apprehensions that should a storm suddenlyarise while crossing them, we should be upset; but, as Tim observed,when I made a remark to this effect--
"It's no use troubling ourselves about what might not happen. We willjust trust in Providence, an' do our best."
The first night we lit one of our torches, and paddled on as long as wecould keep our eyes open. During the time, we passed through anothercypress swamp, when the light from the torch, as we twisted in and outamong the stems of the trees, made them assume weird and strange forms;while the occasional cry of some night-bird or wild beast, comingsometimes from one side of us, sometimes from the other, had a verydepressing effect, and I could have fancied, had I believed in theexistence of such things, that the forest was the habitation of evilspirits or satyrs. I was thankful when we got clear of it, and managedto moor the canoe to a tree which grew close to the water. Here welanded and lighted a fire, to boil some porridge in a pot we hadobtained from the blacks, and to heat up some cakes; for we had noanimal food except a little salt pork and some dried fish, which we keptin case of being pushed to extremities.
Hitherto we had met with no white settlers, for those who had penetratedthus far south had established themselves mostly on the sea-board, wherethey were less likely to be annoyed by the Indians than on the river.We were not aware of this at the time, and were constantly on thelook-out, in the hopes of coming in sight of the dwelling of some whiteman, from whom we naturally expected to receive a hospitable welcome.Tired as we were, Tim sat up one part of the night, and I the other, tokeep the fire burning, so that we might preserve ourselves from beingsnapped up by one of our friends the alligators. The monsters roared asloudly as usual, and we could hear their jaws snapping and their tailswhisking about in the water. It was far from pleasant music, but it didnot keep me awake one moment after my watch was over.
We started, by the light of our fire, before daybreak, and continuingour course, entered at sunrise a broad lake, five or six miles inlength. We were afraid that, as the sun rose, a strong breeze mightspring up; and we could easily suppose how heavy a sea might in a fewminutes be created. The weather, however, continued calm; and by dintof hard paddling we re-entered the narrow channel of the stream, downwhich we continued our course.
Two more days had passed. Our supply of provisions was exhausted, andwe were compelled to stop and try to catch some fish. We were lesssuccessful than we expected; either the alligators had eaten them up, orthe bait we used was not of an attractive nature. At length we caught abig fellow, which from its appearance we considered fit to eat, and soonhad some slices roasting before a fire. There was no use in carryingany of it away, as a few hours afterwards it would have been unfit forfood.
Some time afterwards, passing a sand-bank, Tim proposed landing to lookafter turtle eggs. "Hurrah! here they are by dozens," he cried out; andhe brought as many as he could carry. They looked to me unusually largefor the eggs of the fresh-water turtle, but I did not wish to raiseunpleasant doubts in his mind as to what they were. Hunger compelled usto cook some of them. They were certainly rather rank; but not until wehad taken the edge off our appetites did I observe to him that perhapsthey were crocodile eggs.
"Suppose they are," said Tim, without being at all horrified; "I'dsooner eat them than their mother; but if I was hungry, and could getnothing else, I'd dine off her flesh with the greatest pleasure in theworld."
The banks now rose in some places several feet above the water, and wereclothed with pine, live-oak, magnolia, laurel, and other trees. Therewere fewer marshes, and the country appeared more suitable forsettlements than it did higher up. At last we came in sight, on theright bank, of a house surrounded by an orchard and a garden. No onewaved to us, however, as we approached, and not a human being was to beseen. As we drew nearer we saw that the roof was gone, and that theorchard and garden were overrun with creepers and weeds. We landed andcollected a supply of oranges and other fruit, which we found veryrefreshing. We were on the point of returning to the canoe, when Iheard a cackling sound. It was that of some tame hens. We made our wayto the spot from which it proceeded, where we found a hen-house andseveral fowls, with three nests of eggs, one of which contained eight orten freshly laid, but on the other eggs the hens had been sitting forsome time. This was indeed a godsend, for we could eat the eggs rawshould we have no time to land and cook them. I secured the eggs.
"Sure it will be as well to have the birds too," observed Tim. "They'llkeep alive, and we can kill and eat them as they're wanted."
Saying this, he caught four of the hens, and securing them by theirlegs, threw them over his shoulder, where they hung screaming andstruggling.
"I am afraid these will betray us, should any Indians be near," Iobserved.
"They'll be quite aisy soon," answered Tim. "They've got sense enoughto know it's of no use makin' a fuss when they cannot help themselves."
Fortunately Tim found some corn in an out-house, the door of which hadbeen closed, so that the hens had been unable to get at it. We filled abasket full, to serve as food for the fowls, as well as for ourselvesshould we be hard pressed. The rest of the hens had, in the meantime,made their escape.
As we were unwilling longer to delay, we returned with our prizes to thecanoe. Though the eggs were little more than sufficient for a singlemeal, the birds, if we could keep them alive, would last us for fourdays.
Soon after this we came to another settlement, but were againdisappointed. The blackened walls of the houses alone remained. Weagain landed, but had not wandered far when we came upon the dead bodyof a man. It was too clear how he had been slain; the Indians had donethe deed--he was scalped. Others lay dead within the walls, all of whomhad been treated in the same manner. We shouted, but no voice replied.We hurried from the spot, filled with apprehensions. The reports we hadheard were now fully corroborated. The red men had raised the standardof revolt against the pale-faced intruders, as they called the whites.We were in great doubt as to what might have been the fate of ourfriends. All this time we had found no traces of Carlos and Lejoillie.Still we could not but suppose that they had long ago made their waydown the river, and we hoped that they had arrived at Castle Kearneylong ago.
Evening was approaching. We were again passing through a cypress swamp,which extended on both sides of the river. Knotted and twisted trunksprojected far into the stream; the tall stems of trees rose high aboveour heads; while here and there the rays of the sun, penetrating a shortway into the forest, and falling on the lower parts of the trunks, thehuge roots, and the enormous creepers suspended from the boughs, servedto render the rest of the forest more dark and gloomy. Now and then avulture croaked at us as we passed; and we could see huge snakestwisting and wriggling among the trunks in search of prey.
We were approaching the right bank, to cut off a bend of the river, whenTim exclaimed--
"Look there, Mr. Maurice! I saw some one moving. Yes, sure enough,there's a Redskin; and he has a rifle in his hand."
I looked in the direction to which Tim pointed. There, indeed, was anIndian, in war-paint and feathers, cautiously making his way amid thetangled roots.
"Better show him our rifles, Mr. Maurice," observed Tim; "he won't beafther suspecting that they're not loaded, an' it will prevent himplayin' us a scurvy trick, which he'll do, if he can."
I lifted up my rifle, as Tim also did his, while with a turn of mypaddle I steered the canoe away from the shore. Whether he had been onthe watch for us or not we could not tell. Fast as we paddled, he madehis way almost as rapidly through the swamp, and it soon became evidentthat his object was to keep up with us. Replacing our rifles at thebottom of the canoe, we took the paddles in both hands, and thusincreasing our speed, had hopes of distancing him. Should he, however,reach level ground he might soon overtake us.
Ere long we were convinced that his object was hostile, for a bulletwhistled close to my head. Night was approaching, and perhaps hethought we should escape him in the darkness,
and so he endeavoured toput a stop to our progress. If so, he was mistaken, for we managed tokeep down the centre of the stream, paddling with might and main. Weincurred the danger, we knew, of running against a floating log or asnag, or sticking fast on a shallow; but it was better to run theserisks than be shot by Indians, for although we had only seen one theremight be dozens of them. It became more and more evident that the redmen had revolted against the whites. Perhaps the man who was followingus was one of those who had murdered the settlers in the houses we hadstopped at, and had seen us at a distance.
When morning broke we found that the river had greatly widened, and wehad every reason to believe that we had distanced our pursuer. Still,it would probably narrow again, and should any Indians possessed ofcanoes perceive us they might put off in chase.
After our long paddle during
In the Wilds of Florida: A Tale of Warfare and Hunting Page 31