The Umbiquas came at last; their want of precaution shewed their
certainty of success. At all events, they did not suspect there were
any fire-arms in the block-house, for they halted within fifty yards
from the eastern tower, and it required more than persuasion to prevent
Roche from firing. The horses were not with them, but before long we
saw the animals on the other side of the river, in a little open
prairie, under the care of two of their party, who had swum them over,
two or three miles above, for the double purpose of having them at hand
in case of emergency and of giving them the advantage of better grazing
than they could possibly find on our side. This was an event which we
had not reckoned upon, yet, after all, it proved to be a great advantage
to us.
The savages making a very close inspection of the outer buildings, soon
became convinced of the utter impossibility of attacking the place by
any ordinary means. They shot some arrows and once fired with a fusil
at the loop-holes, to ascertain if there were any men within capable of
fighting; but as we kept perfectly quiet, their confidence augmented;
and some followed the banks of the river, to see what could be effected
at the principal entrance. Having ascertained the nature of its
material, they seemed rather disappointed, and retired to about one
hundred yards, to concert their plans.
It was clear that some of them were for firing the building; but, as we
could distinguish by their gestures, these were comparatively few.
Others seemed to represent that, by doing so they would indubitably
consume the property inside, which they were not willing to destroy,
especially as there was so little danger to be feared from within. At
last one who seemed to be a chief, pointed first with his fingers in the
direction where the canoes had been left; he pointed also to the river,
and then behind him to the point of the horizon where the sun rises.
After he had ceased talking, two of his men rose, and went away to the
south-west. Their plan was very evident. These two men, joined with
the two others that had been left in charge were to bring the canoes
round the point and enter the river. It would take them the whole night
to effect this, and at sunrise they would attack and destroy the front
door with their tomahawks.
With the darkness of night, a certain degree of anxiety came over us,
for we knew not what devilish plan the Indians might hit upon; I placed
sentries in every corner of the block-house, and we waited in silence;
while our enemies, having lighted a large fire, cooked their victuals,
and though we could not hear the import of their words, it was evident
that they considered the post as in their power. Half of them, however,
laid down to sleep, and towards midnight the stillness was uninterrupted
by any sound, whilst their half-burnt logs ceased to throw up their
bright flames. Knowing how busy we should be in the morning, I thought
that till then I could not do better than refresh myself by a few hours'
repose; I was mistaken.
I had scarcely closed my eyes, when I heard the dull regular noise of
the axe upon trees. I looked cautiously; the sounds proceeded from the
distance, and upon the shores of the river, and behind the camp of the
savages, dark forms were moving in every direction, and we at last
discovered that the Umbiquas were making ladders to scale the upper
doors of our little towers. This, of course, was to us a matter of
little or no consideration, as we were well prepared to receive them;
yet we determined not to let them know our strength within, until the
last moment, when we should be certain, with our fire-arms, to bring
down five of them at the first discharge. Our Indians took their bows
and selected only such arrows as were used by their children when
fishing, so that the hostile party might attribute their wounds and the
defence of their buildings to a few bold and resolute boys.
At morn, the Umbiquas made their appearance with two ladders, each
carried by three men, while others were lingering about and giving
directions more by sign than word. They often looked toward the
loop-holes, but the light of day was yet too faint for their glances to
detect us; and besides they were lulled into perfect security by the
dead silence we had kept during the whole night. Indeed they thought
the boat-house had been deserted, and the certain degree of caution with
which they proceeded was more the effect of savage cunning and nature
than the fear of being seen or of meeting with any kind of resistance.
The two ladders were fixed against one of the towers, and an Indian
ascended upon each; at first they cast an inquisitive glance through the
holes upon both sides of the door, but we concealed ourselves. Then all
the Umbiquas formed in a circle round the ladders, with their bows and
spears, watching the loop-holes. At the chief's command, the first
blows were struck, and the Indians on the ladders began to batter both
doors with their tomahawks. While in the act of striking for the third
time, the Umbiqua on the eastern door staggered and fell down the
ladder; his breast had been pierced by an arrow. At the same moment a
loud scream from the other tower showed that here also we had had the
same success.
The Umbiquas retired precipitately with their dead, uttering a yell of
disappointment and rage, to which three of our boys, being ordered so to
do, responded with a shrill war-whoop of defiance. This made the
Umbiquas quite frantic, but they were now more prudent. The arrows that
had killed their comrades were children-arrows; still there could be no
doubt but that they had been shot by warriors. They retired behind a
projecting rock on the bank of the river, only thirty yards in our
front, but quite protected from our missiles. There they formed a
council of war, and waited for their men and canoes, which they expected
to have arrived long before. At that moment, the light fog which had
been hovering over the river was dispersed, and the other shore became
visible, and showed us a sight which arrested our attention. There,
too, the drama of destruction was acting, though on a smaller scale.
Just opposite to us was a canoe; the same in which our two Indians had
gone upon their expedition the day before. The two Umbiquas keeping the
stolen horses were a few yards from they had apparently discovered it a
few minutes before, and were uncertain what course to pursue; they heard
both the war-whoop and the yell of their own people, and were not a
little puzzled; but as soon as the fog was entirely gone, they perceived
their party, where they had sheltered themselves, and, probably in
obedience to some signals from it, they prepared to cross the river. At
the very moment they were untying the canoe, there was a flash and two
sharp reports; the Indians fell down--they were dead. Our two scouts,
who were concealed behind some bushes, then appeared, and began coolly
to take the scalps, regardless of a shower of arrows from the yelling
and disappointed Umbiquas. Nor was this all: in their rage and anxiety,
our enemies had exposed themselves beyond the protection of the rock;
they presented a fair mark, and just as the chief was looking behind him
to see if there was any movement to fear from the boat-house, four more
of his men fell under our fire.
The horrible yells which followed, I can never describe, although the
events of this, my first fight, are yet fresh in my mind. The Umbiquas
took their dead, and turned to the east, in the direction of the
mountains, which they believed would be their only means of escaping
destruction. They were now reduced to only ten men, and their
appearance was melancholy and dejected. They felt that they were doomed
never more to return to their own home.
We gathered from our scouts opposite, that the six warriors of the post
had returned from the settlement, and lay somewhere in ambush; this
decided us. Descending by the ladders which the Indians had left behind
them, we entered the prairie path, so as to bar their retreat in every
direction.
Let me wind up this tale of slaughter. The Umbiquas fell headlong on
the ambush, by which four more of them were killed; the remainder
dispersed in the prairie, where they tried in vain to obtain a momentary
refuge in the chasms. Before mid-day they were all destroyed, except
one, who escaped by crossing the river. However, he never saw his home
again; for, a long time afterwards, the Umbiquas declared that not one
ever returned from that fatal horse-stealing expedition.
Thus ended my first fight; and yet I had not myself drawn a single
trigger. Many a time I took a certain aim; but my heart beat quick, and
I felt queer at the idea of taking the life of a man. This did not
prevent me from being highly complimented; henceforward Owato Wanisha
was a warrior.
The next day I left the boat-house with my own party, I mean the seven
of us who had come from Monterey. Being all well mounted, we shortly
reached the settlement, from which I had been absent more than three
months.
Events had turned out better than I had anticipated. My father seemed
to recover rapidly from the shock he had received. Our tribe, in a
fierce inroad upon the southern country of the Crows, had inflicted upon
them a severe punishment. Our men returned with a hundred and fifty
scalps, four hundred horses, and all the stock of blankets and tobacco
which the Crows had a short time before obtained from the Yankees in
exchange for their furs. For a long time, the Crows were dispirited and
nearly broken down, and this year they scarcely dared to resort to their
own hunting-grounds. The following is a narrative of the death of the
Prince Seravalle, as I heard it from individuals who were present.
The year after we had arrived from Europe, the Prince had an opportunity
of sending letters to St. Louis, Missouri, by a company of traders
homeward bound. More than three years had elapsed without any answer;
but a few days after my departure for Monterey, the Prince having heard
from a party of Shoshones, on their return from Fort Hall, that a large
caravan was expected there, he resolved to proceed to the fort himself,
for the double purpose of purchasing several articles of hardware, which
we were in need of, and also of forwarding other instructions to St.
Louis.
Upon his arrival at the fort, he was agreeably surprised at finding, not
only letters for him, together with various bales of goods, but also a
French savant, bound to California, whither he had been sent by some
scientific society. He was recommended to us by the Bishop, and the
President of the college at St. Louis, and had brought with him as
guides five French trappers, who had passed many years of their lives
rambling from the Rocky Mountains to the southern shores of Lower
California.
The Prince left his Shoshones at the fort, to bring on the goods at a
fitting occasion, and, in company with his new guests retraced his steps
towards our settlement. On the second day of their journey they met
with a strong war-party of the Crows, but as the Shoshones were then at
peace with all their neighbours, no fear had been entertained. The
faithless Crows, however, unaware, as well as the Prince, of the close
vicinity of a Shoshone hunting-party, resolved not to let escape an
opportunity of obtaining a rich booty without much danger. They allowed
the white men to pursue their way, but followed them at a distance, and
in the evening surprised them in their encampment so suddenly that they
had pot even time to seize their arms.
The prisoners, with their horses and luggage, were conducted to the spot
where their captors had halted, and a council was formed immediately.
The Prince, addressing the chief, reproached him bitterly with his
treachery; little did he know of the Crows, who are certainly the
greatest rascals among the mountains. The traders and all the Indian
tribes represent them as "thieves never known to keep a promise or to do
a honourable act."
None but a stranger will ever trust them. They are as cowardly as
cruel. Murder and robbery are the whole occupation of their existence,
and woe to the traders or trappers whom they may meet with during their
excursions, if they are not at least one-tenth of their own number. A
proof of their cowardice is that once Roche, myself, and a young
Parisian named Gabriel, having by chance fallen upon a camp of thirteen
Crows and three Arrapahoes, they left us their tents, furs, and dried
meats; the Arrapahoes alone showing some fight, in which one of them was
killed: but to return to our subject. The chief heard the Prince
Seravalle with a contemptuous air, clearly showing that he knew who the
Prince was, and that he entertained no goodwill towards him. His
duplicity, however, and greediness, getting the better of his hatred, he
asked the prisoners what they would give to obtain their freedom. Upon
their answer that they would give two rifles, two horses, with one
hundred dollars, he said that all which the prisoners possessed when
taken, being already his own, he expected much more than that. He
demanded that one of the Canadians should go to Fort Hall, with five
Crows, with an order from the Prince to the amount of sixty blankets,
twenty rifles, and ten kegs of powder. In the meantime the prisoners
were to be carried into the country of the Crows, where the goods were
to follow them as soon as obtained; upon the reception of which, the
white men should be set at liberty. Understanding now the intention of
their enemies, and being certain that, once in the strong-holds of the
Crows, they would never be allowed to return, the Prince rejected the
offer; wishing, however, to gain time, he made several others, which, of
course, were not agreed upon. When the chief saw that he was not likely
to obtain anything more than that which he had already become master of,
he threw away his mask of hypocrisy, and, resuming at once his real
character, began to abuse his victims.
"The Pale-faces," he said, "were base dogs, and too great cowards to
fight against the Crows. They were less than women, concealing
themselves in the lodges of the Shoshones, and lending them their
rifles, so that having now plenty of arms and ammunition, that tribe had
become strong, and feared by all. But now they would kill the
Pale-faces, and they would see what colour was the blood of cowards.
When dead, they could not give any more rifles, or powder, to the
Shoshones, who would then bury themselves like prairie-dogs in their
burrows, and never again dare to cross the path of a Crow."
The Prince replied to the chief with scorn. "The Crows," he said,
"ought not to speak so loud, lest they should be heard by the Shoshone
braves, and lies should never be uttered in open air. What were the
Crows before the coming of the white men, on the shores of the Buona
Ventura? They had no country of their own, for one part of it had been
taken by the Black-feet, and the other by the Arrapahoes and the
Shoshones. Then the Crows were like doves hunted by the hawks of the
mountains. They would lie concealed in deep fissures of the earth, and
never stir but during night, so afraid were they of encountering a
Shoshone. But the white men assembled the Shoshones around their
settlements, and taught them to remain at peace with their neighbours.
They had been so for four years; the Crows had had time to build other
wigwams. Why did they act like wolves, biting their benefactors instead
of showing to them their gratitude?"
The Prince, though an old man, had much mettle in him, especially when
his blood was up. He had become a Shoshone, in all except ferocity; he
heartily despised the rascally Crows. As to the chief, he firmly
grasped the handle of his tomahawk, so much did he feel the bitter
taunts of his captive. Suddenly, a rustling was heard, then the sharp
report of a rifle, and one of the Crows, leaping high in the air, fell
down a corpse.
"The chief hath spoken too loud," said the Prince, "I hear the step of a
Shoshone; the Crows had better run away to the mountains, or their flesh
will fatten the dogs of our village."
An expression of rage and deep hatred shot across the features of the
chief, but he stood motionless, as did all his men, trying to catch the
sounds, to ascertain in which direction they should fly from the danger.
"Fear has turned the Crows into stones," resumed the Prince, "what has
become of their light feet? I see the Shoshones."
"The dog of a Pale-face will see them no more," replied the savage, as
he buried his tomahawk in the skull of the unfortunate nobleman, who was
thus doomed to meet with an inglorious death in a distant land.
The other prisoners, who were bound, could of course offer no
resistance. The French savant and two of his guides were butchered in
an instant, but before the remainder of the party could be sacrificed, a
well-directed volley was poured upon the compact body of the Crows, who
rushed immediately to the woods for cover, leaving behind them twenty
dead and wounded, besides their cruel chief. Then from the thickets
behind appeared thirty Shoshones, who immediately gave chase, leaving
only one of their men to free the three remaining trappers, and watch
over the body of their murdered friend and legislator.
A sharp tiralleur fire from their respective covers were carried on
between the Shoshones and Crows for half an hour, in which the Crows
lost ten more scalps, and having at length reached a rugged hill full of
briars and bushes, they took fairly to their heels, without even
attempting to answer the volleys poured after them. The victims were
carried to the settlement, and the very day they were consigned to their
grave, the Shoshones started for the land of the Crows. The results of
the expedition I have mentioned already.
With my father I found the three trappers; two of whom were preparing to
start for California, but the third, a young Parisian, who went by the
name of Gabriel, preferred remaining with us, and never left me until a
long time afterwards, when we parted upon the borders of the
Mississippi, when I was forcing my way towards the Atlantic Ocean. He
and Roche, when I parted with them, had directed their steps back to the
Shoshones; they delighted too much in a life of wild and perilous
adventure to leave it so soon, and the Irishman vowed that if he ever
returned within the pale of civilisation, it would be to Monterey, the
only place where, in his long wanderings, he had found a people
congenial to his own ideas.
When, in the meeting of a great council, I apprised the tribe of the
attack made upon the boat-house by the Umbiquas, and of its results,
there was a loud burst of satisfaction. I was made a War-Chief on the
spot; and it was determined that a party should immediately proceed to
chastise the Umbiquas. My father did not allow me to join it, as there
was much to be done in settling the affairs of the Prince, and paying
the debts he had contracted at Fort Hall; consequently, I led a clerk's
life for two months, writing accounts, etcetera--rather a dull
occupation, for which I had not the smallest relish. During this time,
the expedition against the Umbiquas had been still more successful than
that against the Crows; and, in fact, that year was a glorious one for
the Shoshones, who will remember it a long while, as a period in which
leggings and mocassins were literally sewn with human hair, and in which
the blanched and unburied bones of their enemies, scattered on the
prairie, scared even the wolves from crossing the Buona Ventura.
Indeed, that year was so full of events, that my narration would be too
much swelled if I were to enumerate them all.
I had not forgotten the cachette at our landing-place. Every thing was
transferred to the boat-house, and the hot days of summer having already
begun to render the settlement unpleasant, we removed to the sea-shore,
while the major part of the tribe went to hunt in the rolling prairies
of the south.
The presents of the good people of Monterey proved to be a treat
acquisition to my father. There were many books, which he appropriated
to himself; being now too aged and infirm to bear the fatigues of Indian
life, he had become fond of retirement and reading. As to Gabriel and
Roche, we became inseparable, and though in some points we were not on
an equality, yet the habit of being constantly together and sharing the
same tent united us like brothers.
As my readers will eventually discover, many daring deeds did we perform
together, and many pleasant days did we pass, both in the northern
cities of Mexico and western prairies of Texas, hunting with the
Comanches, and occasionally unmasking some rascally Texians, who, under
the paint of an Indian, would commit their murders and depredations upon
the remote settlements of their own countrymen.