OUR HUNTING EXPEDITION.
If not quite so exuberant as the welcome that awaited us on our arrival in
the valley, Archie's was a right hearty one, and assuredly left our cousin
nothing to complain of.
He had come by diligence from Villa Mercedes, accomplishing the journey,
therefore, in a few days, which had occupied us in our caravan about as
many weeks.
We were delighted to see him looking so well. Why, he had even already
commenced to get brown, and was altogether hardy and hearty and manlike.
We were old _estancieros_, however, and it gave us unalloyed delight to
show him round our place and put him up to all the outs and ins of a
settler's life.
Dugald even took him away to the hills with him, and the two of them did
not get home until dinner was on the table.
Archie, however, although not without plenty of pluck and willingness to
develop into an _estanciero_ pure and simple, had not the stamina my
brothers and I possessed, but this only made us all the more kind to him.
In time, we told him, he would be quite as strong and wiry as any of us.
'There is one thing I don't think I shall ever be able to get over,' said
Archie one day. It may be observed that he did not now talk with the
London drawl; he had left both his cockney tongue and his tall hat at
home.
'What is it you do not think you will ever get over, Arch?' I asked.
'Why, the abominable creepies,' he answered, looking almost miserable.
'Why,' he continued, 'it isn't so much that I mind being bitten by
mosquitoes--of which it seems you have brutes that fly by day, and gangs
that go on regular duty at night--but it is the other abominations that
make my blood run positively cold. Now your cockroaches are all very well
down in the coal-cellar, and centipedes are interesting creatures in glass
cases with pins stuck through them; but to find cockroaches in your boots
and centipedes in your bed is rather too much of a good thing.'
'Well,' said Dugald, laughing, 'you'll get used to even that. I don't
really mind now what bites me or what crawls over me. Besides, you know
all those creepie-creepies, as you call them, afford one so excellent an
opportunity of studying natural history from the life.'
'Oh, bother such life, Dugald! My dear cousin, I would rather remain in
blissful ignorance of natural history all my life than have even an earwig
reposing under my pillow. Besides, I notice that even your Yahoo
servants--'
'I beg your pardon, cousin; Gaucho, not Yahoo.'
'Well, well, Gaucho servants shudder, and even run from our common bedroom
creepies.'
'Oh! they are nothing at all to go by, Archie. They think because a thing
is not very pretty it is bound to be venomous.'
'But does not the bite of a centipede mean death?'
'Oh dear no. It isn't half as bad as London vermin.'
'Then there are scorpions. Do they kill you? Is not their bite highly
dangerous?'
'Not so bad as a bee's sting.'
'Then there are so many flying beetles.'
'Beauties, Archie, beauties. Why, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like some of these.'
'Perhaps not. But then, Solomon or not Solomon, how am I to know which
sting and which don't?'
'_Experientia docet_, Archie.'
Archie shuddered.
'Again, there are spiders. Oh, they do frighten me. They're as big as
lobsters. Ugh!'
'Well, they won't hurt. They help to catch the other things!'
'Yes, and that's just the worst of it. First a lot of creepies come in to
suck your blood and inject poison into your veins, to say nothing of half
scaring a fellow to death; and then a whole lot of flying creepies, much
worse than the former, come in to hunt them up; and bats come next, to say
nothing of lizards; and what with the buzzing and singing and hopping and
flapping and beating and thumping, poor _me_ has to lie awake half the
night, falling asleep towards morning to dream I'm in purgatory.'
'Poor _you_ indeed!' said Dugald.
'You have told me, too, I must sleep in the dark, but I want to know what
is the good of that when about one half of those flying creepies carry a
lamp each, and some of them two. Only the night before last I awoke in a
fright. I had been dreaming about the great sea-serpent, and the first
thing I saw was a huge creature about as long as a yard stick wriggling
along my mosquito curtains.'
'Ah! How could you see it in the dark?'
'Why, the beggar carried two lamps ahead of him, and he had a smaller chap
with a light. Ugh!'
'These were some good specimens of the _Lampyridae_, no doubt.'
'Well, perhaps; but having such a nice long name doesn't make them a bit
less hideous to me. Then in the morning when I looked into the glass I
didn't know myself from Adam. I had a black eye that some bug or other
had given me--I dare say he also had a nice long name. I had a lump on my
brow as large as a Spanish onion, and my nose was swollen and as big as a
bladder of lard. From top to toe I was covered with hard knots, as if I'd
been to Donnybrook Fair, and what with aching and itching it would have
been a comfort to me to have jumped out of my skin.'
'Was that all?' I said, laughing.
'Not quite. I went to take up a book to fling at a monster spider in the
corner, and put my hand on a scorpion. I cracked him and crushed the
spider, and went to have my bath, only to find I had to fish out about
twenty long-named indescribables that had committed suicide during the
night. Other creepies had been drowned in the ewer. I found earwigs in my
towels, grasshoppers in my clothes, and wicked-looking little beetles even
in my hairbrushes. This may be a land flowing with milk and honey and all
the rest of it, Murdoch, but it is also a land crawling with
creepie-creepies.'
'Well, anyhow,' said Dugald, 'here comes your mule. Mount and have a ride,
and we'll forget everything but the pleasures of the chase. Come, I think
I know where there is a jaguar--an immense great brute. I saw him killing
geese not three days ago.'
'Oh, that will be grand!' cried Archie, now all excitement.
And five minutes afterwards Dugald and he were off to the hills.
But in two days more we would be off to the hills in earnest.
For this tour we would not of our own free-will have made half the
preparations Moncrieff insisted on, and perhaps would hardly have provided
ourselves with tents. However, we gave in to his arrangements in every
way, and certainly we had no cause to repent it.
The guide--he was to be called our _cacique_ for the time being--that
Moncrieff appointed had been a Gaucho malo, a pampas Cain. No one ever
knew half the crimes the fellow had committed, and I suppose he himself
had forgotten. But he was a reformed man and really a Christian, and it is
difficult to find such an anomaly among Gauchos. He knew the pampas well,
and the Andes too, and was far more at home in the wilds than at the
_estancia_. A man like this, Moncrieff told us, was worth ten times his
weight in gold.
And so it turned out.
* * * * *
The summer had well-nigh gone when our caravan at length left Moncrieff's
beautiful valley. The words 'caravan at length' in the last sentence may
be understood in two ways, either as regards space or time. Ours was no
caravan on wheels. Not a single wheeled waggon accompanied us, for we
should cross deserts, and pass through glens where there would be no road,
perhaps hardly even a bridle-path. So the word caravan is to be understood
in the Arab sense of the word. And it certainly was a lengthy one. For we
had a pack mule for every two men, including our five Gauchos.
Putting it in another way, there were five of us Europeans--Donald,
Dugald, Archie Bateman, Sandie Donaldson, and myself; each European had a
horse and a Gaucho servant, and each Gaucho had a mule.
Bombazo meant to have come; he said so to the very last, at all events,
but an unfortunate attack of toothache confined him to bed. Archie, who
had no very exalted idea of the little Spanish captain's courage, was rude
enough to tell us in his hearing that he was 'foxing.' I do not pretend to
understand what Archie meant, but I feel certain it was nothing very
complimentary to Bombazo's bravery.
'Dear laddies,' old Jenny had said, 'if you think you want onybody to darn
your hose on the road, I'll gang wi' ye mysel'. As for that feckless loon
Bombazo, the peer[13] body is best in bed.'
Our arms consisted of rifles, shot-guns, the bolas, and lasso. Each man
carried a revolver as well, and we had also abundance of fishing tackle.
Our tents were only three in all, but they were strong and waterproof, a
great consideration when traversing a country like this.
We were certainly prepared to rough it, but had the good sense to take
with us every contrivance which might add to our comfort, so long as it
was fairly portable.
Archie had one particular valise of his own that he declared contained
only a few nicknacks which no one ought to travel without. He would not
gratify us by even a peep inside, however, so for a time we had to be
content with guessing what the nicknacks were. Archie got pretty well
chaffed about his Gladstone bag, as he called it.
'You surely haven't got the tall hat in it,' said Dugald.
'Of course you haven't forgotten your nightcap,' said Donald.
'Nor your slippers, Archie?' I added.
'And a dressing-gown would be indispensable in the desert,' said Sandie
Donaldson.
Archie only smiled to himself, but kept his secret.
What a lovely morning it was when we set out! So blue was the sky, so
green the fields of waving lucerne, so dense the foliage and flowers and
hedgerows and trees, it really seemed that summer would last for many and
many a month to come.
We were all fresh and happy, and full of buoyant anticipation of pleasures
to come. Our very dogs went scampering on ahead, barking for very joy. Of
these we had quite a pack--three pure Scotch collies, two huge
bloodhound-mastiffs, and at least half a dozen animals belonging to our
Gauchos, which really were nondescripts but probably stood by greyhounds.
These dogs were on exceedingly good terms with themselves and with each
other--the collies jumping up to kiss the horses every minute by way of
encouragement, the mastiffs trotting steadily on ahead cheek-by-jowl, and
the hounds everywhere--everywhere at once, so it appeared.
Being all so fresh, we determined to make a thorough long day's journey of
it. So, as soon as we had left the glen entirely and disappeared among the
sand dunes, we let our horses have their heads, the _capataz_ Gaucho
riding on ahead on a splendid mule as strong as a stallion and as lithe as
a Scottish deerhound.
Not long before our start for the hunting grounds men had arrived from the
Chilian markets to purchase cattle. The greatest dainty to my mind they
had brought with them was a quantity of _Yerba mate_, as it is called. It
is the dried leaves of a species of Patagonian ilex, which is used in this
country as tea, and very delightful and soothing it is. This was to be our
drink during all our tour. More refreshing than tea, less exciting than
wine, it not only seems to calm the mind but to invigorate the body. Drunk
warm, with or without sugar, all feeling of tiredness passes away, and one
is disposed to look at the bright side of life, and that alone.
We camped the first night on high ground nearly forty miles from our own
_estancia_. It was a long day's journey in so rough a country, but we had
a difficulty earlier in the afternoon in finding water. Here, however, was
a stream as clear as crystal, that doubtless made its way from springs in
the _sierras_ that lay to the west of us at no very great distance. Behind
these jagged hills the sun was slowly setting when we erected our tents.
The ground chosen was at some little distance from the stream, and on the
bare gravel. The cacti that grew on two sides of us were of gigantic
height, and ribboned or edged with the most beautiful flowers. Our horses
and mules were hobbled and led to the stream, then turned on to the grass
which grew green and plentiful all along its banks.
A fire was quickly built and our great stewpan put on. We had already
killed our dinner in the shape of a small deer or fawn which had crossed
our path on the plains lower down. With biscuits, of which we had a
store, some curry, roots, which the Gauchos had found, and a handful or
two of rice, we soon had a dinner ready, the very flavour of which would
have been enough to make a dying man eat.
The dogs sat around us and around the Gauchos as we dined, and, it must be
allowed, behaved in a most mannerly way; only the collies and mastiffs
kept together. They must have felt their superiority to those mongrel
greyhounds, and desired to show it in as calm and dignified a manner as
possible.
After dinner sentries were set, one being mounted to watch the horses and
mules. We were in no great fear of their stampeding, but we had promised
Moncrieff to run as little risk of any kind as possible on this journey,
and therefore commenced even on this our first night to be as good as our
word.
The best Gauchos had been chosen for us, and every one of them could talk
English after a fashion, especially our bold but not handsome _capataz_,
or _cacique_ Yambo. About an hour after dinner the latter began serving
out the _mate_. This put us all in excellent humour and the best of
spirits. As we felt therefore as happy as one could wish to be, we were
not surprised when the _capataz_ proposed a little music.
'It is the pampas fashion, senor,' he said to me.
'Will you play and sing?' I said.
'Play and sing?' he replied, at once producing his guitar, which lay in a
bag not far off. '_Si_, senor, I will play and sing for you. If you bid
me, I will dance; every day and night I shall cook for you; when de
opportunity come I will fight for you. I am your servant, your slave, and
delighted to be so.'
'Thank you, my _capataz_; I have no doubt you are a very excellent
fellow.'
'Oh, senor, do not flatter yourself too mooch, too very mooch. It is not
for the sake of you young senors I care, but for the sake of the dear
master.'
'Sing, _capataz_,' I said, 'and talk after.'
To our surprise, not one but three guitars were handed out, and the songs
and melodies were very delightful to listen to.
Then our Sandie Donaldson, after handing his cup to be replenished, sang,
_Ye banks and braes_ with much feeling and in fine manly tenor. We all
joined in each second verse, while the guitars gave excellent
accompaniment. One song suggested another, and from singing to
conversational story-telling the transition was easy. To be sure, neither
my brothers nor I nor Archie had much to tell, but some of the experiences
of the Gauchos, and especially those of our _capataz_, were thrilling in
the extreme, and we never doubted their truth.
But now it was time for bed, and we returned to the tents and lit our
lamps.
Our beds were the hard ground, with a rug and guanaco robe, our saddles
turned upside down making as good a pillow as any one could wish.
We had now the satisfaction of knowing something concerning the contents
of that mysterious grip-sack of Archie's. So judge of our surprise when
this wonderful London cousin of ours first produced a large jar of what he
called mosquito cream, and proceeded to smear his face and hands with the
odorous compound.
'This cream,' he said, 'I bought at Buenos Ayres, and it is warranted to
keep all pampas creepies away, or anything with two wings or four, six
legs or sixty. Have a rub, Dugald?'
'Not I,' cried Dugald. 'Why, man, the smell is enough to kill bees.'
Archie proceeded with his preparations. Before enshrouding himself in his
guanaco mantle he drew on a huge waterproof canvas sack and fastened it
tightly round his chest. He next produced a hooped head-dress. I know no
other name for it.
'It is an invention of my own,' said Archie, proudly, 'and is, as you see,
composed of hoops of wire--'
'Like a lady's crinoline,' said Dugald.
'Well, yes, if you choose to call it so, and is covered with mosquito
muslin. This is how it goes on, and I'm sure it will form a perfect
protection.'
He then inserted his head into the wondrous muslin bladder, and the
appearance he now presented was comical in the extreme. His body in a
sack, his head in a white muslin bag, nothing human-looking about him
except his arms, that, encased in huge leather gloves, dangled from his
shoulders like an immense pair of flippers.
We three brothers looked at him just for a moment, then simultaneously
exploded into a perfect roar of laughter. Sandie Donaldson, who with the
_capataz_ occupied the next tent, came rushing in, then all the Gauchos
and even the dogs. The latter bolted barking when they saw the apparition,
but the rest joined the laughing chorus.
And the more we looked at Archie the more we laughed, till the very sand
dunes near us must have been shaken to their foundations by the
manifestation of our mirth.
'Laugh away, boys,' said our cousin. 'Laugh and grow fat. I don't care how
I look, so long as my dress and my cream keep the creepies away.'
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[13] Peer = poor.
[Illustration: Comical in the Extreme]