fired with a fusilat the loop-holes, to ascertain if there were any men within capable offighting; but as we kept perfectly quiet, their confidence augmented;and some followed the banks of the river, to see what could be effectedat the principal entrance. Having ascertained the nature of itsmaterial, they seemed rather disappointed, and retired to about onehundred yards to concert their plans.

  It was clear that some of them were for firing the building; but, as wecould distinguish by their gestures, these were comparatively few.Others seemed to represent that, by doing so, they would indubitablyconsume the property inside, which they were not willing to destroy,especially as there was so little danger to be feared from within. Atlast one who seemed to be a chief pointed first with his fingers in thedirection where the canoes had been left; he pointed also to the river,and then behind him to the point of the horizon where the sun rises.After he had ceased talking, two of his men rose, and went away to thesouth-west. Their plan was very evident. These two men, joined with thetwo others that had been left in charge, were to bring the canoes roundthe point and enter the river. It would take them the whole night toeffect this, and at sunrise they would attack and destroy the front doorwith their tomahawks.

  With the darkness of night a certain degree of anxiety came over us, forwe knew not what devilish plan the Indians might hit upon; I placedsentries in every corner of the block-house, and we waited in silence;while our enemies, having lighted a large fire, cooked their victuals,and though we could not hear the import of their words, it was evidentthat they considered the post as in their power. Half of them, however,laid down to sleep, and towards midnight the stillness was uninterruptedby any sound, whilst their half-burnt logs ceased to throw up theirbright flames. Knowing how busy we should be in the morning, I thoughtthat till then I could not do better than refresh myself by a few hours'repose. I was mistaken.

  I had scarcely closed my eyes when I heard the dull regular noise of theaxe upon trees. I looked cautiously; the sounds proceeded from thedistance, and upon the shores of the river, and behind the camp of thesavages, dark forms were moving in every direction, and we at lastdiscovered that the Umbiquas were making ladders to scale the upperdoors of our little towers.

  This, of course, was to us a matter of little or no consideration, as wewere well prepared to receive them: yet we determined not to let themknow our strength within until the last moment, when we should becertain with our firearms to bring down five of them at the firstdischarge. Our Indians took their bows and selected only such arrows aswere used by their children when fishing, so that the hostile partymight attribute their wounds and the defence of their buildings to a fewbold and resolute boys.

  At morn, the Umbiquas made their appearance with two ladders, eachcarried by three men, while others were lingering about and givingdirections, more by sign than word. They often looked towards theloop-holes, but the light of day was yet too faint for their glances todetect us; and besides, they were lulled into perfect security by thedead silence we had kept during the whole night. Indeed, they thoughtthe boat-house had been deserted, and the certain degree of caution withwhich they proceeded was more the effect of savage cunning and naturethan the fear of being seen or of meeting with any kind of resistance.

  The two ladders were fixed against one of the towers, and an Indianascended upon each; at first they cast an inquisitive glance through theholes upon both sides of the door, but we concealed ourselves. Then allthe Umbiquas formed in a circle round the ladders, with their bows andspears, watching the loop-holes. At the chiefs command, the first blowswere struck, and the Indians on the ladders began to batter both doorswith their tomahawks. While in the act of striking for the third time,the Umbiqua on the eastern door staggered and fell down the ladder; hisbreast had been pierced by an arrow. At the same moment, a loud screamfrom the other tower showed that there also we had had the same success.

  The Umbiquas retired precipitately with their dead, uttering a yell ofdisappointment and rage, to which three of our boys, being ordered so todo, responded with a shrill war-whoop of defiance. This made theUmbiquas quite frantic, but they were now more prudent. The arrows thathad killed their comrades were children-arrows; still there could be nodoubt but that they had been shot by warriors. They retired behind aprojecting rock on the bank of the river, only thirty yards in ourfront, but quite protected from our missiles. There they formed acouncil of war, and waited for their men and canoes, which they expectedto have arrived long before. At that moment, the light fog which hadbeen hovering over the river was dispersed, and the other shore becamevisible, and showed us a sight which arrested our attention. There, too,the drama of destruction was acting, though on a smaller scale.

  Just opposite to us was a canoe, the same in which our two Indians hadgone upon their expedition the day before. The two Umbiquas keeping thestolen horses were a few yards from it; they had apparently discoveredit a few minutes before, and were uncertain what course to pursue; theyheard both the war-whoop and the yell of their own people, and were nota little puzzled; but as soon as the fog was entirely gone theyperceived their party, where they had sheltered themselves, and probablyin obedience to some signals from it, they prepared to cross the river.At the very moment they were untying the canoe, there was a flash andtwo sharp reports; the Indians fell down--they were dead. Our twoscouts, who were concealed behind some bushes, then appeared, and begancoolly to take the scalps, regardless of a shower of arrows from theyelling and disappointed Umbiquas. Nor was this all: in their rage andanxiety, our enemies had exposed themselves beyond the protection of therock; they presented a fair mark, and just as the chief was lookingbehind him to see if there was any movement to fear from theboat-house, four more of his men fell under our fire.

  The horrible yells which followed, I can never describe, although theevents of this my first fight are yet fresh in my mind. The Umbiquastook their dead and turned to the east, in the direction of themountains, which they believed would be their only means of escapingdestruction. They were now reduced to only ten men, and their appearancewas melancholy and dejected. They felt that they were doomed never moreto return to their own home.

  We gathered from our scouts opposite that the six warriors of the posthad returned from the settlement, and lay somewhere in ambush; thisdecided us. Descending by the ladders which the Indians had left behindthem, we entered the prairie path, so as to bar their retreat in everydirection.

  Let me wind up this tale of slaughter. The Umbiquas fell headlong on theambush, by which four more of them were killed; the remainder dispersedin the prairie, where they tried in vain to obtain a momentary refuge inthe chasms. Before mid-day they were all destroyed, except one, whoescaped by crossing the river. However, he never saw his home again;for, a long time afterwards, the Umbiquas declared that not one everreturned from that fatal horse-stealing expedition.

  Thus ended my first fight; and yet I had not myself drawn a singletrigger. Many a time I took a certain aim; but my heart beat quick, andI felt queer at the idea of taking the life of a man. This did notprevent me from being highly complimented; hence
forward Owato Wanishawas a warrior.

  The next day I left the boat-house with my own party, I mean the sevenof us who had come from Monterey. Being all well mounted, we shortlyreached the settlement, from which I had been absent more thanthree months.

  Events had turned out better than I had anticipated. My father seemed torecover rapidly from the shock he had received. Our tribe, in a fierceinroad upon the southern country of the Crows, had inflicted upon them asevere punishment Our men returned with a hundred and fifty scalps, fourhundred horses, and all the stock of blankets and tobacco which theCrows had a short time before obtained from the Yankees in exchange fortheir furs. For a long time, the Crows were dispirited and nearly brokendown, and this year they scarcely dared to resort to their ownhunting-grounds. The following is a narrative of the death of the PrinceSeravalle, as I heard it from individuals who were present.

  The year after we had arrived from Europe, the Prince had an opportunityof sending letters to St. Louis, Missouri, by a company of tradershomeward bound. More than three years had elapsed without any answer;but a few days after my departure for Monterey, the Prince having heardfrom a party of Shoshones, on their return from Fort Hall, that a largecaravan was expected there, he resolved to proceed to the fort himself,for the double purpose of purchasing several articles of hardware, whichwe were in need of, and also of forwarding other instructions toSt. Louis.

  Upon his arrival at the fort, he was agreeably surprised at finding, notonly letters for him, together with various bales of goods, but also aFrench savant, bound to California, whither he had been sent by somescientific society. He was recommended to us by the Bishop and thePresident of the college at St. Louis, and had brought with him asguides five French trappers, who had passed many years of their livesrambling from the Rocky Mountains to the southern shores of LowerCalifornia.

  The Prince left his Shoshones at the fort, to bring on the goods at afitting occasion, and, in company with his new guests, retraced hissteps towards our settlement. On the second day of their journey theymet with a strong war-party of the Crows, but as the Shoshones were thenat peace with all their neighbours, no fear had been entertained. Thefaithless Crows, however, unaware, as well as the Prince, of the closevicinity of a Shoshone hunting-party, resolved not to let escape anopportunity of obtaining a rich booty without much danger. They allowedthe white men to pursue their way, but followed them at a distance, andin the evening surprised them in their encampment so suddenly that theyhad not even time to seize their arms.

  The prisoners, with their horses and luggage, were conducted to the spotwhere their captors had halted, and a council was formed immediately.The Prince, addressing the chief, reproached him bitterly with histreachery; little did he know of the Crows, who are certainly thegreatest rascals among the mountains. The traders and all the Indiantribes represent them as "thieves never known to keep a promise or todo an honourable act."

  None but a stranger will ever trust them. They are as cowardly as cruel.Murder and robbery are the whole occupation of their existence, and woeto the traders or trappers whom they may meet with during theirexcursions, if they are not at least one-tenth of their own number. Aproof of their cowardice is that once Roche, myself, and a youngParisian named Gabriel, having by chance fallen upon a camp of thirteenCrows and three Arrapahoes, they left us their tents, furs, and driedmeats; the Arrapahoes alone showing some fight, in which one of them waskilled; but to return to our subject. The chief heard the PrinceSeravalle with a contemptuous air, clearly showing that he knew who thePrince was, and that he entertained no good-will towards him. Hisduplicity, however, and greediness, getting the better of his hatred, heasked the prisoners what they would give to obtain their freedom. Upontheir answer that they would give two rifles, two horses, with onehundred dollars, he said that all which the prisoners possessed whentaken, being already his own, he expected much more than that. Hedemanded that one of the Canadians should go to Fort Hall, with fiveCrows, with an order from the Prince to the amount of sixty blankets,twenty rifles, and ten kegs of powder. In the meantime the prisonerswere to be carried into the country of the Crows, where the goods wereto follow them as soon as obtained; upon the reception of which, thewhite men should be set at liberty. Understanding now the intention oftheir enemies, and being certain that, once in the strongholds of theCrows, they would never be allowed to return, the Prince rejected theoffer; wishing, however, to gain time, he made several others, which, ofcourse, were not agreed upon. When the chief saw that he was not likelyto obtain anything more than that which he had already become master of,he threw away his mask of hypocrisy, and resuming at once his realcharacter, began to abuse his victims.

  "The Pale-faces," he said, "were base dogs, and too great cowards tofight against the Crows. They were less than women, concealingthemselves in the lodges of the Shoshones, and lending them theirrifles, so that having now plenty of arms and ammunition, that tribe hadbecome strong, and feared by all. But now they would kill thePale-faces, and they would see what colour was the blood of cowards.When dead, they could not give any more rifles, or powder, to theShoshones, who would then bury themselves like prairie dogs in theirburrows, and never again dare to cross the path of a Crow."

  The Prince replied to the chief with scorn. "The Crows," he said, "oughtnot to speak so loud, lest they should be heard by the Shoshone braves,and lies should never be uttered in open air. What were the Crows beforethe coming of the white men, on the shores of the Buona Ventura? Theyhad no country of their own, for one part of it had been taken by theBlack-feet, and the other by the Arrapahoes and the Shoshones. Then theCrows were like doves hunted by the hawks of the mountains. They wouldlie concealed in deep fissures of the earth, and never stir but duringnight, so afraid were they of encountering a Shoshone. But the white menassembled the Shoshones around their settlements, and taught them toremain at peace with their neighbours. They had been so for four years;the Crows had had time to build other wigwams. Why did they act likewolves, biting their benefactors, instead of showing to them theirgratitude?"

  The Prince, though an old man, had much mettle in him, especially whenhis blood was up. He had become a Shoshone in all except ferocity; heheartily despised the rascally Crows. As to the chief, he firmly graspedthe handle of his tomahawk, so much did he feel the bitter taunts of hiscaptive. Suddenly, a rustling was heard, then the sharp report of arifle, and one of the Crows, leaping high in the air, fell downa corpse.

  "The chief hath spoken too loud," said the Prince; "I hear the step of aShoshone; the Crows had better run away to the mountains, or their fleshwill fatten the dogs of our village."

  An expression of rage and deep hatred shot across the features of thechief, but he stood motionless, as did all his men, trying to catch thesounds, to ascertain in which direction they should fly from the danger.

  "Fear has turned the Crows into stones," resumed the Prince, "what hasbecome of their light feet? I see the Shoshones."

  "The dog of a Pale-face will see them no more," replied the savage, ashe buried his tomahawk in the skull of the unfortunate nobleman, whowas thus doomed to meet with an inglorious death in a distant land.

  The other prisoners, who were bound, could of course offer noresistance. The French savant and two of his guides were butchered in aninstant, but before the remainder of the party could be sacrificed, awell-directed volley was poured upon the compact body of the Crows, whorushed immediately to the woods for cover, leaving behind them twentydead and wounded besides their cruel chief. Then from the thicketsbehind appeared thirty Shoshones, who immediately gave chase, leavingonly one of their men to free the three remaining trappers, and watchover the body of their murdered friend and legislator.

  A sharp tiralleur fire from their respective covers was carried onbetween the Shoshones and Crows for half an hour, in which the Crowslost ten more scalps, and having at length reached a rugged hill full ofbriars and bushes, they took fairly to their heels, without evenattempting to answer the volleys poured after
them. The victims werecarried to the settlement, and the very day they were consigned to theirgrave, the Shoshones started for the land of the Crows. The results ofthe expedition I have mentioned already.

  With my father I found the three trappers; two of whom were preparing tostart for California, but the third, a young Parisian, who went by thename of Gabriel, preferred remaining with us, and never left me until along time afterwards, when we parted upon the borders of theMississippi, when I was forcing my way towards the Atlantic Ocean. Heand Roche, when I parted with them, had directed their steps back to theShoshones; they delighted too much in a life of wild and perilousadventure to leave it so soon, and the Irishman vowed that if he everreturned within the pale of civilization, it would be to Monterey, theonly place where, in his long wanderings, he had found a peoplecongenial to his own ideas.

  When, in the meeting of a great council, I apprised the tribe of theattack made upon the boat-house by the Umbiquas, and of its results,there was a loud burst of satisfaction. I was made a War-Chief on thespot; and it was determined that a party should immediately proceed tochastise the Umbiquas. My father did not allow me to join it, as therewas much to be done in settling the affairs of the Prince, and payingthe debts he had contracted at Fort Hall; consequently, I led a clerk'slife for two months, writing accounts, &c.--rather a dull occupation,for which I had not the smallest relish. During this time, theexpedition against the Umbiquas had been still more successful than thatagainst the Crows, and, in fact, that year was a glorious one for theShoshones, who will remember it a long while, as a period in whichleggings and moccasins were literally sewn with human hair, and in whichthe blanched and unburied bones of their enemies, scattered on theprairie, scared even the wolves from crossing the Buena Ventura. Indeed,that year was so full of events, that my narration would be too muchswelled if I were to enumerate them all.

  I had not forgotten the cachette at our landing-place. Every thing wastransferred to the boat-house, and the hot days of summer having alreadybegun to render the settlement unpleasant, we removed to the sea-shore,while the major part of the tribe went to hunt in the rolling prairiesof the south.

  The presents of the good people of Monterey proved to be a greatacquisition to my father. There were many books, which he appropriatedto himself; being now too aged and infirm to bear the fatigues of Indianlife, he had become fond of retirement and reading. As to Gabriel andRoche, we became inseparable, and though in some points we were not onan equality, yet the habit of being constantly together and sharing thesame tent united us like brothers.

  As my readers will eventually discover, many daring deeds did we performtogether, and many pleasant days did we pass, both in the northerncities of Mexico and western prairies of Texas, hunting with theComanches, and occasionally unmasking some rascally Texans, who, underthe paint of an Indian, would commit their murders and depredations uponthe remote settlements of their own countrymen.