The Nagyvradi Brothers

by Laszlo Endrody

  The man holding the gun asked Luke, “Do you have any papers on these niggers?”

  Another man piped up and said, “I don’t see any brands on these horses.”

  They had five Negros sitting down that were all chained together. I aimed at the one pointing the gun at Luke and shot him in the head. Luke went for his pistol but one of the men’s slaves shot at Luke. One of the chained slaves picked up a long stick and jabbed the man’s horse in the flank. The horse jumped, the man missed Luke, and Luke shot the man.

  I rode in and looked at the chained slaves. Jake got the two horses and tied them up. I asked the slaves who these men were, but they didn’t know. One of the slaves said that they had been buying up slaves and taking them to New Orleans to sell.

  I went through the fallen men’s pockets and found a key on one of them. I went over to the fellow who was last in line on the chain and unlocked his shackles. I then handed him the key and he unlocked the rest. A tall Negro stood up and told me that one of the slaves was a killer. He pointed to the one that helped us and said, “That man is an Indian.” I thought he looked different from the rest. He was not as dark as the others and he had fine features. The Indian said nothing. He just stood there.

  I went over to one of the bandits and took off his belt. He had a big knife in a scabbard on it and I handed it to the Indian. He took it, pulled out the knife and looked at it, then he put the belt around him. I also took the man’s money belt and handed it to Betty. She was shocked that I handed it to her.

  Luke picked up all of the weapons and took a money belt off the other man too. I told the Negros that they could have the men’s clothes. One had on a deer skin shirt that the Indian wanted. I went over to the wagon and got the Comanche shirt from off the wagon and gave it to the Indian. He grunted, looked at it, and then put it on. He then put his belt around it.

  It didn’t take long before the others had the two men stripped of their clothes. The Negros were in rags, and they were happy to get some nicer clothes.

  I told them, “We are going to Baton Rouge.” I pointed to one of them and said, “You drive the first wagon,” pointed to another and said, “And you drive the second.”

  I got the Indian chief’s rifle out and handed it over to the Indian. I got some powder and bullets for it and also some caps and handed those to him too. He had no place to put everything, so I emptied one of the saddlebags into the wagon and told the Indian he could have it. Cindy found a dirty shirt inside one of the saddlebags and some jerky. I told the slaves they could have the jerky. I gave the saddlebag to the Indian and he put his things inside it.

  I got another saddlebag and emptied it too. There was another shirt inside it and I gave it to the Negros. I pointed to one of the horses and the Indian untied it and got in the saddle. He got up front and waited for the wagons. I found a bunch of bills of sale in the second saddlebag. I put them in my pocket to go over them later.

  We started rolling and left the two dead men where they lay. Luke was up front with the Indian and I stayed behind. That night I cut up some bacon and bread and we had Milly give it out to the Negros. The Indian set by himself and I had Milly take him some. When the coffee was ready, I got a cup and took it over to him. I sat down by him and asked him where his home was.

  He said, “Naches, toward the rising sun.”

  I asked him, “What is your name?”

  “Nighthorse,” he answered.

  I told him, “My name is Paul and my brother is Luke. What tribe are you from?”

  He said, “Choctaw.”

  When we got to Baton Rouge, Luke and Nighthorse were up front again. Luke called for me and pointed to a riverboat that was tied up ahead of two others. He asked me if I thought it looked familiar and I told him it did. We rode towards it. Before we got up to it, Captain Chowan blew his whistle. We waved to him and he came down to greet us. I introduced him to the girls and then asked him where he was headed.

  He told me, “Naches. We have some cargo to load and some logs. We are leaving in two days. I have my mate hunting for some help.”

  I told him, “I have four boys here that can help, but you will have to feed them.”

  “Fine,” he said.

  He called for one of his blacks and told him to put the four to work.

  I then asked him, “How about two wagons and 14 horses, cash customers?”

  “No problem,” he answered.

  We put the wagons and horses onboard. He gave us two staterooms and we started to settle in. That night I asked Betty if she would be my wife and she accepted. I knew that Luke wanted to marry Cindy too.

  I talked to the captain and he told us that he could marry us once he was underway. Betty wanted a priest and I promised her that we would get married again in a church as soon as we got to Naches.

  The following morning I asked Nighthorse if he would go hunting before we headed out, and he went with his horse. We went to town and bought the girls some dresses and some feed for the horses. We also let the girls do some shopping on their own. I bought five straw hats for the Negros and the girls bought Milly some things.

  When we got back to the boat, Nighthorse was there with two deer that he had already skinned out. I carried the meat to the galley. He then wrapped the deer skins in a bundle and took them onboard. I boned out the deer and started on a big pot of goulash. Betty helped me.

  The cook went ashore again, but he was back by breakfast time. He cussed the captain because he didn’t give him any money. Milly asked me if she could cook some gumbo. I told her it was all right with me if it was all right with the cook. She wanted one dollar to get the things from the store that she needed to make it. I gave her the money and she asked if she could take Jake with her, I agreed.

  When they came back, both of them were loaded down. She cooked her gumbo and it was real good. Everybody that wanted to had a chance to cook something, and Betty and Cindy baked a wedding cake.

  After we got underway, Captain Chowan married Cindy and Luke and then he married me and Betty. We had our wedding party on the ship. Captain Chowan’s daughter wasn’t there, so we didn’t have any guitar music, but it was nice anyway. Nighthorse didn’t come up, so we took some cake down to him. I sat with him a while and watched the current slide by.

  I made love to Betty that night for the first time. I was really happy with her because I could see her happiness coming back with her freedom returning.

  While we were going upstream we only made 3 to 4 knots. Sometimes when we were close to the bank we would average 4 knots. One of our new Negros, Stan, was an experienced sailor and the mate came to see me about him. He offered me 500 dollars for him. Stan had worked on sailing ships his entire life until his ship ran aground and was lost off the coast of California. I looked through the papers on all of the men and found a bill of sale for Stan. I found Stan and talked to him. He told me that he wanted to stay on the boat; it’s all he’d ever known.

  When we got to Morganza Landing, the captain tied up the boat. The chief had a bearing problem that needed to be worked on. There was a store not far from the dock, so I took Stan and we went in and bought him two pairs of work trousers, two warm shirts for winter, and a dark blue jacket, the kind the other sailors were wearing. I also bought him some socks and a pair of sailor shoes. The store owner gave him a sailors cap and a flour sack to put all of his things in. While we were here, I did some shopping myself and then we went back to the boat. I told Stan to go put some of his new things on, and he was happy to do so.

  I found the captain and told him that Stan could stay. I showed him the papers I had on him with a phoney bill of sale made out to me and the new one selling him to the captain. The captain called the mate and told him to put Stan to work. I gave Stan five silver dollars in front of the mate. He thanked me and went off with the mate. The captain then paid me 500 dollars.

  I had one man that
was called Sampson. He was a very hard worker. I also had a younger man that went by the name Blue. Sampson told me that he was a blacksmith and that Blue was a field hand, but he loved horses. I noticed that he was always brushing and cleaning the horses. He just enjoyed being around them. I also had a fourth man named Rube that never wanted to do anything. He wouldn’t take any orders from Jake. One day I saw him with his shirt off and his back was a mess of scars. I figured I needed to get rid of him as soon as I could. He didn’t fit in to our group.

  Milly was doing a little whoring around the boat to make herself some money. Rube asked her for some of it but she wouldn’t give any of it up. Rube then hit her and tried to take it from her. Stan saw what was going on. He picked Rube up and shook him. I walked in and saw that Stan had a hold of Rube and asked, “What’s going on?”

  Rube pointed at Milly and said, “She is whoring around, Master. She’s a whore. She’s got money.”

  I then said, “Stan, if Rube ever touches Milly again, break him in half and throw his body overboard.”

  Stan replied, “Yes sir, Master Paul.”

  The mate came by and I told him to find some hard work for Rube to keep him busy and out of mischief. For the rest of the trip Rube was down in the engine room keeping busy.

  I told Betty about Milly about and she said she didn’t know what to do about her. She asked me what Jake thought about it all, and I told her that he didn’t care.

  We had stopped for several nights. The captain said it was too dark and he couldn’t see to navigate. I figured he didn’t want to get hung up on another sandbar.

  Blue told me that one of the mares was getting close to foaling. He said that she was making milk. I hoped that she would hold off until we got to Naches, but I asked Blue to keep an eye on her.

  The four of us were happy. The girls kept busy making pies and when we got close to shore, we all went sightseeing.

  When we finally got to Naches, the captain asked if he could use our men for a couple of days to help offload the boat. I told him that would be fine.

  We unloaded the two wagons and all of our horses. Luke and I drove through town and found us a nice meadow where we made camp. Nighthorse went hunting and brought in two deer. I kept one for us and sent the other to the boat. The next morning, he got two more. Milly was with us and did most of the chores.

  The third afternoon I went back to the boat and the captain told me that he was almost finished with my men. I stayed around until they were through and then took them back to camp with me.

  We had two options; we could either go by boat or by land. Nighthorse told us about the Naches trail to Nashville. He said that we would be there before winter.

  We went into town to get supplies. We also got the girls some more new dresses. We bought clothes for the men, some warm shirts and pants. I also bought Nighthorse some warm pants and a shirt to wear under his Indian shirt. I wanted to buy him some boots too, but he didn’t want any. He was planning on getting some moccasins when he got to the Choctaw village. We bought a warm coat for Milly and 10 warm blankets. We then went over to the church and I talked to the priest about Betty and me getting a church wedding.

  The new colt came. It was a little filly. The girls had a lot of fun with it. Another one of our mares would be foaling before long as well, so we made the decision to travel by land.

  That following Sunday Betty and I got married in the Catholic Church. Cindy was not Catholic, but she said for a beautiful dress she was willing to get married once a week.

  We stayed in a hotel for two nights. Then we finished getting all of our supplies. I sent Sampson and Blue in to town with four of our horses to get them shoed.

  The next morning we started out. Luke and Nighthorse rode up front and I rode my stud in the back. Blue and Sampson were driving the wagons. While we were riding, Nighthorse pointed out a wild turkey to me. He said, “Good eating.” I got my shotgun out to get him, but I never got the chance.

  That night while we were all asleep, Rube escaped and took my shotgun with him. The next morning we noticed that he was gone. Nighthorse looked for his tracks and went off after him while we stayed in camp. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed the rest. That afternoon Nighthorse retuned with a very sorry Rube. One eye was swollen shut and he wasn’t walking very well. His hands were tied behind his back and he had a rope around his neck. Nighthorse tied him to the wagon. I didn’t say a word. I was happy to get my shotgun back. I hoped that Rube had learned a lesson. I wanted to get rid of him the first chance I got.

  Luke ladled us all out some beans for dinner. He put a big piece of ham in Nighthorse’s bowl and then ladled some for himself. He told Nighthorse to come sit by him and he did. Nighthorse now knew that we thought of him as an equal. When we finished eating, I had Blue take a cup of beans over to Rube. He poured them down his throat. The next day I untied Rube’s hands but I left the rope around his neck.

  A couple days later we came to a clearing where a bunch of Negros were picking cotton. Their overseer came over to us and looked my men over. Luke told him that we would just be camping for a while, and the overseer said that was fine. There was a little black girl in the field pulling a big heavy bag of cotton. She was having a hard time and could barely move it. Pretty soon she fell pretty far behind and the overseer told her to hurry. The poor girl tried but she was shaking with fear. The overseer then whacked her one with his whip and she screamed. The overseer then lifted his whip again and just then a shot rang from behind some trees. Nighthorse shot the whip out of the overseer’s hand. The overseer was shocked as he looked down at his whip that had been blown into pieces. He then reached for his pistol. I saw that Luke had already gotten his out. I told the man, “Don’t pull that gun or you’ll be dead.” He took his hand away from it.

  Two men rode up and I walked out to meet them. I said to the older gentleman, “Sell me the white girl, I want to prevent a killing.” The man looked around and saw the feathers on Nighthorse’s rifle pointed at the overseer.

  The man asked the overseer, “What did you do now, Mace?”

  Mace replied, “I just gave this slow little shit a light whack and she screamed. Then the Indian shot my whip out of my hand.”

  The man then turned to me and said, “You can have her for 60 dollars.”

  I went over to Betty and she gave me the money and I handed it to the man. I took the little girl by the hand and walked her over to Nighthorse and went back to get the papers on the girl. A black woman came running out toward us. She was screaming and crying. I asked the man who she was. He told me that she was the girl’s mother. The overseer then screamed at the lady to get back to work, but she just kept coming. Nighthorse went over to Rube and cut him free from the wagon. He then took him over to the man and said, “Trade.” The man agreed and I gave him Rube’s papers. Nighthorse took the woman, led her to Sampson, and told her, “Your man.” She looked up at Sampson and just stood there.

  As we were straightening out the paperwork, I heard Luke tell Rube to pick up his sack and go pick some cotton.

  The overseer said, “Rube, pick up that whip.”

  “Yes, Master,” replied Rube.

  “You better catch up with those women and pick those plants clean,” the overseer told him.

  After we closed the deal, I told everybody to mount up. Nighthorse got on his horse and picked up the little girl and she rode with him. Luke got on his horse. Sampson put the black woman on the seat next to him in the wagon and he started out. Blue and Jake were driving the second wagon with Milly sitting on the tailboard. We rode another three hours before we stopped to make camp for the night.

  The new woman was quite. She just sat next to Sampson and her daughter and had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. After we finished dinner, we all bedded down. Betty and I slept in the back of one of the wagons and Luke and Cindy slept in the other one.

&
nbsp; The next day we drove through a little town that had a store so we stopped in to get a few things. I asked Sampson what his woman’s name was and he said it was Molly. I told Molly and Sampson to come into the store with us. As soon as Molly walked in the door the storekeeper yelled, ”That nigger needs to stand by the backdoor! She’s not allowed in my store!” I told Molly to go stand by the back door and I carried several dresses out to her until we found her size. I bought her two warm dresses that she liked. I also bought her some socks. I would have got her some shoes but the store didn’t have any shoes. I then told Molly to go and get her daughter. We got her little girl a dress and some socks too. We looked around a little and I found some red scarves and I bought a couple of those too. We weren’t interested in anything else, so we paid and left.

  The next morning when Molly came to get some coffee for her man, she had on one of her new dresses. She looked very pretty.

  Parts of the trail we were on were very narrow and other parts were practically worn away, but luckily Nighthorse knew the way and he took us around the rough parts of the trail. Nighthorse educated us on the history of the trail as we went along.

  When we got to Jackson we went to town. We found a bunch of Choctaw squaws selling moccasins. Nighthorse talked to them and I gave him some money and told him to himself whatever he wanted, and also told him to get a pair for everyone else in our crew. The squaws were excited that he bought so many moccasins and they gave him a good deal on everything. He then went to the wagon and got out all of the skins he had been saving and gave them to the squaws. After we shopped a little, we headed out again.

  We made camp and stayed there for four days while one of our mares foaled. This time we got a little horse colt. Nighthorse went in to town to visit the squaws and took little Maggy with him. When they came back, she had on a doeskin dress and he had on some leggings that went over his pants. He also brought back a young Indian girl that was riding a wore-out mare. As soon as I saw her I said, “Our tribe is definitely growing.” He had enough meat with him to feed an entire village, and we used some of it for dinner that night.