We had now entered a track of land similar to that which we had
travelled over when on our route from the Wakoes to the Comanches. The
prairie was often intersected by chasms, the bottoms of which were
perfectly dry, so that we could procure water but once every twenty-four
hours, and that, too, often so hot and so muddy, that even our poor
horses would not drink it freely. They had, however, the advantage over
us in point of feeding, for the grass was sweet and tender, and
moistened during night by the heavy dews; as for ourselves, we were
beginning to starve in earnest.
We had anticipated regaling ourselves with the juicy humps of the
buffaloes which we should kill, but although we had entered the very
heart of their great pasture-land, we had not met with one, nor even
with a ground-hog, a snake, or a frog. One evening, the pangs of hunger
became so sharp, that we were obliged to chew tobacco and pieces of
leather to allay our cravings; and we determined that if, the next day
at sunset, we had no better fortune, we would draw lots to kill one of
our horses. That evening we could not sleep, and as murmuring was of no
avail, the divine entertained us with a Texian story, just, as he said,
to pump the superfluous air out of his body. I shall give it in his own
terms:--
"Well, I was coming down the Wabash River (Indiana), when, as it,
happens nine times out of ten, the steam-boat got aground, and that so
firmly, that there was no hope of her floating again till the next
flood; so I took my wallet, waded for two hundred yards, with the water
to my knees, till I got safe on shore, upon a thick-timbered bank, full
of rattle-snakes, thorns of the locust-tree, and spiders' webs, so
strong, that I was obliged to cut them with my nose, to clear the way
before me. I soon got so entangled by the vines and the briars, that I
thought I had better turn my back to the stream till I should get to the
upland, which I could now and then perceive through the clearings opened
between the trees by recent thunder-storms. Unhappily, between the
upland and the little ridge on which I stood there was a wide river
bottom [see note 1.], into which I had scarcely advanced fifty yards,
when I got bogged. Well, it took me a long while to get out of my miry
hole, where I was as fast as a swine in its Arkansas sty; and then I
looked about for my wallet, which I had dropped. I could see which way
it had gone, for, close to the yawning circle from which I had just
extricated myself; there was another smaller one two yards off; into
which my wallet had sunk deep, though it was comfortably light, which
goes to illustrate the Indiana saying, that there is no conscience so
light but will sink in the bottom of the Wabash. Well, I did not care
much, as in my wallet I had only an old coloured shirt and a dozen of my
own sermons, which I knew by heart, having repeated them a hundred times
over.
"Being now in a regular fix, I cut a stick, and began whittling and
whistling, to lighten my sorrows, till at last I perceived at the bank
of the river, and five hundred yards ahead, one of those large rafts,
constructed pretty much like Noah's ark, in which a Wabash farmer
embarks his cargo of women and fleas, pigs and chickens, corn, whisky,
rats, sheep, and stolen niggers; indeed, in most cases, the whole of the
cargo is stolen, except the wife and children, the only portion whom the
owner would very much like to be rid of; but these will stick to him as
naturally as a prairie fly to a horse, as long as he has spirits to
drink, pigs to attend to, and breeches to mend.
"Well, as she was close to the bank, I got in. The owner was General
John Meyer, from Vincennes, and his three sons, the colonel, the
captain, and the judge. They lent me a sort of thing which, many years
before, had probably been a horse-blanket. With it I covered myself;
while one of the `boys' spread my clothes to dry, and, as I had nothing
left in the world, except thirty dollars in my pocket-book, I kept that
constantly in my hand till the evening, when, my clothes being dried, I
recovered the use of my pocket. The general was free with his `Wabash
water' (western appellation for whisky), and, finding me to his taste,
as he said, he offered me a passage gratis to New Orleans, if I could
but submit myself to his homely fare; that is to say, salt pork, with
plenty of gravy, four times a day, and a decoction of burnt bran and
grains of maize, going under the name of coffee all over the States--the
whisky was to be _ad libitum_.
"As I considered the terms moderate, I agreed, and the hospitable
general soon entrusted me with his plans. He had gone many times to
Texas; he loved Texas--it was a free country, according to his heart;
and now he had collected all his own (he might have said, `and other
people's too'), to go to New Orleans, where his pigs and corn, exchanged
against goods, would enable him to settle with his family in Texas in a
gallant style. Upon my inquiring what could be the cause of a certain
abominable smell which pervaded the cabin, he apprised me that, in a
small closet adjoining, he had secured a dozen of runaway negroes, for
the apprehension of whom he would be well rewarded.
"Well, the next morning we went on pretty snugly, and I had nothing to
complain of, except the fleas and the `gals' who bothered me not a
little. Three days afterwards we entered the Ohio, and the current
being very strong, I began to think myself fortunate, as I should reach
New Orleans in less than forty days, passage free. We went on till
night, when we stopped, three or four miles from the junction with the
Mississippi. The cabin being very warm, and the deck in possession of
the pigs, I thought I would sleep ashore, under a tree. The general
said it was a capital plan, and, after having drained half-a-dozen cups
of `stiff, true, downright Yankee Number 1,' we all of us took our
blankets (I mean the white-skinned party), and having lighted a great
fire, the general, the colonel, the major, and the judge laid down,--an
example which I followed as soon as I had neatly folded up my coat and
fixed it upon a bush, with my hat and boots, for I was now getting
particular, and wished to cut a figure in New Orleans; my thoughts
running upon plump and rich widows, which you know are the only
provision for us preachers.
"Well, my dreams were nothing but the continuation of my thoughts during
the day. I fancied I was married, and the owner of a large sugar
plantation. I had a good soft bed and my pious wife was feeling about
me with her soft hands, probably to see if my heart beat quick, and if I
had good dreams;--a pity I did not awake then, for I should have saved
my dollars, as the hand which I was dreaming of was that of the
hospitable general searching for my pocket-book. It was late when I
opened my eyes--and, lo! the sleepers were gone, with the boat, my
boots, my coat, my hat, and, I soon found, with my money I had been left
alone, with a greasy Mackinaw blanket, and as in my stupefaction I gazed
all round, and up and down, I saw my pocket-book empty, which the
generous general had humanely left to me to put other notes in, `when I
could get any.' I kicked it with my foot, and should indubitably have
been food for cat-fish, had I not heard most _a propos_ the puffing of a
steam-boat coming down the river."
At that moment the parson interrupted his narrative, by observing:
"Well, I'd no idea that I had talked so long; why, man, look to the
east, 'tis almost daylight."
And sure enough the horizon of the prairie was skirted with that red
tinge which always announces the break of day in these immense level
solitudes. Our companions had all fallen asleep, and our horses,
looking to the east, snuffed the air and stamped upon the ground, as if
to express their impatience to leave so inhospitable a region. I
replied to the parson:
"It is now too late for us to think of sleeping; let us stir the fire,
and go on with your story." We added fuel to the nearly consumed pile,
and shaking our blankets, which were heavy with the dew, my companion
resumed his narrative:--
"Well, I reckon it was more than half an hour before the steam-boat came
in sight, and as the channel of the river ran close in with the shore, I
was soon picked up. The boat was going to St. Louis, and as I had not a
cent left to pay my passage, I was obliged, in way of payment, to relate
my adventure. Everybody laughed. All the men declared the joke was
excellent, and that General Meyer was a clever rascal; they told me I
should undoubtedly meet him at New Orleans, but it would be of no use.
Every body knew Meyer and his pious family, but he was so smart, that
nothing could be done against him. Well, the clerk was a good-humoured
fellow; he lent me an old coat and five dollars; the steward brought me
a pair of slippers, and somebody gave me a worn-out loose cap. This was
very good, but my luck was better still. The cause of my own ruin had
been the grounding of a steam-boat; the same accident happening again
set me on my legs. Just as we turned the southern point of Illinois, we
buried ourselves in a safe bed of mud. It was so common an occurrence,
that nobody cared much about it, except a Philadelphian going to Texas;
he was in a great hurry to go on westward, and no wonder. I learned
afterwards that he had absconded from the bank, of which he was a
cashier, with sixty thousand dollars.
"Well, as I said, we were bogged; patience was necessary, laments were
of no use, so we dined with as much appetite as if nothing had happened,
and some of the regular `boys' took to `Yooka,' to kill the time. They
were regular hands, to be sure, but I was myself trump Number 1. Pity
we have no cards with us; it would be amusing to be the first man
introducing that game into the western prairies. Well, I looked on, and
by-and-by, I got tired of being merely a spectator. My nose itched, my
fingers too. I twisted my five-dollar bill in all senses, till a sharp
took me for a flat, and he proposed kindly to pluck me out-and-out. I
plucked him in less than no time, winning eighty dollars at a sitting;
and when we left off for tea, I felt that I had acquired consequence,
and even merit, for money gives both. During the night I was so
successful, that when I retired to my berth I found myself the owner of
four hundred and fifty dollars, a gold watch, a gold pin, and a silver
'bacco-box. Everything is useful in this world, even getting aground.
Now, I never repine at anything.
"The next day another steam-boat passed, and picked us up. It was one
of those light crafts which speculate upon misfortune; they hunt after
stranded boats, as a wolf after wounded deer--they take off the
passengers, and charge what they please. From Cincinnati to St. Louis
the fare was ten dollars, and the unconscious wreck-seeker of a captain
charged us twenty-five dollars each for the remainder of the trip--one
day's journey. However, I did not care.
"An Arkansas man, who had no more money, sold me, for fifteen dollars,
his wallet, a fine great-coat, two clean shirts, and a hat; from another
I purchased a pair of bran-new, Boston-made, elegant black breeches, so
that when I landed at St. Louis I cut a regular figure, went to
Planter's Hotel, and in the course of a week made a good round sum by
three lectures upon the vanities of the world and the sin of desponding.
Well, to cut matters short--by the bye, there must be something wrong
stirring in the prairie; look at our horses, how uneasy they seem to be.
Don't you hear anything?"
Our horses, indeed, were beginning to grow wild with excitement, and
thinking that their instinct had told them that wolves were near, I tied
them closer to where we bivouacked, and then applied my ears to the
ground, to try and catch any sound.
"I hear no noise," said I, "except the morning breeze passing through
the withered grass. Our horses have been smelling wolves, but the
brutes will not approach our fire."
The parson, who had a great faith in my "white Indian nature," resumed
the thread of his narrative:--
"To cut the matter short, I pass over my trip to New Orleans and
Galveston. Suffice it to say, that I was a gentleman preacher, with
plenty of money, and that the Texians, president, generals, and all,
condescended to eat my dinners, though they would not hear my sermons;
even the women looked softly upon me, for I had two trunks, linen in
plenty, and I had taken the precaution in Louisiana of getting rid of my
shin-plasters for hard specie. I could have married any body, if I had
wished, from the president's old mother to the barmaid at the tavern. I
had money, and to me all was smiles and sunshine. One day I met General
Meyer; the impudent fellow came immediately to me, shook my hand in
quite a cordial manner, and inquired how my health had been since he had
seen me last. That was more than my professional meekness could endure,
so I reproached him with his rascality and abuse of hospitality towards
me, adding that I expected he would now repay me what he had so
unceremoniously taken from me while I was asleep. General Meyer looked
perfectly aghast, and calling me a liar, a scoundrel, and a villain, he
rushed upon me with his drawn bowie-knife, and would have indubitably
murdered me, had he not been prevented by a tall powerful chap, to whom,
but an hour before, I had lent, or given, five dollars, partly from fear
of him and partly from compassion for his destitution.
"The next day I started for Houston, where I settled, and preached to
old women, children, and negroes, while the white male population were
getting drunk, swearing, and fighting, just before the door of the
church. I had scarcely been there a month when a constable arrested me
on the power of a warrant obtained against me by that rascally Meyer.
Brought up before the magistrate, I was confronted with the blackguard
and five other rascals of his stamp, who positively took their oaths
that they had seen me taking the pocket-book of the general, which he
had left accidentally upon the table in the bar of Tremont's. The
magistrate said, that out of respect for the character of my profession
he would not push the affair to extremities, but that I must immediately
give back the two hundred dollars Meyer said I had stolen from him, and
pay fifty dollars besides for the expenses. In vain I remonstrated my
innocence; no choice was left to me but to pay or go to gaol.
"By that time I knew pretty well the character of the people among whom
I was living; I knew there was no justice to whom I could apply; I
reckoned also that, if once put in gaol, they would not only take the
two hundred and fifty dollars; but also the whole I possessed. So I
submitted, as it was the best I could do; I removed immediately to
another part of Texas, but it would not do. Faith, the Texians are a
very ugly set of gents."
"And Meyer," I interrupted, "what of him?"
"Oh!" replied the parson, "that is another story. Why, he returned to
New Orleans, where, with his three sons, he committed an awful murder
upon the cashier of the legislature; he was getting away with twenty
thousand dollars, but being caught in the act, he was tried, sentenced,
and hanged, with all his hopeful progeny, and the old negro hangman of
New Orleans had the honour of making in one day, a close acquaintance
with a general, a colonel, a major, and a judge."
"What, talking still!" exclaimed the doctor, yawning: he had just awoke.
"What the devil can you have babbled about during the whole blessed
night? Why, 'tis morn."
Saying this, he took up his watch, looked at it, applied it to his ear,
to see if it had not stopped, and exclaimed:--
"By jingo, but I am only half-past one." The parson drew out his also,
and repeated the same, "half-past one."
At that moment the breeze freshened, and I heard the distant and muffled
noise which in the West announces either an earthquake or an
"estampede," of herds of wild cattle and other animals. Our horses,
too, were aware of some danger, for now they were positively mad,
struggling to break the lassoes and escape.
"Up!" I cried, "up! Gabriel, Roche, up!--up, strangers, quick! saddle
your beasts! run for your lives! the prairie is on fire, and the
buffaloes are upon us."
They all started upon their feet, but not a word was exchanged; each
felt the danger of his position; speed was our only resource, if it was
not already too late. In a minute our horses were saddled, in another
we were madly galloping across the prairie, the bridles upon the necks
of our steeds, allowing them to follow their instinct. Such had been
our hurry, that all our blankets were left behind, except that of
Gabriel; the lawyers had never thought of their saddle-bags, and the
parson had forgotten his holsters and his rifle.
For an hour we dashed on with undiminished speed, when we felt the earth
trembling behind us, and soon afterwards the distant bellowing mixed up
with the roaring and sharper cries of other animals, were borne down
unto our ears. The atmosphere grew oppressive and heavy, while the
flames, swifter than the wind, appeared raging upon the horizon. The
fleeter game of all kinds now shot past us like arrows; deer were
bounding over the ground, in company with wolves and panthers; droves of
elks and antelopes passed swifter than a dream; then a solitary horse or
a huge buffalo-bull. From our intense anxiety, although our horses
strained every nerve, we almost appeared to stand still.
The atmosphere rapidly became more dense, the heat more oppressive, the
roars sounded louder and louder in our ears; now and then they were
mingled with terrific howls and shrill sounds, so unearthly that even
our horses would stop their mad career and tremble, as if they
considered them supernatural; but it was only for a second, and they
dashed on.
A noble stag passed close to us, his strength was exhausted; three
minutes afterwards, we passed him--dead. But soon, with the rushing
noise of a whirlwind, the mass of heavier and less speedy animals closed
upon us: buffaloes and wild horses, all mixed together, an immense dark
body, miles in front, miles in depth; on they came, trampling and
dashing through every obstacle. This phalanx was but two miles from us.
Our horses were nearly exhausted; we gave ourselves up for lost; a few
minutes more, and we should be crushed to atoms.
At that moment, the sonorous voice of Gabriel was heard, firm and
imperative. He had long been accustomed to danger, and now he faced it
with his indomitable energy, as if such scenes were his proper
element:--"Down from your horses," cried he; "let two of you keep them
steady. Strip off your shirts, linen, anything that will catch fire;
quick, not a minute is to be lost." Saying this, he ignited some tinder
with the pan of his pistol, and was soon busy in making a fire with all
the clothes we now threw to him. Then we tore up withered grass and
buffalo-dung, and dashed them on the heap.
Before three minutes had passed, our fire burned fiercely. On came the
terrified mass of animals, and perceiving the flame of our fire before
them, they roared with rage and terror, yet they turned not, as we had
hoped. On they came, and already we could distinguish their horns,
their feet, and the white foam; our fuel was burning out, the flames
were lowering; the parson gave a scream, and fainted. On came the
maddened myriads, nearer and nearer; I could see their wild eyes
glaring; they wheeled not, opened not a passage, but came on like
messengers of death--nearer--nearer--nearer still. My brain reeled, my
eyes grew dim; it was horrible, most horrible! I dashed down, with my
face covered, to meet my fate.
At that moment I heard an explosion, then a roar, as if proceeding from
ten millions of buffalo-bulls--so stunning, so stupefying was the sound
from the mass of animals, not twenty yards from us. Each moment I
expected the hoofs which were to trample us to atoms; and yet, death
came not. I only heard the rushing as of a mighty wind and the
trembling of the earth. I raised my head, and looked.
Gabriel at the critical moment had poured some whisky upon the flames,
the leathern bottle had exploded, with a blaze like lightning, and, at
the expense of thousands crushed to death, the animals had swerved from
contact with the fierce, blue column of fire which had been created.
Before and behind, all around us, we could see nothing but the shaggy
wool of the huge monsters; not a crevice was to be seen in the flying
masses, but the narrow line which had been opened to avoid our fire.
In this dangerous position we remained for one hour, our lives depending
upon the animals not closing the line; but Providence watched over us,
and after what appeared an eternity of intense suspense, the columns
became thinner and thinner, till we found ourselves only encircled with
the weaker and more exhausted animals, which brought up the rear. Our
first danger was over, but we had still to escape from one as imminent--
the pursuing flame, now so much closer to us. The whole prairie behind
us was on fire, and the roaring element was gaining on us with a
frightful speed. Once more we sprang upon our saddles, and the horses,
with recovered wind and with strength tenfold increased by their fear,
soon brought us to the rear of the buffaloes.
It was an awful sight! a sea of fire roaring in its fury, with heaving
waves and unearthly hisses, approaching nearer and nearer, rushing on
swifter than the sharp morning breeze. Had we not just escaped so
unexpectedly a danger almost as terrible, we should have despaired and
left off an apparently useless struggle for our lives.
Away we dashed, over hills and down declivities; for now the ground had
become more broken. The fire was gaining fast upon us, when we
perceived that, a mile ahead, the immense herds before us had entered a
deep, broad chasm, into which they dashed, thousands upon thousands,
tumbling headlong into the abyss. But now, the fire rushing quicker,
blazing fiercer than before, as if determined not to lose its prey,
curled its waves above our heads, smothering us with its heat and lurid
smoke.
A few seconds more we spurred in agony; speed was life; the chasm was to
be our preservation or our tomb. Down we darted, actually borne upon
the backs of the descending mass, and landed, without sense or motion,
more than a hundred feet below. As soon as we recovered from the shock,
we found that we had been most mercifully preserved; strange to say,
neither horse nor rider had received any serious injury. We heard,
above our heads, the hissing and cracking of the fire; we contemplated
with awe the flames, which were roaring along the edge of the
precipice--now rising, now lowering, just as if they would leap over the
space and annihilate all life in these western solitudes.
We were preserved; our fall had been broken by the animals, who had
taken the leap a second before us, and by the thousands of bodies which
were heaped up as a hecatomb, and received us as a cushion below. With
difficulty we extricated ourselves and horses, and descending the mass
of carcasses, we at last succeeded in reaching a few acres of clear
ground. It was elevated a few feet above the water of the torrent,
which ran through the ravine, and offered to our broken-down horses a
magnificent pasture of sweet blue grass. But the poor things were too
terrified and exhausted, and they stretched themselves down upon the
ground, a painful spectacle of utter helplessness.
We perceived that the crowds of flying animals had succeeded in finding,
some way further down, an ascent to the opposite prairie; and as the
earth and rocks still trembled, we knew that the "estampede" had not
ceased, and that the millions of fugitives had resumed their mad career.
Indeed there was still danger, for the wind was high, and carried
before it large sheets of flames to the opposite side, where the dried
grass and bushes soon became ignited, and the destructive element thus
passed the chasm and continued its pursuit.
We congratulated ourselves upon having thus found security, and returned
thanks to Heaven for our wonderful escape; and as we were now safe from
immediate danger, we lighted a fire, feasted upon a young buffalo-calf,
every bone of which we found had been broken into splinters. [See note
2.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. River bottom is a space, sometimes of many many miles in width,
on the side of the river, running parallel with it. It is always very
valuable and productive land, but unhealthy, and dangerous to cross,
from its boggy nature.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 2. I have said, at a venture, that we descended more than a
hundred feet into the chasm before we fairly landed on the bodies of the
animals. The chasm itself could not have been less than two hundred and
fifty to three hundred feet deep at the part that we plunged down. This
will give the reader some idea of the vast quantity of bodies of
animals, chiefly buffaloes, which were there piled up. I consider that
this pile must have been formed wholly from the foremost of the mass,
and that when formed, it broke the fall of the others, who followed
them, as it did our own; indeed, the summit of the heap was pounded into
a sort of jelly.