STARTING FOR THE WEST.
THE next morning they found, to their satisfaction, that the river had
sunk nearly a foot. The boat had risen considerably when the cargo had
been removed the evening before, and the ropes overhead had been
proportionately tightened, so that she now hung so high that the rents
were well out of water, and they were able at once to set about the work
of repair. There were tools on board, for during their prolonged trips
it was often necessary to execute repairs of one kind or other. The
flooring-boards were utilised for the repairs, and by evening the holes
were closed effectually.
The next day the work was strengthened by additional ribs and stringers,
a coat of pitch was put on outside and in, and Hiram pronounced the work
complete. From time to time the ropes had been loosened as the river
continued to fall, although less rapidly, and it was thought well not to
put too great a strain upon them. The next morning the plug was again
driven into the bottom of the boat, and they set to work to pump and
bale her out, and then shifted the cargo back again from the raft. This
was not a long job, and at night, after a great washing-up of the
cabins, to get rid of the mud that had been left there, they had the
satisfaction of taking possession of their old quarters.
"Well, lad," Hiram said, when they lighted their pipes after supper, "I
never thought we were coming so well out of that job. With plenty of
rice and sugar, not to speak of rum, on board, I didn't expect we war
going to starve, but I thought we might have been weeks and weeks--ay,
months, may be--before any one came along, and the thought as came into
my mind was as we should have to make a raft and pole along till we got
out into the river again. However, here we are, with the boat not much
the worse, and everything on board ready for a start in the morning; and
it's thanks to you as we have done it, for I am free to say as I don't
think as I should have hit on this plan as we have carried out. You are
a good mate to work with, lad, and no mistake. I don't wish never to get
a better. It's a pity ye don't mean to stick to it for good, for I can
swar that you would make one of the best hands on the Mississippi, in
time."
The journey down the river was continued next morning. At the first
place they stopped at they heard reports of widespread damage, of great
tracts submerged, and of danger to life; the river was still at full
flood, although it had fallen two feet from its highest level, and the
next ten days were spent in rescuing the unfortunate people from the
tops of the houses, trees, and patches of rising ground on which they
had taken refuge. Then, having done all they were able, and the river
having now fallen nearly to its average level, they continued their
voyage down to New Orleans.
Hiram, in his report of the voyage to his employer, spoke in high terms
of Frank's conduct, and ascribed to his quickness of invention their
escape from what seemed likely to be an almost endless detention.
"But I am afraid he has made his last v'yage with me," he said; "he is
talking of striking out across the plains to Californy. There was a good
talk of gold thar before we started; and last night, after we came in,
and went in for a drink and to hear the news, there didn't seem nothing
else to talk about. The young chap was asking all sorts of questions,
and I expect he's off; and I don't know as I blames him. He's the sort
of fellow to get on. He has plenty of grit; he's strong and active now,
and in a couple of years he will widen out and make a very big man. He's
had a first-rate edication--he don't talk about it, but one would be
blind not to see that--he will make his way wherever he goes, and I
don't blame him for striking out from the river. He likes the river,
too; but it ain't the place for making a fortin, unless you've got money
at your back, as you have, boss. But I don't know if he had money, and
could go into steamers and such-like, that he would stick to it.
"I don't know nowt of his history, but I think things must have gone
hard with him somehow, and he came out here for excitement more than for
making money. But there's nothing reckless about him; he don't drink,
and he don't gamble, and it says a lot for a young fellow in New Orleans
that he don't do one or the other. And he can fight, he can; there ain't
no doubt about that. Why, I saw him give the biggest kind of a thrashing
to the bully of a lumber camp, where we moored up alongside one night,
as ever you seed. The chap was big enough to eat him, but he didn't have
no kind of show. The young un just hit him where he liked, and in five
minutes that chap's face was a thing to see, and the lad never got so
much as a scratch. I wouldn't have thought as a man could have used his
hands like that if I hadn't been thar. I shall be right-down sorry to
lose him."
"I knew well-nigh when I took him on that he was not likely to stay,
Hiram; he said as much. He wanted to get to know something about the
ways of the country before he decided upon anything. If all young
fellows would do as he did, go to work for a few months, instead of
loafing about spending their money, and getting into bad ways, and among
bad fellows, it would be better for them; he has only drawn a few
dollars for his expenses--when he was down the last time--since he came
to work, so he has got a good sum due to him. I will have a talk with
him myself. There are a good many parties starting from here and taking
the Santa Fé route; but, taking them all in all, I don't think I should
recommend him to hang on to one of them."
"No, I should guess they would be a pretty hard lot who would go out
from here--gamblers, and horse-thieves, and runaway sailors, and Mexican
fighters--neither good to travel with or good to work with; he had
better go up and strike from St. Louis."
"He had better go higher still, Hiram; there's a northern route, and I
hear a lot of the Western men are making across that. However, I will
talk to him."
That afternoon Frank went into Mr. Willcox's little office.
"Hiram has been speaking in very high terms of you, and I find that I am
indebted to you for the saving of the boat, with what cargo she had on
board, which Hiram said he had altogether given up as lost. You seem to
have been in a position of very great danger, and to have had an
extraordinarily narrow escape of your lives. However, I can understand
that you are not content to settle down for life on the Mississippi, but
I can tell you that with enterprise, judgment, and steadiness there is
fortune to be made here still. I am not surprised that the gold-seeking
mania has got hold of you."
"It is not so much, sir, the gold-seeking mania as the excitement
attending it. I don't think I particularly care about making money, but
I do want the excitement of such a life. I have come out for that, and
not, as it is generally called, to make my fortune. The course of my
life at home has been upset by circumstances into which I need not
enter, and, at any rate for a time, I want action, and excitement. After
that, perhaps, I may think of settling down, and what is called making
my way."
"I can understand your feeling, lad, and will not try to persuade you to
stop at this business. And now, what route are you thinking of taking
across the continent?"
"I was thinking of joining a party going direct from here across to
Santa Fé."
"I don't think that will be a good plan, lad. The caravans from here are
composed, for the most part, of very hard characters, the sort of men
who would shoot you for your horse if they took a fancy to it; I would
by no means advise you to ally yourself with such men. I can, I think,
put you in the way of a better plan than that. I find that a great
number of caravans from the West are going by a northern route which
crosses the Missouri at a point called Omaha. I have been thinking that
this will become an important place, and have made up my mind to
freight four or five flats with flour, bacon, and other goods of all
sorts, and a frame store, and to go up there and open a business. I
shall want a handy man with me at first; I shall take up a storekeeper
to leave there in charge, but at first he will want help. If you like to
go up in charge of one of the scows, and to stay to help put up the
store and set things running, I will give you a hundred dollars, and you
can have your passage up for your horse, which I should advise you to
buy here. You will get one that will carry you, though of course not
much to look at, for about fifty dollars; I know several horse-dealers
here, and will get one for you if you like. You had also better get a
stout pony to carry your traps and provisions; that will cost about
forty dollars. Then you must have a rifle and a Colt. These are
absolutely necessary for such a journey, for I hear that the Indians are
very troublesome on the plains. These, however, I myself shall have much
pleasure in presenting you with, in testimony of the obligation I feel I
owe you for saving my boat and goods. The hundred dollars that are due
to you, and the hundred that you will further earn at Omaha, will be
sufficient for your horses and outfit, which will leave this money which
you placed in my hands untouched. You will find that very useful, for
you will want to buy a tent and provisions and tools out there, and
money to keep you till you hit upon gold. Well, what do you think of my
offer?"
"I am extremely obliged to you, sir; nothing could suit me better. And I
am indeed greatly obliged for your kind offer of a rifle and revolver;
they will certainly be most necessary, by what one hears of the
journey."
"You have some other clothes, I suppose?"
"Yes, sir; I have another suit in my portmanteau."
"Very well, put them on, and come back here in an hour's time. It will
be a week before my steamer starts, and you had better come and stop
with me till then; it will keep you out of mischief, and I should be
glad of your company."
At the appointed time Frank returned to the office, dressed in the suit
of clothes he had brought with him. A light carriage with a pair of
horses was standing at the door.
"Ah!" Mr. Willcox laughed, as he came out, "I fancy you look more like
yourself now."
Frank took his place in the carriage, Mr. Willcox took the reins, the
negro servant sprang up behind, and they were soon rattling through the
streets of the town.
Mr. Willcox's house was situated two miles out of the city. It was a
large building, with a verandah running round it, and standing in
well-kept and handsome grounds; three or four negroes ran out as the
carriage drove up.
"Sam, take this gentleman's portmanteau upstairs, and get a bath ready
for him at once, and lay out a suit of white clothes for him.
"We always have a bath before dinner in this country," he said to Frank;
"one wants to get rid of the dust of the day. Dinner will be ready in
half an hour."
After enjoying a luxurious bath, and attiring himself in a suit of
snowy-white gear, Frank descended to the dining-room.
Mr. Willcox was a widower, without children, and they therefore dined
alone. As they were sitting over their wine after dinner in the
verandah, Frank's host said, "I do not wish to be inquisitive, but if
you don't mind telling me, I should like to know why a young fellow
like yourself should embark upon a life of adventure."
Frank had met with such kindness from his employer, that he frankly told
him the whole history of the events which had driven him from England.
"It is a singular story," the trader said, "and I own that appearances
were against you. Of course I don't know him, and may be misjudge him
altogether, but the only person who appears to me to have had any
interest whatever in getting you into disgrace, and causing you to leave
the country, is your cousin."
"Fred Barkley," Frank exclaimed, in surprise; "I can assure you such an
idea never entered my mind; he is not at all a bad fellow, though
certainly he is not popular at School."
"I should prefer taking the general verdict of the School to yours," the
trader said; "boys are seldom far out in their estimate of persons; they
have more instinct than men, and a boy is seldom far wrong in his
estimate of character.
"The fact that he is generally unpopular is, in my mind, a proof that
there is something wrong about this cousin of yours. Then what you tell
me, that he refused to lend you the money which would have got you out
of your scrape, while he afterwards came forward with twenty pounds to
enable you to get away, is another strong point. The advice which he
gave you was distinctly bad; for you had much better have remained, and
to the last have protested your innocence. Then there is another point.
Did I gather from your words that you and he are the nearest relations
to the wealthy uncle with whom you lived?"
"Yes, that is so," Frank replied.
"Then, in case of your disgrace, it is by no means improbable that your
uncle will leave him the whole of the money. Is that so?
"I have no doubt of it," Frank assented.
"Then you see he has a very strong interest in bringing you into
discredit. Besides there were only, you say, five people who had any
knowledge of this affair, and of your need for the money. None of the
other four had the slightest possible interest in bringing you into
disgrace; he had a very strong interest, and, take my word for it, your
cousin is at the bottom of the whole affair."
"I cannot believe it," Frank said, rising from his chair and pacing up
and down the verandah; "if I thought so I would return to England by the
next ship and have it out with him."
"But you have no shadow of proof," Mr. Willcox said, "it is a matter of
suspicion only. Even had the idea occurred to you at first, you would
only have injured yourself by stating it, for it would have been
regarded as a hideous aggravation of your crime to bring such a charge
against your cousin unsupported by a shadow of proof. No; now you have
taken your line you must go through with it, and trust to time to right
you. It is a suspicion only, but you mark my words, if the mystery is
ever solved it will be found that your cousin was at the bottom of it."
Frank spent a very pleasant week at the charming residence of Mr.
Willcox. The latter entertained a good deal, and Frank met at his house
several of the leading merchants of New Orleans, and acquired a good
deal of knowledge of the state of the country. Most of them were
incredulous as to the stories of the abundance of gold in California.
That gold had been discovered they did not deny; but they were of
opinion that the find would be an isolated one, and that ruin would fall
upon the crowds who were hastening either across the continent, or by
ship _via_ Panama, to the new Eldorado. Several of them tried to
dissuade Frank from his intention of going thither, and more than one
offered to place him in their counting-houses, or to procure him
employment of other kind.
Frank, however, was firm, for he was going, not for the sake of making
money, but of finding adventure and excitement. He went down every day
to the wharf and superintended the loading of the scows, and at the end
of ten days he resumed his boatman's clothes and took his place on one
of the scows. Hiram accompanied him, with eight negroes, two for each
flat. A tug took them in tow, and they started up the river. Mr. Willcox
was to follow by a steamer next day, and would arrive at Omaha some time
before them, and have time to choose and buy a lot of land for his
store, and to have all in readiness for their arrival. Frank had
purchased a strong, serviceable horse for his own riding, and a pony for
his baggage, together with blankets and other necessaries for the
journey. His mining outfit he decided to get at Sacramento, as, although
the cost would be considerable, he did not wish to encumber himself with
it on his journey across the plains. The rifle and revolver had been
presented him by Mr. Willcox, and he determined to practise steadily
with both on his voyage up the river, as his life might depend on his
proficiency with his weapons.
The voyage up the Mississippi and Missouri was performed without any
notable adventure, although in the little-known waters of the upper
river the tug ran several times aground. Those on board the flats had
but little to do, their duties being confined to pumping out the water
when there was any leakage; and the negroes had been taken up more for
the purpose of unloading the cargo, carrying it to its destination, and
putting up the store, than for any service they could render on the
voyage. Frank, who had laid in a large store of ammunition for the
purpose, amused himself by practising with his pistol at a bottle towed
behind the scow, or with his rifle at floating objects in the stream, in
feeding and taking care of his horses, and in listening to many yarns
from Hiram.
"I can tell you, lad," the latter said one day, when, after passing St.
Louis, they had entered the waters of the Missouri, "thar have been
changes on this river since I was a youngster. I was raised at St.
Louis, which was not much more than a frontier town in those days, and
most of the work lay below; here and there there was a farm on the
Missouri, but they got thinner as they got higher up, and long before we
got to where we are going it was all Indian country. I used to go up
sometimes with traders, but I never liked the job: first, I didn't like
selling 'fire-water,' as they called it, to the Indians, for it made
them mad, and brought on quarrels and wars; in the next place, it was a
dangerous business. The Indians used to meet the traders at some place
they had appointed beforehand, and there would be big feastings;
sometimes the traders would come back with the boat loaded up with
buffalo robes and skins, and Indian blankets, and such like; once or
twice they didn't come back at all, and it was just a mercy that I
didn't stay behind with them on one of the trips.
"I went up with a trading party to a place somewhere near this Omaha; we
had three boats, with six voyageurs in each. I was about five-and-twenty
then, and was steersman of one of them. There were four traders; they
were in my boat, and they played cards and drank all the way up. One of
the boats was a flat--not a flat like this, but just a big flat-bottomed
boat,--for they were going, as I understood, to get some good horses
from the Indians and take them down to St. Louis. We had pretty hard
work getting her along, and a weak crew would never have got her against
the stream, though of course we chose a time when the river was low and
there wasn't much stream on. Sometimes we rowed, sometimes we poled,
keeping along the shallows and back waters; and, though the pay was
good, I wasn't sorry when we got to the place appointed; not only
because the work was hard, but because I didn't like the ways of them
traders, with their gambling, and drinking, and quarrelling. However,
they gave up drink the last day, and were sober enough when they landed.
"I don't know why, but I didn't think things were going to turn out
well. I had heard the traders say as they didn't mean to come up that
part of the country agin, and I knew their goods warn't of no account,
and that they were going to trade off bad stuff on the Indians. The
first two days things went on all right; every evening large lots of
goods were brought down to the boats, but except when I went up with the
others to the traders' tent to bring the things down I didn't go about
much. It was a large camp, with two or three hundred braves, as they
calls 'em. I told the men in my boat what I thought of it; but they
didn't think much of what I said, and traded a little on their own
account, for it was part of the agreement that each man should be
allowed to take up fifty dollars-worth of goods, and have room for what
he could get for them. I traded mine away the first day for some buffalo
robes, and so hadn't anything to take me away from the boat.
"The third day the trading was done; there was to be a grand feast that
night, and the boats were to start the next morning. Most of the men
went up to see the fun, but I persuaded two of my mates in my boat to
stop quiet with me. Presently I heard a yell from the camp, which was
about three hundred yards away. 'That's mischief,' says I. I had scarce
spoken when there was a yelling fit to make your har stand on end, and I
heard pistol-shots. 'Quick,' lads, says I, 'catch up a hatchet and stave
a hole in the other boats, and push ours a little way out from the
bank.' We warn't long in doing that, and then we stopped and listened.
"There was a sharp fight going on, that we could hear, and guessed how
it must be going when they war twenty to one. Presently the shouting and
firing ceased, and then against the sky-line--for they had lots of fires
blazing in camp--we saw a crowd of Injuns come rushing down to the
river. We shoved the boat off, and took to our oars; they shouted to us,
and then fired at us, and shot their arrows, and swarmed down into the
other two boats to come after us, and there was a fresh burst of yells
when they found that they wouldn't swim. We didn't stop to talk, you may
be sure, but rowed as hard as we could.
"The night was pretty dark, and though several bullets hit the boat, and
a dozen of their arrows fell into it, only one of us had a scratch, and
that wasn't serious. As soon as we war fairly away, we set to work to
roll up the buffalo robes and skins into big bales, and lay them along
on each side of the boat, so as to form a protection for us from their
bullets and arrows; for we guessed they would follow us down, and in
many places the river was so shallow they could ride pretty well out to
us. They did follow us, on horseback, for the next two days, and shot at
us pretty hot at times. Once they rode so far out in the shallows that
we dared not pass them; so we dropped anchor above, and took to our
rifles, and gave them a pretty sharp lesson, for they lost seven men.
After that they didn't try that game any more, but just followed down in
hopes we might stick on a sandbank. I tell you I never looked out so
sharp for shallows as I did on that there voyage.
"Fortunately, at the end of the first day a breeze sprang up from the
north, and we got up a sail, for we war pretty nigh done, having rowed
by turns from the time we pushed off. We war afraid, you see, as they
might patch up the other boats and set out after us, though we hoped
they mightn't think of it, for these horse Indians don't know nothing of
river work. They gave it up at last, and we got safely down to St.
Louis. What the trouble was about I never heard, for not one of those
who had landed ever got away to tell us. I expect it was some trouble
about the quality of the goods, and that the Indians got a notion they
were being cheated,--which, sure enough, they war."
"Was anything done to punish the Indians, Hiram?"
"Lor' bless you, who was to punish them? Why, there was scarce a settler
then west of the Mississippi. No; if traders went among 'em they went
among 'em at thar own risk; and, I am bound to say, that if the Indians
were treated fair, and the men understood thar ways, thar was no great
danger. The Indians knew if they killed traders that others wouldn't
come among them, and they wanted goods--guns and powder most of all, but
other things too, such as blankets, and cloth as they calls cotton, and
hatchets, beads, and other things, and they wanted to trade off thar
hosses and buffalo robes, and skins of all kinds. That was the
protection the traders had; and it warn't very often the Indians fell
foul of them, except it might be a muss got up over the fire-water.
"When the news came down to St. Louis there was a good deal of talk
about it; but it got about that these fellows had been taking up trash,
and the general verdict was that it sarved 'em right. All the traders on
the frontier set their faces agin men who cheated the Indians, not
because they cared for the Indians, mark you, but because anything that
made bad blood did harm to the trade all over. However, it gave me a bad
scare, and it was a good many years before I came up the Upper Missouri
again. There's some men as seems to me to be downright fond of fighting;
but I don't feel like that, anyway. If I get into a hard corner, and
have got to fight, then I fights, but I had rather go round the other
way if I could. Thar are dangers enough on this river for me; what with
snags, and shoals, and storms, they are enough for any reasonable man.
Then there are the river pirates; they are worse than all, though it's
some years since we had much trouble with 'em."
"River pirates, Hiram? I have not heard you say anything about them
before. I did not know there were any pirates on these rivers."
"Thar used to be, lad, years back, lots of them, and a pretty lively
time we used to have on the river."
"But what sort of pirates, Hiram?"
"Well, thar war two sorts, you see, at that time. Five-and-twenty years
ago the settlements on the river war a long way apart. You might go
fifty miles without seeing a village when you once got past the
plantations on the lower river; you may say as this region then was like
what Kansas is now. Chaps who had made it too hot for them in the east
came out here, and just had to wrestle round for a living. New Orleans
is pretty bad now, but it was a sight worse then; and St. Louis was a
pretty hard place. Then, too, thar war runaway slaves. So you see, one
way or the other, a fellow who wanted to get together a band up to any
mischief had not to look far for men.
"Well, as I said, thar war two sorts. Thar war the men who lived away
from the river, say in the low country between the Arkansas and the main
stream, which was then pretty nigh all swamp and forest; perhaps they
had hosses, perhaps not, but mostly they had. Well, one fine morning a
dozen of them would ride into one of the villages on the river. Thar
wasn't much to take thar, you know, onless it war fever, and they had
enough of that in thar own swamps. They would wait, may be, for a day or
two, till a boat came in, and as soon as it had made fast they would
cover the men with thar rifles, and just empty it of all it had
got--powder, blankets, groceries, and dry goods, and what not--and make
off again. I got my cargo lifted, I should say, a dozen times that way.
It war onpleasant, but thar was nothing for it; and it warn't no use
making a fuss when you saw half a dozen rifles pinted at you. Why, in
the early days of steamers, more than once they got held up, and the
fellows went through the passengers and cargo and took what they
fancied.
"Well, that was one sort of pirate. The other was what you may call the
regular water pirate. They lived on the islands, in among the
back-waters, or where-ever thar might be a patch of raised ground among
the swamps, and had boats; and they would attack you at night as you war
dropping down the stream or poling up the backs. They war wuss nor the
others. A sight more nor half of 'em war blacks; and good reason why,
for the fevers carried off the whites as joined them before they had
been thar long. They was a powerful bad lot, and those who fell into
thar hands hadn't much chance of thar lives. The runaway slaves war down
on a white man, and he had no marcy to expect at thar hands; besides,
they didn't want no tales told which might scare boats from going near
the places where they war hiding. So in general they fust emptied the
boats, and then scuttled and sunk them, and cut the throats of all on
board. Hundreds of boats war missed in those days, and none ever knew
for sartin what had become of them.
"I tell you one had to keep one's eyes open in those days. We had strong
crews, and every man was armed, and a pretty sharp lookout was kept; but
for all that thar was places, back-waters, and cuts, and such like, whar
I wouldn't have been stuck in after dark, not for all the money in
Orleans. Even in the open river no one was safe from 'em, for they got
so bold they would go out, four or five boat-loads, and attack in broad
daylight; things got so bad that no one dared go up or down, unless it
was ten or twelve boats together for protection. It war the steamers as
broke 'em up; thar ain't no stopping a steamer, and every one took to
being towed up or down. Then the population increased, and regular
expeditions war got up to hunt 'em down. Altogether it got made too hot
for 'em, and the game didn't pay; but for some years, I can tell you,
they war a terror to the river."
"And were you never attacked, Hiram?"
"I was chased several times," Hiram said; "but I had a fast boat and a
good crew, and we generally had four white men on board then, and plenty
of arms. Yes, we had some skirmishes, but it was only once I had a
regular set-to with 'em, and that war a pretty bad job."
"How was it, Hiram?"
"Well, you see, the river was pretty full, and the wind had been light
for some time, and there warn't no way of making against the main
stream; I had waited for three weeks, and me and my mates got sick of
it. We had a cargo which was due up the river, and we made up our minds
at last that we would push on and take our chance. We had eight negroes,
all strong active fellows, armed with cutlasses and old ship muskets,
and we four whites had rifles and pistols. We allowed we could make a
good fight of it, so we agreed as we would go up the back-waters, so
managing as to be able to get out into the stream every night and anchor
thar. We shifted the cargo a bit, so as to pile it up round the sides,
stowing the rice-bags so as to make a sort of breastwork; then off we
started.
"For some days we got along well; the blacks poled thar best, and every
evening we just hit a pint where we could go out into the stream agin.
Two or three times we fancied we war watched, for we heard the snapping
of twigs, and sounds in the thick swamp jungle ahead; but I reckon they
thowt better of it when they saw two rifle-barrels peeping out from the
sacks on each side, and saw we war ready for a tussle. But one day--it
wasn't very far from the pint where we mended up that boat the other
day--we war later than usual; the stream war stronger than we reckoned
on, we had run aground two or three times on the mud, and it war getting
dark, and we had two miles yet before we got to a place where we could
get out into the river. The blacks war working thar hardest; it didn't
need no words from us to keep 'em at it, for they knew as well as we did
what was the danger, and the boat just flew along that narrow channel."
"We war on the watch, with our eyes fixed on the bank, and our ears
pretty wide open to catch any sound ahead. All of a sudden a gun was
fired close alongside. The blacks gave a yell, and would have jumped
down into shelter, only I shouted, 'Stick to your poles, men; if you
lose them we are done for; there's no danger, it's only one man.' So on
we went again, for, luckily, no one was hit. 'That's a signal,' Bill,
says I to one of my mates; 'I reckon we shall have trouble afore we are
out of this.' On we went, flying between the bushes, which warn't
fifteen yards apart. Not a sound was heard but the panting of the
blacks, the splash of their poles in the water, and a sort of sighing
noise behind, as the ripples the boat made as she glided along rustled
among the boughs which dipped down into the stream.
"We had got a mile further when we heard a noise. It was much as a pole
might make knocked against the side of the boat. I knew thar was
mischief now. 'Get in your poles, lads,' I said; 'four of you get out
oars through the holes we have left for them atween the bags, and put
your muskets close at hand; the other four get your muskets, and station
yourselves two on each side.' We went on slowly now; we knew they war
ahead of us, and that hurrying wouldn't do no good, and that we had got
to fight anyhow. It might have been five minutes when thar was a flash
from the bushes on either side--which we could scarce see in the
darkness,--and fully a dozen muskets poured a volley into us, buckshot
and ball, as we found on looking over the boat the next morning. It was
a good job as we put them rice-bags in place, for I reckon thar wouldn't
have been many of us up to fighting if they hadn't been thar. We had
agreed not to fire back if we war fired at from the wood, for they
couldn't do us much harm thar, and it was best to keep our fire for the
boats which they war sure to have as well.
"The moment the volley was fired two boats shot out, one from each side.
'Now, give it 'em,' says I. Up we jumped, four on each side, and poured
our fire into the boats, which warn't twelve feet away. The darkies who
war rowing had been told what to do, and, to do 'em justice, they did it
well. Thar was a yell from the boats as we fired, for I reckon every
shot told; but the way they had got brought 'em on, and their bows
struck us just at the same moment. Then at it we went with our pistols
as they crowded forward and tried to get on board. It was over in half a
minute, for the four blacks had seized their poles, and, shoving them
into the boats, two on each side, pushed 'em off.
"I have heard pretty tall language on the Mississippi, but I never heard
such volleys of cussing as came up from them boats; some of the men
blazed away with thar guns, some shouted to others to row alongside,
some who war hit yelled and cussed like fiends; and all this time we war
lying behind the bags, ramming down fresh charges for the bare life. We
gave 'em eight more shots before they could cast off the poles and come
at us again. This time they came along more on the broadside, and five
or six of 'em sprang on board; but we war ready with the butts of our
rifles, and the blacks with thar cutlasses, and we cleared them off
again. The four darkies had stuck to thar poles; one boat was shoved
off, and one of the blacks run his pole right through the bottom of the
other, and in a minute she went down.
"The other boat didn't know what had happened, and came up agin; but
leaving two of the blacks to chop down any of the fellows in the water
who might try to climb aboard, the other ten of us stood up and fought
'em fair. Our blood was up now, and our darkies fought like demons. The
pirates soon found they had the worst of it, and would have got apart
from us if they could; but we jumped into thar boat and fought them
thar, and they soon jumped over and made for the bank. Directly it was
over they began to fire agin from the shore, and we jumped back into
shelter agin in our own boat and manned the four oars agin. We fastened
the painter of the boat on to our stern, and towed her behind us, and in
another half an hour were out in the stream. It was a toughish fight, I
can tell you, while it lasted; two of the blacks and one of my mates had
been hit by thar musket-balls, and the rest of us war either gashed by
thar knives or had got ugly cracks. However, six of them war lying in
the boat when we hauled it alongside; two war stone-dead, the other
four had been stunned with the butt ends of the muskets, or cut down by
the darkies' sabres. We took 'em down to the next place and handed 'em
over to the sheriff; and as thar happened to be a lot of boats waiting
thar for the wind, you may guess it warn't many hours afore they tried
and hung 'em.
"When the chaps heard the particulars, and that we had sunk one boat,
besides bringing off another, they guessed as likely enough the pirates
war trapped thar; and so they got up a regular expedition, six boats,
each with a dozen men. I went back to show 'em the place. They brought
dogs with them, and hunted through the woods and swamps till they came
to the patch of higher ground whar the pirates had got thar huts. Thar
were about twenty of 'em, mostly negroes, and they fought hard, for thar
was no escape, the boat having drifted away after it had sunk. Behind
thar war some widish channels, and some of the boats had gone round thar
to cut 'em off if they took to swimming. They war killed, every man
jack, and that put an end to one of the very worst lots of pirates we
ever had on the river."
"You were lucky to have got out of it so well, Hiram. I suppose that
sort of thing is quite over now."
"Yes. In course thar are water thieves still, chaps who steal things
from the boats if thar is no one with 'em, or if you are all asleep
below; but thar haven't been no real pirates for years now--leastways
not above New Orleans. Down in the great swamps, by the mouth of the
river, thar's always gangs of runaway slaves, and desperate characters
of all sorts, who have got to live somehow. Thar are still boats
sometimes missing up the river, which may have been snagged and gone
down with all hands, and which may be have comed to thar end some other
way. Anyhow, no one thinks much about pirates now, and the river's quite
as safe as the streets of New Orleans. That mayn't be saying much,
perhaps, but it's good enough. Of course a party might any day take to
the swamps and stop up-passing boats, just as they might take to the
roads and stop waggons going west; but one doesn't trouble about things
onless they get so as to be what you might call a general danger.
"You can't go into a bar-room without a risk of getting into a fight
with a drunken rowdy; you can't stop at one of these landing-places but
what thar's a chance of getting into a mess with fellows who come in
from the backs for a spree, and one doesn't look to have these rivers
which, one and the other, are tens of thousands of miles long, just kept
as free from hard characters as a street in Boston. It's as good as we
can look for at present. Settlement is going on wonderful fast, and,
like enough, in another forty years there won't be any more pirates on
the great rivers here than thar are on the seas. Steam and settlements
is bound to wipe 'em out at last."
During the last two or three hundred miles of the journey up the
Missouri a few settlements only were passed, little villages nestling
closely together on the edge of the river, surrounded often by a
stockade; for although the Indians were gradually falling back before
the advance of the whites, Indian wars were of frequent occurrence, and
then the bands of wild horsemen swept down to the Missouri, carrying
fire and destruction in their course. In front of every settlement lay a
scow or two, used partly for the transportation of the crops, but
valuable also as an ark of refuge in case of attack. The shores were
low, and shallows and banks abounded in the stream, and sometimes the
tug ran aground four or five times in the course of the day. In spite of
his practice with his firearms, and Hiram's talk and stories, Frank
began to find the days pass very slowly, and was not a little glad when
Hiram pointed out a cluster of huts on the left bank, and said, "There
is Omaha."
Half an hour later the tug was alongside, and Mr. Willcox was on board.
"I am glad to see you up," he said, as the flats were moored to the
bank, and Frank stepped ashore and joined him. "The time has gone slowly
here; for though I stayed four days at St. Louis, I have been here
nearly a week. There is lots to do, and I am greatly pleased that I went
in for it. I wish you could have made up your mind to settle here; you
would have made a precious deal better thing of it than you ever will do
by digging for gold. However, I know it's no use talking about that. I
have got a capital location on the main street; I bought it off a fool
who came up in the steamboat with me, and had made up his mind to sell
out and cross the plains. I had an offer for it yesterday at five times
the price I gave for it; but, bless you, I wouldn't have taken twenty
times. This is going to be a big place. I am glad you have come for
another reason. I am putting up at one of the shanties they call an
hotel, but one might as well try to live in the Tower of Babel. There is
an uproar day and night; every inch of the floor is taken up for
sleeping on, and I have been nearly driven out of my mind. Now I can
live on board the tug till she goes down with the empty flats. I am glad
I brought up those eight negroes, for there would be the greatest
difficulty in hiring hands here; every one seems to have gone stark mad,
and to consider every hour's delay in pushing west as so much loss of a
chance of making a fortune."
For the next fortnight the labour was incessant. Hiram, Frank, and the
eight negroes toiled in landing the stores and the framework of the
house, and in transporting them to the lot which Mr. Willcox had
purchased. Even the engineers of the tug were induced by the high
payment Mr. Willcox offered to aid in the work. Several stretchers, or
hand-barrows, had been brought up with them, and on these such bales and
boxes as were too heavy for one man to carry were transported. The
framework of the house was first carried to the site, and four of the
negroes who were good carpenters at once began to put it together, so
that by the time the last of the goods were brought up the store was
ready to receive them. It was a building some sixty feet long by twenty
wide, and was divided into two by a partition: the one end, twenty feet
in length, was the saleroom; in the other, forty feet long, the bulk of
the heavy goods, flour, rice, bacon, hogsheads of sugar, and chests of
tea, were stored. There was, in addition, a lean-to, nine feet square,
at one end, which was to serve as the habitation of the storekeeper. The
assortment of goods was very large. In addition to the stock of
provisions, which filled the storeroom nearly up to the roof, were a
great quantity of clothing fitted for the rough work of the plains, a
large assortment of rifles and pistols, kegs of ammunition, casks of
axle-grease, ironwork for waggons, and all the miscellaneous stores,
down to needles and thread, which would be likely to be required by the
emigrants. As soon as the stores were all safely on shore and housed,
the tug started down the river again with the flats; Hiram and six of
the negroes accompanied them, two of the latter being retained as
assistants to the storekeeper. Between Hiram and Frank there was a very
cordial adieu.
"I likes yer, young fellow," the boatman said; "you will make your way,
never fear, some day, if you get a chance. Send a line to me, to the
charge of the boss, and let me know how things go with you. I shall be
gladder than I can tell you to hear as you're making your way, and I
shall be anxious like till I hear as you have got safely over this
journey, for they do say as the Indians are playing all sorts of devilry
with the caravans. Well, there's one thing, you are a good shot now; but
be careful, lad, and don't get into no fights if you can keep out of
'em."
Frank remained for another fortnight assisting in the store; by the end
of that time things had settled down. They were already doing a very
large business, and Mr. Willcox had sent down orders, both to St. Louis
and New Orleans, for fresh consignments of stores very greatly exceeding
those which he had brought up with him.
Three months previously Omaha had been a tiny settlement of a dozen
houses, but was rapidly growing into a considerable place.
Many stores were rising, but the distance from the inhabited
settlements, and the difficulties of carriage, were enormous. The
population was, for the most part, a floating one, scores of waggons and
vehicles of all sorts arriving every day, while as many departed. This
was the last point of civilisation, and here the emigrants generally
halted for a few days to rest their weary cattle, and to fill up their
stores of provisions for the journey across the wilderness.
All believed that a vast fortune awaited them on the other side of the
continent, and the most fabulous tales of the abundance of gold were
circulated and believed. In some cases the parties consisted only of men
who had clubbed together and purchased a waggon, and started, leaving
their wives and families behind them. In others they were composed of
whole families, who had sold off farms or businesses in the east in the
assurance of acquiring a fortune at the gold-diggings. Around the little
settlement the plain was dotted with the white tilts of the waggons,
mingled with the tents which had been extemporised of sail-cloth,
tarpaulins, and blankets.
[Illustration]