A caravan--consisting of ten waggons, drawn by teams of six, eight, and
ten bullocks, five or six lighter vehicles of various descriptions,
half-a-dozen horsemen, and a score of men on foot--was making its way
across an undulating plain.
Few words were spoken, for what was there to talk of when one day was
but a picture of another? The women, sitting for the most part in the
waggons, knitted or worked with but an occasional remark to each other.
The men, walking with the oxen, kept on their way as doggedly as the
animals they drove, and save for the occasional crack of a whip or a
shout from one of the men to his beasts, and the occasional creaking of
a wheel, the procession might have seemed to an onlooker a mere
phantasmagoria of silent shapes. But the sun was getting low and the
oxen beginning almost insensibly to quicken their pace, and all knew
that the long day's journey was nearly over, and the water-holes could
not be far ahead.
Half an hour later these are reached, and at once a babel of sounds
succeeds the previous silence. The children of all ages leap joyfully
from the waggons, the men loose the oxen from their harness, and then
some of them take them to the lowest water-hole, while the rest, and
even the women, lend a hand at the work, and arrange the great waggons
into the form of a square. As soon as this is done fires are made with
the bundles of bush that the boys and girls have cut during the earlier
part of the day's journey and piled on the tailboards of the
waggons--long experience having taught them that everything that could
burn had been long since cut down or grubbed up within a wide radius of
the halting-place.
The horses are hobbled and turned out, to pick up what substance they
can find in addition to a slice or two of bread that most of their
owners have set apart from the over-night baking. Kettles are soon
hanging over the fires, and it is not long before most of the women have
their dough ready and placed in iron baking-pots over the red-hot
embers, a pile of which is raked over the cover so as to bake it evenly
right through. Two or three deer had been shot in the morning by the
hunters, and the joints hung over the fires give an appetising odour
very welcome to those whose chief article of diet for many weeks has
been salt meat.
In one corner of the square a group of three or four men are seated
round a fire of their own. It is they whose rifles have provided the
meat for the camp, and who in return receive a portion of bread from
each of the families composing the caravan.
'We shall not get much more hunting,' one of them said; 'we are getting
to the most dangerous part of our journey. We have been lucky so far,
for though we know that we have been watched, and have seen several
parties of Redskins, none of them have been strong enough to venture to
attack us. But now that every express rider we have met has warned us
that there is trouble here, that strong caravans have been overpowered
and the emigrants massacred, there will be no more wandering away far
from the camp. You will have to travel the same pace as the rest of us,
Ned,' he added, to the bearded figure next to him. 'It beats me how you
have got through as you have, without having your hair raised.'
'I have only made extra journeys where, by all accounts, no Indians have
been seen about for some time. Besides, it is only about three or four
times we have made two journeys in one. We have simply, when the party
we were with have made up their minds to stop a day or two at a
water-hole to rest their beasts and to wash their clothes, gone on the
next morning with another party who had finished their rest. There seem
to be regular places where every caravan that arrives makes a halt for a
day or so. We have done this seven times, so I reckon that we have
gained fourteen days that way and on five days we have made double
journeys, so that altogether we have picked up something like nineteen
days on the caravan we started with.'
'Your critters are in good condition, too,' the man remarked.
'Yes, I have been fortunate with the hunting. One can always get half a
pound of flour for a pound of meat, so that I still have almost as much
as I started with, and I always give each of the horses four pounds of
bread a day. One cannot expect that horses can be kept in condition when
they are working day after day and have to spend their nights in
searching for food and then not getting half enough of it.'
'These Indian ponies can do it; no one thinks of feeding a horse on the
plains. They have got to rustle for themselves.'
'That may be, but these three horses have not been accustomed to that
sort of thing. No doubt they have always been fed when they have worked,
and they would soon have broken down under the life that comes natural
to the half-wild ponies of the plains. However, it has paid to keep them
well; they have come along without halts, and, as you see, they are in
as good condition as when they started. In better condition indeed, for
they are as hard as nails and fit to do anything.'
'That young mate of yours is a good 'un, and takes wonderful care of the
critters. He is British too, I suppose?'
'Oh, yes, we came out together.'
'Ain't no relation of yourn?'
'No. I was coming out and so was he, and we agreed to come together. It
is always a good thing to have someone one knows at home with one.'
'That is so,' the man agreed. 'A good mate makes all the difference in
life out here. It is easy to see the young 'un thinks a heap of you, and
I guess you could reckon on him if you got into a tight corner. He is a
tough-looking chap, too. Well, I reckon the meat's done. You had better
give a call for your mate. Where has he gone to?'
'He is at the cart,' Ned said, as he stood up and looked round. 'Jacob,
supper is ready.'
'I am coming,' was called back; but it was another five minutes before
Jacob came up and seated himself by the fire.
'What have you been up to, Jacob?'
'I fetched a couple of buckets of water, and I have been a-giving the
cart a wash down and a polish.'
The hunters looked at the lad in surprise.
'Do you mean that?' one asked; and on Jacob nodding they all burst into
a hearty laugh.
'Well, I reckon, Jacob, as that's the first cart as ever was washed out
on these plains. Why, what is the good of it, lad? What with the
mud-holes in the bottoms and the dust where the wind has dried the
track, it will be as bad as ever afore you have gone half an hour;
besides, who is a-going to see it?'
'I don't care for that,' Jacob said sturdily; 'if it has got to get
dirty it has got to; that ain't my fault; but it is my fault if it
starts dirty. It ain't often one gets a chance o' doing it, but as we
was in good time to-day I thought I would have a clean up. Ned had seen
to the horses, so I looked to the cart.'
It had taken Captain Hampton immense trouble to accustom Jacob to call
him by his Christian name. He began by pointing out to him that were he
to call him 'Captain' or 'sir' it would at once excite comment, and that
it was of the greatest importance that they should appear to be
travelling together on terms of equality.
'Unless you accustom yourself always to say "Ned" the other words are
sure to slip out sometimes. This journey is going to be a hard one, and
we have got to share the hardships and the danger and to be comrades to
each other, and so you must practise calling me Ned from the time we go
on board the steamer.'
It had not been, however, until they had been out on the plains for some
time that Jacob had got out of the way of saying 'Captain' occasionally,
but he had now fallen into 'Ned,' and the word came naturally to his
lips.
'I think the idea is right, Jacob. Absolutely, washing the cart may seem
useless. So it is to the cart, but not to you. There is nothing like
doing things as they should be done. When one once gets into careless
habits they will stick to one. I always give my horse a rub down in the
morning and again before I turn it out after it has done its work. I
think it is all the better for it, and I like to turn out decently in
the morning, not to please other people, but for my own satisfaction.'
'I reckon you are about right,' the oldest of the party said; 'a man who
takes care of his beast gets paid for it. You don't have no trouble in
the morning. Your three critters come in at once when they hear you
whistle. I watched them this morning and saw you give them each a hunch
of bread and then set to work to rub them down and brush their coats,
and I says to myself, "That is what ought to be between horse and
master. If we was attacked by Redskins you and that young chap would be
in the saddle, and ready either to fight or to run, afore most of them
here had begun to think about it."'
One of the horses in the cart always carried a saddle, and Jacob
sometimes rode it postilion fashion, and also rode out with Ned Hampton
when the start of the caravan was late and he went out to try to get a
shot at game before they moved. In this way he had got to ride fairly,
which was Ned's object in accustoming him to sit on horseback, as he
told him there was never any saying when it might not be necessary to
abandon the cart and to journey on horseback. The two draught horses
were ridden in turns, and when the lad rode with his master the third
horse was always summoned by a whistle to accompany them, and cantered
alongside its companion until both halted, when Ned caught sight of game
and went forward alone in its pursuit. Jacob was also taught to use a
pistol, and by dint of steady practice had become a fair shot.
The meal was just finished when there was a shout from the man placed on
the lookout a hundred yards from the encampment.
'What is it?' a boy posted just outside the waggons shouted back.
A dead silence fell on the camp until, a minute later, they heard the
reply, 'It is only the express rider.'
Many of the men rose and moved towards the narrow opening left between
two of the waggons to give admittance to the square.
The passage of an express rider was always an event of prime interest.
These men were their only links with the world. Often if they met them
on the way they would not check the speed of the ponies, but pass on
with a wave of the hand and a shout of 'All's well,' or 'Redskins about;
keep well together.' It was only when a rider happened to reach one of
the pony stations, often forty or fifty miles apart, while the caravan
was there, that they could have a talk and learn what news there was to
be told of the state of the country ahead. It was uncertain whether the
rider would draw rein there; he might stop to snatch a bit of food and a
drink before he rode on. This hope grew into certainty as the footsteps
of a horse at a gallop were heard approaching. The man threw himself off
his pony as he entered the square, and the light of the fire sufficed to
show that the horse was in the last state of exhaustion, its chest was
flecked with foam, its sides heaved in short sobs, its coat was staring.
'Give it half a bucket of water with half a tumbler of whisky in it,'
the man said hoarsely. 'It has saved my life.'
Jacob ran up with half a pail of water, and Captain Hampton emptied the
contents of his flask into it.
'Thanks, mate,' the rider said, holding out his hand; 'that is a good
turn I won't forget.'
The horse at first refused to drink. Captain Hampton dipped his
handkerchief in the bucket and sponged its nostrils and mouth, while its
rider patted its neck and spoke encouragingly to it. At the next attempt
it sipped a little and then drank up the rest without hesitation.
'It will do now,' its rider said, with a sigh of relief; 'it has carried
me eighty miles, and for the last twenty of them I have been hotly
chased by the Redskins; they were not a hundred yards behind when at the
last rise I caught sight of your fires and knew that I was saved. It was
my last chance, for I knew that if I did not find a party at these water
holes it was all up with us.'
'Then there are Redskins near,' one of the men asked; 'how many of
them?'
'Not above a dozen; it was a big band, but there were not more than that
chased me. They won't venture to attack this outfit, but some of you had
best turn out with your rifles at once, and get your oxen and horses in.
If you don't you are not likely to find them here in the morning.'
This started the whole camp into activity. A waggon at the entrance was
turned round so as to give more room to the animals to pass in; the boys
were set to work to carry blazing brands and brushwood outside, and to
relight the fires, at a distance of thirty or forty yards round the
waggons, while the embers of those inside were at once scattered; the
children were all placed for safety in the waggons, where Captain
Hampton, whose horses had come in at once to his whistle, took his place
with four or five other men in readiness to keep the Indians at a
distance, if they showed themselves. The rest of the men, armed to the
teeth, went out to drive in the animals. This was accomplished without
interruption, and the waggon was then moved back into its place, the
boys posted on watch all round, and the men gathered round the express
rider to hear the news.
'It is mighty bad news, boys,' began the express rider, 'I can tell
you--I saw nothing particular wrong till I got near the pony station,
though I noticed that a big gang of Redskins had ridden across the
track. Directly I fixed my eye on the station I saw as something was
wrong. There was the stockade, but I did not see the roof of the station
above it. I took a couple of turns round afore I went near it, but
everything was still and I guessed the red devils had ridden off, so I
made up my mind to ride straight in and take my chance. When I did, I
tell you it made me feel a pretty sick man. The hut was down, but that
was not the worst of it; there was bodies lying all about; men and
women, scalped in course; there was what had been five waggons just
burnt up, piles of flour and meat and other things all about, and it was
clear that, after taking all they could carry, the Redskins had emptied
the barrels, chucked them into the waggons and set them alight.
'It wuz clearly a surprise, for there wer'n't a dead Redskin about. That
didn't go for much, cause they would have buried them; but I looked
pretty close round and could see nary sign of blood except where the
whites were lying. The Redskins had left their ponies at a distance, had
scaled the stockades without being noticed, and then had fallen upon
them afore they had time to get hold of their arms. There was a dead man
at each corner of the stockade; them four had been stabbed or
tomahawked, and so no alarm had been given. I counted fifteen dead
bodies besides the station-keeper and his mate: they was pretty near all
children or oldish women and men. I guess they carried off all the young
women and some of the men.'
A deep groan of horror and fury broke from his hearers.
'Ay, it is one of the worst businesses there has been yet,' he said;
'and there has been some bad massacres in this part too. Men says those
people up the Salt Lake stirs the Redskins up agin emigrants, but I
can't believe as human nature is as bad as that. Well, I did not wait
long, you may be sure. I got a bucket and filled it at the
station-keeper's bar'l and put half a dozen pounds of flour in from one
of the heaps, and stirred it up and give it to the pony. I guessed he
would want it afore he had done. Then I rode on quiet, keeping a pretty
sharp look out, you bet, till I got half way to this place. Then I got
sight of a big lot of Redskins over on the right, and you may bet your
boots I rode for it. They came down whooping and yelling, but the
crittur is one of the fastest out on the plains, and if he had been
fresh I should not have minded them a cent. Most of them soon gave it
up, but about a dozen laid themselves out for me, and I tell you I have
had to ride all I knew to keep ahead of them. The last half-mile I could
feel that the poor beast could not go much further, and if I had found
nary waggon here I had made up my mind to lie down at one of these holes
and fight it out. I reckon some of them would never have got back to
their tribe to tell how my scalp was took.'
Guards were posted round the waggons as soon as the cattle were in and
the entrance closed, although, as the express rider said, there was
little fear of an attack, as even if the main body of Indians had
followed those who pursued him, they would not venture upon such an
enterprise, when they would be sure that the emigrants would be watchful
and prepared, but would be far more likely to fall upon them on the
march. He thought it still more likely that there would be no attack
whatever.
'They have got a grist of scalps,' he said, 'and as much booty as they
could carry away. They will be making straight back to their villages to
have their dances and feasts. You have a good chance of getting on
safely now.'
Captain Hampton volunteered to form part of the first watch. The news
had rendered him very uneasy. He told Jacob that he might as well come
out with him.
'I am troubled about this affair, Jacob,' he said, when they had taken
their place, about a hundred yards away from the waggons. 'You know, I
was saying to-day that we might possibly overtake them at any time. If
they have travelled at the rate at which the heavy trains move they may
very well have been with that party who have been massacred by the
Indians. Mind, I do not think that they were; I should say that most
likely they have gone on as fast--or possibly even faster--than we have.
The waggon they brought was a light one, though it was heavier than
ours, but they have six horses. Then, as we have heard, sometimes
parties all with light waggons and carriages join and travel together,
and so get along much faster than ordinary trains. I think they would
have pushed on as fast as they possibly could. I feel sure that if they
had a hand in that attack upon me, the man who started by the steamer in
the morning would find out before he went on board that I had been taken
to the hotel, and that I was alive.
'Probably I may have been reported as much worse than I really was, and
they would count upon the wound being a mortal one. Still they could not
be sure of it, and would decide to push across the plains as rapidly as
possible, in case I should recover and pursue them. Still there is just
the possibility that feeling confident that I should die they might take
it quietly, and have been in that caravan. It seems to render everything
uncertain. Before, we knew they were ahead of us, and that sooner or
later we should come upon them in California, if we did not overtake
them on the journey; now, we know that possibly they have been killed,
and the girl carried off by the Indians.'
'But we shall pass by the place to-morrow, Ned, and you will be able to
see if they are there.'
'We shall not be able to see that, Jacob; the vultures and wild dogs
make very short work of those who fall out here on the plains. When we
get there to-morrow we shall find nothing but cleanly-picked bones.'
This turned out to be the case. The caravan camped four miles short of
the scene of the massacre, and made a detour in the morning to avoid it.
Captain Hampton rode over early with the hunters, but found, as he
expected, that the vultures and dogs had done their work. Two days later
the train arrived at Salt Lake City. Here were a great number of waggons
and emigrants, for most of those crossing the plains made a halt of some
duration here, both to rest their animals and to enjoy a period of
quiet, undisturbed by fears of the dreaded Indian war whoop. There was,
too, an opportunity for trade with the Mormons, from whom they obtained
meat, grain, and vegetables, in exchange for tea, sugar, axes, and
materials for clothes.
Captain Hampton remained but a night, spending the evening in examining
the newly-raised settlement, and wondering at the strange band of
ignorant enthusiasts who had thus cut themselves off from the world and
forsaken everything in their blind belief in an impostor as ignorant but
more astute than themselves. He made many inquiries as to the
possibility of getting together a band to follow up the Indians who were
the authors of the massacre four days before, in order to punish them
and to rescue the captives they might have carried off, but among the
Mormons he found nothing but a dull apathy as to anything outside their
own colony, while the emigrants were all too much bent upon pressing
forward towards the land of gold, to listen to anything that would cause
delay. He had mooted the subject to the men of his own party, but they
had shaken their heads.
'I doubt whether it is possible, Ned,' one of them said. 'It 'ud need a
mighty strong party to venture into the hills after them Redskins. We
don't know what tribe they were or where they came from, and they would
be a sight more likely to find us and attack us than we to find them.
Their villages may be hundreds of miles away. We ain't sure as they
carried any women off, though like enough they have. No, it won't do,
Ned. We ought to have at least a hundred good men for such a job as
that, and there ain't a chance of your getting them. It ain't like as
when a border village is attacked and women carried off; then their
friends are ready to go out to pay back the Redskins and rescue the
women, and men from other villages are ready to join, because what has
happened to one to-day may happen to another to-morrow, and so all are
concerned in giving the Indians a lesson. But it ain't no one's business
here. This crowd are all concerned only in getting on as hard as they
can. There ain't one of them but thinks that the delay of a week might
lose him a fortune; and though they would fight if the Redskins were to
attack them, they have not got any fight in them except for their lives,
and even if they were willing to go they would not be no manner of use
on an expedition like that you talk about.'
Captain Hampton hardly regretted the failure of his attempt to get up an
expedition at Salt Lake City. It would have entailed a great loss of
time, and the chances that the woman he was in search of had been in the
caravan were slight indeed. The stream of emigration was so great that
frequently five or six caravans a day passed along, and as she might be
a day or a month ahead of him it was clear that the odds were great
indeed against her being in any given one of them. The risk of attack by
Indians was henceforth comparatively slight, and Captain Hampton was
therefore able to push on at a much higher rate of speed. He would,
indeed, have travelled much faster than he did, had it not been for the
necessity of stopping for an hour or two with each caravan he overtook,
so as to ascertain that the party he was in search of were not with it.
At last they reached the edge of the great plateau of Nevada, where the
land, cut up in numerous ravines and valleys, and everywhere thickly
wooded, falls rapidly down to the low lands of California. A village
consisting principally of liquor stores stood just where the road
plunged down through the forest. Here every caravan stopped on its way
to gather news as to the diggings at the gold fields. All sorts of
rumours had reached them on their Western journey, and it was only now
that anything certain could be learned.
The accounts, however, were most conflicting. Captain Hampton learnt
that there were scores of diggings, and that fresh ones were being
opened every day. He had no interest in the reports of their wealth or
in the accounts of great finds, beyond the fact that Truscott was likely
to make for one that seemed to offer the greatest advantages.
It would probably be a newly started one, for there he would not find
competitors already established. If he really intended to get up a
saloon he would almost certainly go down to Sacramento to begin with, to
lay in stores and liquors and purchase either a tent or a portable
building of some kind; and at any rate somewhat more reliable
information than the conflicting rumours current at this station would
be obtainable there.
He therefore determined not to turn aside to visit any of the camps, but
to go straight down. There was no hurrying until they reached the
plains; the horses had to be led every foot of the way. Frequently the
road was blocked by long lines of waggons, delayed by a wheel having
come off one, or the animals having finally given in. Then there was no
moving until scores of hands had chopped down and cleared the trees so
as to form a fresh track. In most cases, however, this was unnecessary,
as the operation had been so frequently performed that there was a wide
belt cleared on either side of the track.
It was with a sensation of deep relief that they at last reached
Sacramento. They had learnt on their way down that the place was crowded
and that they would do well to encamp just outside its limits. The town
itself was indeed but the centre of a city of wood and canvas.
Everywhere shanties and stores had been run up, and innumerable waggons
served as the abodes of those who had crossed the plains in them. The
wharves were a bewildering scene. Craft of various sizes lay alongside,
tier beyond tier, discharging their cargoes. The roadway was blocked
with teams. Numbers of men were carrying parcels and bales to the
neighbouring warehouses. Waggons piled up with goods for the different
centres, from which they were distributed by pack animals to distant
mining camps, strove in vain to make their way out of the crush. Stores
and saloons were alike crowded, the one with anxious emigrants
purchasing their outfit for the gold-fields, and the others with miners,
rough sunburnt men in red shirts, breeches, and high boots, who had come
down to spend their hard-earned gold in a week's spree.
Captain Hampton went from one to another of the hotels, showing the
photograph and endeavouring to obtain news, but it was seldom that he
could obtain more than a moment's attention from the over-worked and
harassed waiters, and in no case was the photograph recognised; he
concluded therefore that the party had, like himself, remained in their
waggon. After many inquiries, he found that the greater portion of the
diggings were either upon the Yuba River, or on creeks among the hills
through which it ran. He purchased diggers' outfits for himself and
Jacob, together with the necessary picks, shovels, and cradle, laid in a
fresh supply of flour, bacon, and groceries, and two days after his
arrival at Sacramento he started for the gold diggings.
For a month he journeyed from camp to camp, and then struck off from the
Yuba to a spot sixteen miles away, where gold had been first found two
months before, and a rush of diggers had taken place, owing to the
reports of the richness of gold there. Already the trees on both sides
of the slopes above the creek had been cleared, and a town principally
composed of huts formed of the boughs of trees had sprung up. Here and
there were tents, for the most part of blankets and rugs, three or four
rough wooden stores, one or two large tents, and one of framework with
sides of planks and a canvas roof. All these had their designations in
bright-coloured paint on white canvas affixed to them. After choosing a
place for his waggon on the outskirts of the encampment, Captain Hampton
left Jacob to picket and feed the horses and light a fire, and then as
usual proceeded in the first place to visit the saloons.
He first went to the tents; sat for a time in each of them and chatted
with the miners who had just knocked off work and were drinking at the
bars. Then he went to the more pretentious building, over which was the
name 'Eldorado.' It was evidently the most popular establishment. The
tables were all filled with men eating and drinking, while there was
quite a crowd before the bar. He strode up there and almost started as
he saw between the heads of the men in front of him a girl whom he
would, had he met her anywhere else, have taken for Dorothy Hawtrey. For
the moment he felt that he was incapable of asking in his ordinary voice
for a drink. At last the object of his long search had been gained, and
the woman he had followed half across the world was in front of him. He
moved away, found a vacant seat at one of the tables, and seated himself
there.
A minute or two later a man came up and said briefly, 'Supper?'
He nodded, and a plate of meat was presently placed before him. He ate
this mechanically, and then, lighting a pipe, sat listening to the
conversation of the miners at the table, one of whom as soon as he
finished his meal addressed him with the usual remark:
'Just arrived, I reckon?'
'Yes, I have only just come in. Doing well here?'
'Nothing to grumble at. Where have you been working last?'
'I tried my luck on several places on the Yuba, but could not get a
claim worth working.'
'You won't get one here without paying for it, I can tell you; pretty
stiff price, too.'
'I reckon to work by the day for a bit, till I have time to look round.
I want to see what men are making before I buy in.'
'I reckon you are about right, mate. Men who are in a hurry to get a
share of a claim generally get bitten. Besides, before a man with a
claim takes a partner in, he likes to know what sort of a chap he is to
work with. Didn't I see you come in half an hour ago with a cart with
three horses?'
'Yes.'
'Pretty bad road, eh?'
'No road at all; I just followed the line they had cut for the teams of
the storekeepers. Though the cart wasn't half full, it was as much as
the three horses could do to get along with it.'
'You ain't going to start a store yourself?'
'No, I have a young mate; I work and he makes journeys backwards and
forwards to Sacramento; he brings up anything the storekeepers
order--flour, bacon, spirits, tea and sugar; it more than pays for the
keep of the horses and for our grub, though I never take anything like
full loads.'
'You are in luck,' the man said; 'it is the grub that swallows up the
earnings. A man wants to find a quarter of an ounce a day to pay his
way.'
'How long has this saloon been up?'
'It came five weeks ago--a few days after the others; and they are just
taking dust in by handfuls, you bet. Men would come and pay if they
didn't get anything for their money but what they can see. That's a
daisy, isn't it?'--and he nodded towards the bar. 'We are just proud of
her; there ain't such another in the hull diggings.'
'Does she belong to this part of the country, or has she come from the
East?'
'She is a Britisher--at least, the old man is, and I suppose his
daughter is the same. Well, so long,'--and the miner strode out of the
saloon.