OFF BY STEAMER TO HOUSTON--ANTS, AND HOW TO AVOID THEM--BY WAGGON
THROUGH FORESTS--SILAS SLAG, OUR KENTUCKIAN DRIVER--I BUY HORSES AND
ENGAGE AN INDIAN GUIDE--THE PRAIRIE--TWO HUMAN SKULLS--THE COMANCHES.
The founders of Galveston must have been very fond of sand. It stands
on sand, is surrounded by sand, and in high winds almost covered with
sand. We could scarcely get along: We sank over our ankles at every
step. I heard Peter groan frequently, and poor Ready dragged his weary
legs after my heels with his tongue out, till I began to be afraid that
he would go mad with the heat. As to fresh water, that seemed an
impossibility, and there was nothing cooling in the appearance of the
bright shining surface of the surrounding ocean. Still to stop would
positively have been death, so on we trudged, I doing my best to keep up
the spirits of my two-legged as well as four-legged companion. At last,
in no very dignified guise, we entered among the streets of wooden
houses, bordered by odoriferous and flowering trees, which compose
Galveston. Two white people carrying a load was a sight rarely seen,
and when we reached the door of an hotel the clerk and waiters looked at
me with so supercilious an air, that I saw it would be necessary to
assume an authoritative manner.
"Here, some of you lend a hand," I exclaimed. "A pretty country this of
yours, where a gentleman on landing can find neither porter nor carriage
to convey his baggage! All I can hope is that your hotel will make some
amends for the inconvenience I have suffered."
The people, as I knew they would, began to defend their country, to
assert that there was not a finer in the world; and then, to prove that
their hotel was a good one, gave me one of the best rooms.
Galveston struck me as remarkable for the pungent sting of the
mosquitoes, the undrinkable nature of the water, and the number of
vociferating negroes, though there were some tolerable buildings and
broadish streets. Perhaps I was prejudiced, for, not feeling very
comfortable as to my safety, I was anxious to get out of the place
again.
Having got a bill cashed at a somewhat high discount, and written home
an account of my adventures to Aunt Becky, with a request that my
epistle might be sent the round of the family, I put myself, with Peter
and Ready, on board a steamer bound for Houston, the capital of Texas.
We crossed the straits which separate Galveston from the mainland, and
entering the Buffalo River found ourselves between lofty banks, covered
in the richest profusion with magnolias and other flowering shrubs, and
groves of lofty trees, among which flitted birds of the gayest plumage,
while squirrels sported and leaped from branch to branch. Houston is
picturesquely situated, and will, I have no doubt, become an important
place, as it already shows signs of the enterprise of its Anglo-Saxon
inhabitants. I slept there only one night. My room was on the ground
floor. I found the four legs of my bed placed in as many basins of
water. I inquired the reason, and was informed that it was to prevent
the ants, which are not nautically inclined, from getting into it and
devouring the inhabitant in his sleep. Peter's bed, which was in the
corner of the room, was similarly guarded, and Ready very wisely jumped
up and slept on the foot of it.
The next morning Peter got up to procure water for me for washing, and
to perform other duties of a valet; but scarcely had he donned his
clothes than I saw him jumping and twisting about, and slapping himself
in the most eccentric manner.
"Oh dear! oh dear! I shall be eaten, I shall be eaten!" he exclaimed,
slapping himself harder and harder.
Ready barked, not knowing what to make of it, and jumped back on the bed
again. Peter set to work to tear off his clothes, which he had placed
on a chair, and of which a colony of ants had taken possession. He
shook them out by hundreds, and then rushing out, he returned with a
broom, with which he cleared the boards. The people of the house were
rather astonished at my insisting on having a tub of cold water, which
Peter at length brought me, and I managed to dress without being
devoured by the ants.
Two hours after this we were rattling away along the corduroy road in a
mail waggon, with a Kentuckian driver, through the forests of Texas. It
was not altogether a pleasant style of locomotion, for we were bumped
about terribly, our vehicle being innocent of springs; but it had the
advantage of novelty. We stopped at nights at settlers' huts, and slept
on the roughest of rough beds, and sometimes without any beds at all
except the bare boards and our cloaks; but I had made up my mind to
grumble at nothing short of being scalped or positively starved. I had
brought a saddle with me from England, and had procured another at
Galveston for Peter, with the intention of purchasing at the first
opportunity horses for riding and for carrying the luggage and tent, and
starting away across country. I mentioned my intention to my Kentuckian
driver, Silas Slag by name.
"Then I guess, stranger, that you don't care very much about your
scalp," he observed, with a wink of his eye, as he made a significant
gesture round his head.
"Why, who do you suppose would venture to take my scalp?" I asked,
thinking that he was quizzing me, and wishing to turn the tables on him.
"Don't you know that if any one injures an Englishman, the British
government will hunt him out, in whatever part of the world he may be,
and make him pay dearly for his folly?"
"I guess, stranger, that the Comanches, or any other Redskin varmint,
care no more for your British government than I do, and that is about as
much as that panther there does for your dog."
As Silas spoke, he pointed to a huge creature, which, half concealed by
the tangled underwood of a tropical forest, lay crouching down about
twenty yards ahead of us, and apparently prepared to spring out as we
passed.
I had turned Ready out to stretch his legs, and he, unconscious of
danger, was running on in high glee, abreast of the horses. In another
instant he would have been in the jaws of the wild beast. I called to
him to come to me, and at the same time lifted my rifle from the bottom
of the waggon to be ready to fire. Silas whipped on his horses in the
hopes of passing the creature before he could make his spring, but the
animals, aware of the approach of an enemy, began to plunge and kick,
and drove the waggon against some stumps of trees amid which the road
wound, with a force which sent Peter sprawling at the bottom of it, and
at the same instant the panther, with a tremendous bound, sprang on one
of the leaders. The poor brute struggled so violently, that I was
afraid of wounding it instead of killing the panther if I fired. At
last I got a fair aim at the wild beast's head, and to my infinite
satisfaction over he rolled dead. The horses stood trembling in every
limb, but I was afraid that they would dash on, before we could put the
harness to rights, and leave us in the lurch. Once more, however, we
were on the road, through a forest composed of oaks, maples, acacias,
sycamores, and other trees with which I was familiar, and many others to
be found in the tropics alone, interlaced with all sorts of creepers.
On either side were a vast variety of flowers of every bright hue, but
the most attractive were the red and white blossoms of the cotton trees,
which, waving to and fro in the breeze, were dazzling to look at, while
humming-birds, butterflies, and insects innumerable made the air appear
as if filled with the most gorgeous gems. All this sort of scenery was
very interesting, but I was not sorry when we reached the town of
Billyville, I think it was called, bordering the prairies, where I was
told that I could purchase horses, and find a trustworthy guide for my
farther progress.
The name of Billyville was not significant of a very important place,
nor had the town any great pretension of any sort, as it consisted of a
few rough huts, while the surrounding fields were full of the stumps of
the trees which had been cut down. I bought the horses required, and on
the evening of my arrival a thin wiry little fellow presented himself,
saying that his occupation was that of a hunter, and that he could guide
me safely through any part of the North American continent. Whether he
considered himself a white man or a Redskin I could not tell, while he
spoke English, Spanish, and French with great volubility, though absurd
as to correctness, and asserted that there was not an Indian dialect
with which he was not acquainted. His garments were of fine tanned
leather and ornamented with coloured threads and beads, while a straw
hat covered his head. I inquired of Silas Slag if he knew anything of
him. He said that he believed that he was honest, and that he had the
character of being a very brave fellow and a successful hunter. He was
the sort of man I wanted, so I engaged Mr Jack Lion, as he called
himself in English, with an Indian to assist in taking care of the
horses. An old man and a young one now joined our party, and took our
vacated places in the waggon.
We were to accompany the mail another day's journey before we turned off
to the north, where Mr Lion informed me I should find numbers of
buffaloes and other large game.
"Well, I shall be sorry to part from you, stranger," said Silas Slag, as
I rode alongside him on my trusty little steed. "I hope you'll come to
no harm, but you'll just remember that while you're shooting buffaloes
there'll be people maybe looking out to shoot you. Those Comanches are
terrible wild chaps, and you never know where they may turn up."
We had now entered a most desolate-looking prairie country. We had lost
sight of the forest through which we had been travelling, and there
appeared before us only one uniform level of dry waving grass. As we
rode on, I saw some white objects glittering in the sun ahead. Getting
up to them, I found that they were two human skulls and other bones.
There they lay grinning at each other. Near one was the barrel and look
of a gun. Close to the other was a hatchet and a scalping-knife, and
several tips of arrows. A tale was thus told me of how a white man and
an Indian had met, and fought, and died on that spot. I had dismounted
to examine these miserable relics, speaking of human sin and folly, when
Silas cried out--
"Look there, stranger; look there Jack Lion! What do you say to those
black spots out there? Are they birds, buffaloes, or Redskins?"
The hunter stood up in his stirrups and took a long steady gaze in the
direction Silas pointed, just as a sailor does when he is looking out
for an enemy's cruiser at sea. Suddenly dropping into his saddle, he
exclaimed, "Comanches! And they are coming this way."
"Then they'll scalp every mother's son of us," cried Silas, lashing on
his horses.
"Keep together, my men, at all events," I exclaimed, as my companions
began to move on; and away we dashed at a rapid rate.
We had not gone far, however, when, on turning my head, I discovered
that we were pursued, and that the strangers were coming up with us. I
desired Lion to take another look at them, and to tell me what he
thought they were.
"Comanches," he answered, "Comanches, there's no doubt about it."
"Is there any place we can hope to reach where we can defend ourselves
better than in the open plain?" I asked.
"None, none that I know of," was the answer.
"Then let us halt at once, before we have exhausted our strength, and
fight it out like men," said I.
My companions listened to my appeal. Silas stopped his horses, and
unharnessing them, placed them at one end of the waggon, while we
secured our steeds at the other end. A few boxes and bales which the
waggon contained, with some stout poles ready in case of necessity to
repair it, were tumbled out, and with them we formed a very imperfect
barricade for our defence. Scarcely were our fortifications finished
than the hoarse voices of the Indians uttering their war-whoops were
borne down to our ears on the breeze. They approached. There could be
no doubt about their intentions. They were in their war-paint.
Brandishing their gaily ornamented spears with horrible shrieks, which I
own, in spite of my resolution, made me feel very uncomfortable, on they
came on their mustangs at full tilt towards us. We cocked our rifles
and stood ready to receive them, resolving if they wanted our scalps to
make them pay dearly before they got them.