We remained a few days where we were encamped to repose our horses and
enable them to support the fatigues of our journey through the rugged
and swampy wilderness of North-east Texas. Three days after the
execution of the three prisoners, some of our Indians, on their return
from a buffalo chase, informed us that several Texian companies,
numbering two hundred men, were advancing in our direction, and that
probably they were out upon an expedition against the Indians of the
Cross Timbers, as they had with them many waggons evidently containing
nothing but provisions and ammunition.
We were encamped in a strong position, and of course did not think of
retiring. We waited for the Texian army, determined to give them a good
drubbing if they dared to attempt to molest us. Notwithstanding the
security of our position, we kept a good watch during the night, but
nothing happened to give us alarm. The next morning, two hours after
sunrise, we saw the little army halting two miles from us, on the
opposite shore of a deep stream, which they must necessarily pass to
come to us. A company of the Comanches immediately darted forward to
dispute the passage; but some flags of truce being displayed by the
Texians, five or six of them were allowed to swim over unmolested.
These worthies who came over were Captain Hunt, of whom I have before
made mention, and General Smith, commanding the Texian army, who was a
certain butcher from Indiana, who had been convicted of having murdered
his wife and condemned to be hanged. He had, however, succeeded in
escaping from the gaol, and making his way to Texas. The third eminent
personage was a Colonel Hookley, and the other two were interpreters.
As an Indian will never hurt a foe who comes with a flag of truce, the
Comanches brought these gentlemen up to the camp.
As soon as General Smith presented himself before the Comanche chief, he
commenced a bullying harangue, not stating for what purpose he had come,
telling us gratuitously that he was the greatest general in the land,
and that all the other officers were fools; that he had with him an
innumerable number of stout and powerful warriors, who had no equal in
the world; and thus he went on for half an hour, till, breath failing
him, he was obliged to stop.
After a silence of a few minutes, he asked the Comanche chief what he
could answer to that? The chief looked at him and replied, with the
most ineffable contempt: "What should I answer?" said he; "I have heard
nothing but the words of a fool abusing other fools. I have heard the
howl of the wolf long before the buffalo was wounded; there can be no
answer to no question; speak, if thou canst; say what thou wishest, or
return from whence thou comest, lest the greatest warrior of Texas
should be whipped by squaws and boys."
The ex-butcher was greatly incensed at the want of breeding and manners
of the "poor devil of a savage," but at last he condescended to come to
the point. First of all, having learned from Captain Hunt the whole
transaction at Lewisburg, and that the Comanches had detained the
prisoners, he wished to have them restored to him. Next he wanted to
get the three young Pale-faces, who were with the Comanches (meaning me,
Gabriel, and Roche). They were three thieves, who had escaped from the
gaols, and he, the general, wanted to punish them. After all, they were
three vagabonds, damned strangers, and strangers had nothing to do in
Texas, so he must have them. Thirdly and lastly, he wanted to have
delivered unto him the five Americans who had left Captain Hunt to join
us. He suspected them to be rascals or traitors, or they would not have
joined the Indians. He, the great general, wished to investigate
closely into the matter, and so the Comanches had better think quick
about it, for he was in a hurry.
I should here add, that the five Americans, though half-ruined by the
thefts of the Texians, had yet with them four or five hundred dollars in
good bank-notes, besides which each had a gold watch, well-furnished
saddle-bags, a good saddle, and an excellent travelling horse.
The chief answered him: "Now I can answer, for I have heard words having
a meaning, although I know them to be great lies. I say first, thou
shalt not have the prisoners who murdered those of thine own colour, for
they are hung yonder upon the tall trees, and there they shall remain
till the vultures and the crows have picked their flesh.
"I say, secondly, that the three young Pale-faces are here and will
answer for themselves, if they will or will not follow thee; but I see
thy tongue can utter big lies; for I know they have never mixed with the
Pale-faces of the south. As to the five Yankees, we cannot give them
back to thee, because we can give back only what we have taken. They
are now our guests, and, in our hospitality, they are secure till they
leave us of their own accord. I have said!"
Scarcely were these words finished, when the general and his four
followers found themselves surrounded by twenty Comanches, who conducted
them back to the stream in rather an abrupt manner. The greatest
officer of the land swore revenge; but as his guides did not understand
him, he was lucky enough to reserve his tongue for more lies and more
swearing at a more fitting time.
He soon rejoined his men, and fell back with them about a mile,
apparently to prepare for an attack upon our encampment. In the
evening, Roche and some five or six Indians passed the stream a few
miles below, that they might observe what the Texians were about; but
unfortunately they met with a party of ten of the enemy hunting, and
Roche fell heavily under his horse, which was killed by a rifle-shot.
One of the Comanches immediately jumped from his horse, rescued Roche
from his dangerous position, and, notwithstanding that the Texians were
at that instant charging, he helped Roche to his own saddle and bade him
fly. Roche was too much stupified by his fall that he could not
reflect, or otherwise his generous nature would never have permitted him
to save his life--at the expense of that of the noble fellow who was
thus sacrificing himself. As it was, he darted away, and his liberator,
receiving the shock of the assailants, killed two of them, and fell
pierced with their rifle-balls. [See note 1.]
The report of the rifles recalled Roche to his senses, and joining once
more the three remaining Indians, he rushed madly upon the hunters, and,
closing with one of them, he ripped him up with his knife, while the
Comanches had each of them successfully thrown their lassoes, and now
galloped across the plain, dragging after them three mangled bodies.
Roche recovered his saddle and holsters, and taking with him the corpse
of the noble-minded Indian, he gave to his companions the signal for
retreat, as the remaining hunters were flying at full speed towards
their camp, and, succeeded in giving the alarm. An hour after, they
returned to us, and, upon their report, it was resolved that we should
attack the Texians that very night.
About ten o'clock we started, divided into three bands of seventy men
each, which made our number about equal to that of the Texians; Roche,
who was disabled, with fifteen Indians and the five Americans remaining
in the camp. Two of the bands went down the river to cross it without
noise, while the third, commanded by Gabriel and me, travelled up the
stream for two miles, where we safely effected our passage. We had left
the horses ready, in case of accident, under the keeping of five men for
every band. The plan was to surprise the Texians, and attack them at
once in front and in rear; we succeeded beyond all expectations, the
Texians, as usual, being all more or less intoxicated. We reached their
fires before any alarm was given.
We gave the war-whoop and rushed among the sleepers. Many, many were
killed in their deep sleep of intoxication, but those who awoke and had
time to seize upon their arms fought certainly better than they would
have done had they been sober. The gallant General Smith, the bravest
of the brave and ex-butcher, escaped at the very beginning of the
affray, but I saw the Comanche chief cleaving the skull of Captain Hunt
with his tomahawk.
Before their onset, the Indians had secured almost all the enemy's
waggons and horses, so that flight to many became impossible. At that
particular spot the prairie was undulatory and bare, except on the left
of the encampment, where a few bushes skirted the edge of a small
stream; but these were too few and too small to afford a refuge to the
Texians, one hundred of whom were killed and scalped. The remainder of
the night was passed in giving chase to the fugitives, who, at last,
halted at a bend of the river, in a position that could not be forced
without great loss of life; so the Indians left them, and, after having
collected all the horses and the booty they thought worth taking away,
they burnt the waggons and returned to their own camp.
As we quitted the spot, I could not help occasionally casting a glance
behind me, and the spectacle was truly magnificent. Hundreds of
barrels, full of grease, salt pork, gin, and whisky, were burning, and
the conflagration had now extended to the grass and the dry bushes.
We had scarcely crossed the river when the morning breeze sprung up, and
now the flames extended in every direction, pining rapidly upon the spot
where the remaining Texians had stood at bay. So fiercely and abruptly
did the flames rush upon them, that all simultaneously, men and horses,
darted into the water for shelter against the devouring element. Many
were drowned in the whirlpools, and those who succeeded in reaching the
opposite shore were too miserable and weak to think of anything, except
of regaining, if possible, the southern settlements.
Though protected from the immediate reach of the flames by the branch of
the river upon the shore of which we were encamped, the heat had become
so intense, that we were obliged to shift farther to the west. Except
in the supply of arms and ammunition, we perceived that our booty was
worth nothing. This Texian expedition must have been composed of a very
beggarly set, for there was not a single yard of linen, nor a miserable
worn-out pair of trousers, to be found in all their bundles and boxes.
Among the horses taken, some thirty or forty were immediately identified
by the Comanches as their own property, many of them, during the
preceding year, having been stolen by a party of Texians, who had
invited the Indians to a grand council. Gabriel, Roche, and I, of
course, would accept none of the booty; and as time was now becoming to
me a question of great importance, we bade farewell to our Comanche
friends, and pursued our journey east, in company with the five
Americans.
During the action, the Comanches had had forty men wounded and only nine
killed. Yet, two months afterwards, I read in one of the American
newspapers a very singular account of the action. It was a report of
General Smith, commandant of the central force of Texas, relative to the
glorious expedition against the savages, in which the gallant soldiers
of the infant republic had achieved the most wonderful exploits. It
said, "That General Smith having been apprised, by the unfortunate
Captain Hunt, that five thousand savages had destroyed the rising city
of Lewisburg, and murdered all the inhabitants, had immediately hastened
with his intrepid fellows to the neighbourhood of the scene; that there,
during the night, and when every man was broken down with fatigue, they
were attacked by the whole force of the Indians, who had with them some
twenty half-breeds, with French and English traders. In spite of their
disadvantages, the Texians repulsed the Comanches with considerable
loss, till the morning, when the men were literally tired with killing
and the prairie was covered with the corpses of two thousand savages;
the Texians themselves having lost but thirty or forty men, and these
people of little consequence, being emigrants recently arrived from the
States. During the day, the stench became so intolerable, that General
Smith caused the prairie to be set on fire, and crossing the river,
returned home by slow marches, knowing it would be quite useless to
pursue the Comanches in the wild and broken prairies of the north. Only
one Texian of note had perished during the conflict--the brave and
unfortunate Captain Hunt; so that, upon the whole, considering the
number of the enemy, the republic may consider this expedition as the
most glorious enterprise since the declaration of Texian independence."
The paragraph went on in this manner till it filled three close columns,
and as a finale, the ex-butcher made an appeal to all the generous and
"liberty-loving" sons of the United States and Texas, complaining
bitterly against the cabinets of St. James and the Tuileries, who,
jealous of the prosperity and glory of Texas, had evidently sent agents
(trappers and half-breeds) to excite the savages, through malice, envy,
and hatred of the untarnished name and honour of the great North
American Republic.
The five Americans who accompanied us were of a superior class, three of
them from Virginia and two from Maryland. Their history was that of
many others of their countrymen. Three of them had studied the law, one
divinity, and the other medicine. Having no opening for the exercise of
their profession at home, they had gone westward, to carve a fortune in
the new States; but there every thing was in such a state of anarchy
that they could not earn their subsistence; they removed farther west,
until they entered Texas, "a country sprung up but yesterday, and where
an immense wealth can be made." They found, on their arrival at this
anticipated paradise, their chances of success in their profession still
worse than in their own country. The lawyers discovered that, on a
moderate computation, there were not less than ten thousand attorneys in
Texas, who had emigrated from the Eastern States; the president, the
secretaries, constables, tavern-keepers, generals, privates, sailors,
porters, and horse-thieves were all of them originally lawyers, or had
been brought up to that profession.
As to the doctor, he soon found that the apologue of the "wolf and the
stork" had been written purposely for medical practice in Texas, for as
soon as he had cured a patient (picked the bone out of his throat), he
had to consider himself very lucky if he could escape from half-a-dozen
inches of the bowie-knife, by way of recompense; moreover, every visit
cost him his pocket-handkerchief or his 'bacco-box, if he had any. I
have to remark here, that kerchief-taking is a most common joke in
Texas, and I wonder very much at it, as no individual of the male
species, in that promised land, will ever apply that commodity to its
right use, employing for that purpose the pair of snuffers which natural
instinct has supplied him with. At the same time, it must be admitted
that no professional man can expect employment, without he can flourish
a pocket-handkerchief.
As for the divine, he soon found that religion was not a commodity
required in so young a country, and that he might just as well have
speculated in sending a cargo of skates to the West Indies, or supplying
Mussulmans with swine. The merits of the voluntary system had not been
yet appreciated in Texas; and if he did preach, he had to preach by
himself, not being able to obtain a clerk to make the responses.
As we travelled along the dreary prairies, these five Eldorado seekers
proved to be jovial fellows, and there was about them an elasticity of
temper which did not allow them to despond. The divine had made up his
mind to go to Rome, and convert the Pope, who, after all, was a clever
old _bon vivant_; the doctor would go to Edinburgh, and get selected,
from his superior skill, as president of the Surgical College; one of
the lawyers determined he would "run for legislature," or keep a bar (a
whisky one); the second wished to join the Mormons, who were a set of
clever blackguards; and the third thought of going to China, to teach
the celestial brother of the sun to use the Kentucky rifle and "brush
the English." Some individuals in England have reproached me with
indulging too much in building castles in the air; but certainly,
compared to those of a Yankee in search after wealth, mine have been
most sober speculations.
Each of our new companions had some little Texian history to relate,
which they declared to be the most rascally, but _smartish_ trick in the
world. One of the lawyers was once summoned before a magistrate, and a
false New Orleans fifty-dollar bank-note was presented to him, as the
identical one he had given to the clerk of Tremont Hotel (the great
hotel at Galveston), in payment of his weekly bill. Now, the lawyer had
often dreamed of fifties, hundreds, and even of thousands; but fortune
had been so fickle with him, that he had never been in possession of
bank-notes higher than five or ten dollars, except one of the glorious
Cairo Bank twenty-dollar notes, which his father presented to him in
Baltimore, when he advised him most paternally to try his luck in the
West.
By the bye, that twenty-dollar Cairo note's adventures should be written
in gold letters, for it enabled the traveller to eat, sleep, and drink,
free of cost, from Louisville to St. Louis, through Indiana and
Illinois; any tavern-keeper preferring losing the price of a bed, or of
a meal, sooner than run the risk of returning good change for bad money.
The note was finally changed in St. Louis for a three-dollar, bank of
Springfield, which being yet current, at a discount of four cents to the
dollar, enabled the fortunate owner to take his last tumbler of
port-wine sangaree before his departure for Texas.
Of course, the lawyer had no remorse of conscience, in swearing that the
note had never been his, but the tavern-keeper and two witnesses swore
to his having given it, and the poor fellow was condemned to recash and
pay expenses. Having not a cent, he was allowed to go, for it so
happened that the gaol was not built for such vagabonds, but for the
government officers, who had their sleeping apartments in it. This
circumstance occasioned it to be remarked by a few commonly honest
people of Galveston, that if the gates of the gaol were closed at night,
the community would be much improved.
Three days afterwards, a poor captain, from a Boston vessel, was
summoned for the very identical bank-note, which he was obliged to pay,
though he had never set his foot into the Tremont Hotel.
There is, in Galveston a new-invented trade, called "the rag-trade,"
which is very profitable. I refer to the purchasing and selling of
false bank-notes, which are, as in the lawyer's case, palmed upon any
stranger suspected of having money. On such occasions, the magistrate
and the plaintiff share the booty. I may as well here add a fact which
is well known in France and the United States. Eight days after the
Marquis de Saligny's (French charge d'affaires) arrival in Houston, he
was summoned before a magistrate, and, upon the oaths of the parties,
found guilty of having passed seven hundred dollars in false notes to a
land speculator. He paid the money, but as he never had had in his
possession any money, except French gold and notes of the Banque de
France, he complained to his government; and this specimen of Texian
honesty was the principal cause why the banker (Lafitte) suddenly broke
the arrangement he had entered into with General Hamilton (charge
d'affaires from Texas to England and France) for a loan of seven
millions of dollars.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. So sacred are the laws of hospitality among these indians, that
a dozen lives would be sacrificed, if required, to save that of a guest.
In sacrificing himself for Roche, the Comanche considered that he was
doing a mere act of duty.