THE TRAIL HUNTER.
A TALE OF THE FAR WEST.
BY
GUSTAVE AIMARD,
AUTHOR OF "THE PRAIRIE FLOWER," "THE INDIAN CHIEF," ETC.
LONDON:
WARD AND LOCK,
158, FLEET STREET.
1861.
PREFACE.
The present volume of Aimard's Indian Tales is devoted to the earlier
adventures of those hunters, whose acquaintance the reader has formed,
I trust with pleasure, in the preceding series. It does not become me to
say anything further in its favour, than that the sustained interest of
the narrative, which has been regarded as the charm of stories referring
to life in the desert and prairie, has not been departed from in this
instance. The stories themselves supply an innate proof of the writer's
correctness to Nature, and, in truth, many of the scenes are so
startling that they must be the result of personal observation.
In conclusion, I may be permitted to thank the Press generally for the
kindly aid they have afforded me in making the English translation of
Aimard's volumes known to the British reading public, and the hearty way
in which they have recognized the merits of the previous series. It
would be an easy task to collect paragraphs, expressing a belief that
Aimard is second to none of the writers who have hitherto described
Indian life and scenery; but I prefer to rest my hopes of success on the
inherent qualities of his stories.
LASCELLES WRAXALL.
CONTENTS.
PART I. RED CEDAR PART II. EL PRESIDIO DE SANTA FE
I.--The Virgin Forest I.--El Rancho de Coyote
II.--The Contest II.--The Cuchillada
III.--Don Miguel Zarate III.--The Hunters
IV.--The Peccaries IV.--Sunbeam
V.--The Wound V.--The Adoption
VI.--The Squatter's Shanty VI.--The Missionary
VII.--The Rangers VII.--The Interview
VIII.--The Valley of the Buffalo VIII.--The Prison
IX.--The Assassination IX.--The Embassy
X.--The Sachem of the Coras X.--The Presentation
XI.--Conversation XI.--Psychological
XII.--El Mesón XII.--Diamond Cut Diamond
XIII--Red Cedar XIII.--A Stormy Discussion
XIV.--The Two Hunters XIV.--The Mystery
XV.--Fray Ambrosio XV.--The Ambuscade
XVI.--Two Varieties of Villains XVI.--A Friendly Discussion
XVII.--El Cañon Del Buitre XVII.--Nathan
XVIII.--Father Seraphin XVIII.--The Wounded Man
XIX.--Unicorn XIX.--Indian Diplomacy
XX.--The Hunt of Wild Horses XX--The Stranger
XXI.--The Surprise XXI.--General Ventura
XXII.--The Meeting XXII.--The Comanches
XXIII.--The Abduction XXIII.--Negotiations
XXIV.--The Revolt XXIV.--Free
XXV.--The Meeting
XXVI.--Doña Clara
XXVII.--El Vado del Toro
TRAIL HUNTER BY GUSTAVE AIMARD.
CHAPTER I.
THE VIRGIN FOREST.
In Mexico the population is only divided into two classes, the upper and
the lower. There is no intermediate rank to connect the two extremes,
and this is the cause of the two hundred and thirty-nine revolutions
which have overthrown this country since the declaration of its
independence. Why this is so is simple enough. The intellectual power is
in the hands of a small number, and all the revolutions are effected by
this turbulent and ambitious minority; whence it results that the
country is governed by the most complete military despotism, instead of
being a free republic.
Still the inhabitants of the States of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Texas have
retained, even to the present day, that stern, savage, and energetic
physiognomy which may be sought in vain among the other States of the
Confederation.
Beneath a sky colder than that of Mexico, the winter, which frequently
covers the rivers of the region with a thick layer of ice, hardens the
muscles of the inhabitants, cleanses their blood, purifies their hearts,
and renders them picked men, who are distinguished for their courage,
their intelligence, and their profound love of liberty.
The Apaches, who originally inhabited the greater portion of New Mexico,
have gradually fallen back before the axe of the pioneers; and after
retiring into the immense deserts that cover the triangle formed by the
Rio Gila, the Del Norte, and the Colorado, they ravage almost with
impunity the Mexican frontiers, plundering, firing, and devastating all
they meet with on their passage.
The inhabitants of the countries we alluded to above, held in respect by
these ever-shifting savages, are in a state of continual warfare with
them, always ready to fight, fortifying their haciendas, and only
travelling with weapons in their hands.
El Paso del Norte may be regarded as the outpost of the civilised
portion of Mexico. Beyond that, to the north and north-west, extend the
vast unfilled plains of Chihuahua, the _bolsón_ of Mapimi, and the arid
deserts of the Rio Gila. These immense deserts, known by the name of
Apacheria, are still as little investigated as they were at the close of
the eighteenth century. El Paso del Norte owes its name to its situation
near a ford of the Rio Del Norte. It is the oldest of all the New
Mexican settlements, and its establishment dates back to the close of
the sixteenth century. The present settlement is scattered for a
distance of about ten miles along the banks of the Del Norte, and
contains four thousand inhabitants at the most. The _plaza_, or village
of the Paso, is situated at the head of the valley: at the other
extremity is the Presidio of San Elezario. All the interval is occupied
by a continuous line of white, flat-roofed houses, buried in gardens,
and surrounded by vineyards. About a mile above the ford the stream is
dammed up, and led by a canal into the valley, which it waters.
Apacheria begins only a few miles from this settlement.
It is easily seen that the foot of civilised man has only trodden
timidly and at rare intervals this thoroughly primitive country, in
which nature, free to develop herself under the omnipotent eye of the
creator, assumes an aspect of incredible beauty and fancifulness.
On a lovely morning in the month of May, which the Indians call "the
moon of the flowers," a man of high stature, with harsh and marked
features, mounted on a tall, half-tamed steed, started at a canter from
the plaza, and after a few minutes of hesitation, employed in realising
his position, resolutely buried his spurs in the horse's flanks, crossed
the ford, and after leaving behind him the numerous cottonwood trees
which at this spot cover the river banks, proceeded toward the dense
forest that flashed on the horizon.
This horseman was dressed in the costume generally adopted on the
frontiers, and which was so picturesque that we will give a short
description of it. The stranger wore a pelisse of green cloth,
embroidered with silver, allowing a glimpse of an elegantly-worked
shirt, the collar of which was fastened by a loosely-knotted black silk
handkerchief, the ends passed through a diamond ring. He wore green
cloth breeches, trimmed with silver, and two rows of buttons of the same
metal, and fastened round the hips by a red silken scarf with gold
fringe. The breeches, open on the side half way up the thigh, displayed
his fine linen drawers beneath: his legs were defended by a strip of
brown embossed and stamped leather, called _botas vaqueras_, attached
below the knee by a silver garter. On his heels enormous spurs clanked.
A _manga_, glistening with gold, and drawn up on the shoulder, protected
the upper part of his body, while his head was sheltered from the
burning sunbeams by a broad-leafed hat of brown stamped felt, the crown
of which was contracted by a large silver _toquilla_ passed twice or
thrice round it.
His steed was caparisoned with graceful luxuriousness, which heightened
all its beautiful points: a rich saddle of embossed leather, adorned
with massive silver, on the back of which the _zarapé_ was fastened;
wide Moorish silver stirrups, and handsome water bottles at the
saddle-bow; while an elegant _anquera_, made of openwork leather, and
decorated with small steel chains, entirely covered the horse's croup,
and sparkled with its slightest movement.
The stranger appeared, judging from the luxury he displayed, to belong
to the high class of society. A _machete_ hung down his right side,
two pistols were passed through his girdle, the handle of a long knife
protruded from his right boot, and he held a superbly damascened rifle
across the saddle in front of him.
Bending over the neck of his galloping steed, he advanced rapidly
without looking round him, although the landscape that lay extended
before him was one of the most attractive and majestic in those regions.
The river formed the most capricious windings in the centre of a terrain
diversified in a thousand strange ways. Here and there on the sandy
banks enormous trees might be seen lying, which, dried up by the sun,
evidenced, in their washed-out appearance, that they had been dead for
centuries. Near the shallow and marshy spots, caymans and alligators
wandered about awkwardly. At other places, where the river ran almost
straight, its banks were uniform, and covered with tall trees, round
which creepers had twined, and then struck root in the ground again,
thus forming the most inextricable confusion. Here and there small
clearings or marshy spots might be detected in the midst of the dense
wood, often piled up with trees that had died of old age. Further on,
other trees, which seemed still young, judging from their colour and the
solidity of their bark, fell into dust with the slightest breath of
wind.
At times, the earth, entirely undermined beneath, drawn down by its own
weight, dragged with it the wood which it bore, and produced a crashing,
confused sound, which was returned on all sides by the echo, and
possessed a certain degree of grandeur in this desert, whose depths no
man has ever yet ventured to scrutinise.
Still the stranger galloped on, with his eye ardently fixed before him,
and not appearing to see anything. Several hours passed thus: the
horseman buried himself deeper in the forest. He had left the banks of
the river, and only progressed with extreme difficulty, through the
entanglement of branches, grass, and shrubs, which at every step
arrested his movements, and forced him to make innumerable turnings. He
merely reined in his horse now and then, took a glance at the sky, and
then started again, muttering to himself but one word:
"_Adelante_! (Forward!)"
At length he stopped in a vast clearing, took a suspicious glance around
him, and probably reassured by the leaden silence which weighed on the
desert, he dismounted, hobbled his horse, and took off its bridle that
it might browse on the young tree shoots. This duty accomplished, he
carelessly lay down on the ground, rolled a maize cigarette in his
fingers, produced a gold _mechero_ from his waist belt, and struck a
light.
The clearing was of considerable extent. On one side the eye could
survey with ease, through the trees, the widely extending prairie, on
which deer were browsing with security. On the other side, the forest,
wilder than ever, seemed, on the contrary, an impassable wall of
verdure. All was abrupt and primitive at this spot, which the foot of
man had so rarely trodden. Certain trees, either entirely or partially
dried up, offered the vigorous remains of a rich and fertile soil;
others, equally ancient, were sustained by the twisted creepers, which
in the course of time almost equalled their original support in size:
the diversity of the leaves produced the strangest possible mixture.
Others, containing in their hollow trunk a manure which, formed of the
remains of their leaves and half-dead branches, had warmed the seeds
they had let fall, and offered, in the young shoots they contained, some
compensation for the loss of their father tree.
In the prairies, nature, ever provident, seems to have been desirous to
shelter from the insults of time certain old trees, patriarchs of the
forest which are crushed beneath the weight of ages, by forming them a
cloak of greyish moss, which hangs in festoons from the highest branches
to the ground, assuming the wildest and most fantastic shapes.
The stranger, lying on his back, with his head resting on his two
crossed hands, was smoking with that beatitude, full of ease and sloth,
which is peculiar to the Hispano-Americans. He only interrupted this
gentle occupation to roll a fresh cigarette and cast a glance around,
while muttering:
"Hum! He keeps me waiting a long time."
He emitted a puff of bluish smoke, and resumed his first position.
Several hours passed thus. Suddenly, a rather loud rustling was heard in
the thicket, some distance behind the stranger.
"Ah, ah!" he said, "I fancy my man is coming at last."
In the meanwhile, the sound became louder, and rapidly approached.
"Come on, hang it!" the horseman shouted, as he rose. "By our Lady of
Pilar! You have surely been keeping me waiting long enough."
Nothing appeared: the clearing was still deserted, although the sound
had attained a certain degree of intensity. The stranger, surprised at
the obstinate silence of the man he was addressing, and specially by his
continuing not to show himself, at length rose to see for himself the
reason. At this moment, his horse pricked up its ears, snorted
violently, and made a sudden effort to free itself from the lasso that
held it; but our new acquaintance rushed toward it and patted it. The
horse trembled all over, and made prodigious bounds in order to escape.
The stranger, more and more surprised, looked round for an explanation
of these extraordinary movements, and was soon satisfied.
Scarce twenty yards from him a magnificent jaguar, with a
splendidly-spotted hide, was crouched on the main branch of an enormous
cypress, and fixed on him two ferocious eyes, as it passed its
blood-red, rugged tongue over its lips with a feline pleasure.
"Ah, ah!" the stranger said to himself in a low voice, but displaying no
further excitement, "I did not expect you; but no matter, you are
welcome, comrade. _Caray_! We shall have a fight for it."
Without taking his eye off the jaguar, he convinced himself that his
machete quitted its scabbard readily, picked up his rifle, and, after
these precautions were taken, he advanced resolutely toward the
ferocious brute, which saw him coming without changing its position. On
arriving within ten yards of the jaguar, the stranger threw away the
cigarette he had till now held between his lips, shouldered his rifle,
and put his finger on the trigger. The jaguar drew itself together and
prepared to leap forward. At the same moment a hoarse yell was heard
from the opposite side of the clearing.
"Wait a minute," the stranger said to himself with a smile; "it seems
there are two of them, and I fancied I had to do with a bachelor jaguar.
This is beginning to grow interesting."
And he threw a glance on one side. He had not deceived himself: a second
jaguar, rather larger than the first, had fixed its flashing eyes upon
him.