During this brief tarry at Los Angelos, Carson had not been idle, but
entirely without thought that his confidence could be deemed
presumption, arranging his dress with as much care as its character
permitted, early in the morning he mounted his horse--always in
excellent trim--and rode to the residence of the man he had been
informed owned the best _ranche_ in the vicinity, and dismounting at the
wicket gate, entered the yard, which was fenced with a finely arranged
growth of club cactus; and passing up the gravel walk several rods,
between an avenue of fig trees, with an occasional patch of green
shrubs, and a few flowers, he stood at the door of the spacious old
Spanish mansion, which was built of _adobe_ one story in height and
nearly a hundred feet in length, its roof covered with asphaltum mingled
with sand--like all the houses in Los Angelos, a spring of this material
existing a little way from the town. After waiting a few moments for an
answer to his summons, made with the huge brass knocker, an Indian
servant made his appearance, and ushered him to an elegantly furnished
room, with several guitars lying about as if recently in use. The lordly
owner of the ranche soon appeared in morning gown and slippers, the
picture of a well to do old time gentleman, with an air evincing an
acquaintance with the world of letters and of art, such as only travel
can produce.
He asked the name of his stranger guest, as Carson approaching addressed
him, and at once commenced a conversation in English, saying with a look
of satisfied pleasure, "I address you in your native tongue, which I
presume is agreeable, though you speak very good Spanish;" to which
Carson, much more surprised to hear his native language so fluently
spoken, than his host was to be addressed in Spanish, replied,
"It is certainly agreeable to find you can give me the information
which, as an American, I seek, in the language my mother taught me," and
at once they were on terms of easy familiarity.
As it was early morning, his host asked Carson to take a cup of coffee
with him, and conducting him to the breakfast room, presented him to
the family--a wife and several grown sons and daughters.
Carson enjoyed the social part of this treat, more than the tempting
viands with which the board was loaded. Though Spanish was the language
most used by the family, all spoke English, and a young man from
Massachusetts was with them as a tutor to some of the younger children.
Breakfast over, the host invited him to visit the vineyard, which he
said was hardly in condition to be exhibited, as the picking had
commenced two weeks before. He said his yard, of a thousand varas,
yielded him more grapes than he could manage to dispose of, though last
year he had made several butts of wine, and dried five thousand pounds
of raisins. The vines were in the form of little trees, so closely had
they been trimmed, and were still loaded with the purple clusters.
Tasting them, Carson justly remarked that he had never eaten so good a
grape.
"No," said his host, "I think not; neither have I, though I have
traveled through Europe. The valley of the Rhine, nor of the Tagus,
produces anywhere a grape like ours. I think that the Los Angelos grape
is fit food indeed for angels--is quite equal to the grapes of
Eshcol--you remember the heavy clusters that were found there, so that
two men carried one between them on a pole resting upon their shoulders.
See that now," and he drew Carson to a vine whose trunk was six inches
through, and yet it needed a prop to sustain the weight of the two
clusters of grapes it bore.
A species of the cactus, called the prickly pear, enclosed the vineyard,
and this really bore pears, or a fruit of light orange color, in the
form of a pear, but covered with a down of prickles. The Indian boy
brought a towel, and wiping the fruit until it shone, gave to Carson to
taste. It was sweetish, juicy, and rich, but with less of flavor than a
pear. Beyond the vineyard were groves of fig and orange trees. The figs
were hardly ripe, being the third crop of the season, while the oranges
were nearly fit for picking. The host said that his oranges were better
than usual this season, but he did not know what he should do with them.
He was in the habit of shipping them to Santa Barbara and Monterey, and
thence taking some to San Jose; but latterly oranges had been brought to
Monterey from the Sandwich islands by ships in the service of the Hudson
Bay Company, returning from the China trade to the mouth of the
Columbia, which, arriving before his were ripe, he found the fruit
market forestalled.
"This is the finest country the sun shines upon," said he, "and we can
live luxuriously upon just what will grow on our own farms; but we
cannot get rich. Our cattle will only bring the value of the hides; our
horses are of little value, for there are plenty running wild which good
huntsmen can take with the lasso; and, as for fruit, from which I had
hoped to realize something, the market is cut off by Yankee competition.
I think we shall have the Americans with us before many years, and for
my part I hope we shall. The idea of Californians generally, as well as
of other Mexicans, that they are too shrewd for them, is true enough;
but certainly there is plenty of room for a large population, and I
should prefer that the race that has most enterprise, should come and
cultivate the country with us."
Carson's youth commanded him to listen, rather than to advance his own
sentiments; but he expressed his pleasure at hearing his host compliment
the Americans, and said in reply, "I have not been an extensive
traveler, and have chosen the life of a mountaineer, for a time
certainly; but since I came to California, I am half inclined to decide
to make this my home when I get tired of trapping. I like the hunt, and
have found game exceedingly plenty here, but there is no buffalo, and I
want that. Give me buffalo, and I would settle in California."
He described to his host a buffalo hunt in which he engaged with the
Sioux Indians, before he left his father's home, at fifteen years of
age, and another later, since he came into the mountains. He had hunted
buffalo every year since he was twelve years old.
The Don was charmed with the earnestness and the frankness, and manifest
integrity of the youth, and turning his glance upon him, with the
slightly quizzical expression the face a Spaniard so readily assumes, he
inquired how many buffalo he had ever killed.
"Not so many as I have deer, because I was always in a deer country; but
in the eight years since I commenced going in the buffalo ranges, I must
have killed five hundred. The hunter does not kill without he wishes to
use. I was often permitted to take a shot at the animals before I was
able to help in dressing them."
But Carson felt it might seem like boasting, for him to tell his own
exploits, and changing the theme, remarked,
"Your horses would make excellent buffalo hunters, with the proper
training, and I have some at camp that I intend shall see buffalo. But
why do you not deal gently with them when they are first caught, and
keep the fire they have in the herd? Pardon me, but I think in taming
your horses, you break their spirits."
"My tutor has said the same, and I too have thought so in regard to the
Mexican style of training our horses. We mount one just caught from the
drove, and ride him till he becomes gentle from exhaustion. The French
do not train horses in that way, nor the English; I have not been in the
United States. Our custom is brought from Spain; and it answers well
enough with us, where our horses go in droves, and when one is used up,
we turn him out and take up another; but when we take this animal again,
he is just as wild as at the first; we cannot afford to spend time on
breaking him when it must be done over again directly."
And so the two hours, which Carson had allotted for his visit, passed in
easy chat, and when he took his leave, his host expressed his thanks
for his visit, and promised to return it at the camp.
Carson did not again see his courteous host, for early on the following
morning, Mr. Young found it necessary that he should get his men away
from Los Angelos as speedily as possible. They had been indulging to
excess in bad liquors, and having none of the best feelings towards the
Mexicans, many quarrels, some ending in bloodshed, had ensued.
He therefore despatched Carson ahead with a few men, promising to follow
and overtake him at the earliest moment, and waiting another day, he
managed to get his followers in a tolerably sober condition, and
succeeded, though not without much trouble, in getting away without the
loss of a man, though the Mexicans were desperately enraged at the death
of one of their townsmen, who had been killed in a chance fray. In three
days he overtook Carson, and the party, once more reunited, advanced
rapidly towards the Colorado River, his men working with a heartiness
and cheerfulness, resulting from a consciousness of their misconduct at
Los Angelos, which, but for the prudent discretion of Young and Carson,
might have resulted disastrously to all concerned.
In nine days they were ready to commence trapping on the Colorado, and
in a short time added here to the large stock of furs they had brought
from California.
Here while left in charge of the camp, with only a few men, Carson found
himself suddenly confronted by several hundred Indians. They entered the
camp with the utmost assurance, and acted as though they felt the power
of their numbers. Carson at once suspected that all was not right, and
attempting to talk with them, he soon discovered that, with all their
_sang froid_, each of them carried his weapons concealed beneath his
garments, and immediately ordered them out of camp. Seeing the small
number of the white men, the Indians were not inclined to obey, but
chose to wait their time and do as they pleased, as they were accustomed
to do with the Mexicans. They soon learned that they were dealing with
men of different mettle, for Carson was a man not to be trifled with.
[Illustration: CARSON GOES AHEAD WITH THE PARTY.]
His men stood around him, each with his rifle resting in the hollow of
the arm, ready to be dropped to deadly aim on the sign from their young
commander. Carson addressed the old chief in Spanish, (for he had
betrayed his knowledge of that language,) and warned him that though
they were few, they were determined to sell their lives dearly. The
Indians awed, it would seem, by the bold and defiant language of Carson,
and finding that any plunder they might acquire, would be purchased at a
heavy sacrifice, sullenly withdrew, and left the party to pursue their
journey unmolested.
Any appearance of fear would have cost the lives of Carson and probably
of the whole party, but the Indian warriors were too chary of their
lives to rush into death's door unprovoked, even for the sake of the
rich plunder they might hope to secure. Carson's cool bravery saved the
trappers and all their effects; and this first command in an Indian
engagement is but a picture of his conduct in a hundred others, when the
battles were with weapons other than the tongue. The intention of the
Indians had been to drive away the animals, first causing a stampede,
when they would become lawful plunder, but they dared not undertake it.
The wily craftiness of the Indians induced the necessity for constant
vigilance against them, and in the school this youth had been in all his
life, he had shown himself an apt scholar.