HO FOR CHIHUAHUA!
So it was that for the time being I found myself received into the
society of the most powerful official of the North Province with a favor
as cloudless and warm as the blue sky above his chief town. Yet, on the
other hand, having been requested by His Excellency to prescribe for the
dropsy with which he was afflicted, I laid myself open to trouble by
giving a treatment different from that previously prescribed by the monk
who was his regular physician. The result was soon evident in the
poisoning of His Excellency's mind against the heretic.
But in the few hours of practical liberty which intervened, I had the
good fortune to meet my fellow-countryman, James Pursley. He proved to
be one of our typical gaunt, long-legged Kentuckians, with a bearded
face as resolute and formidable as that of our fighting sergeant Meek.
Still better proof of his daring character lay in the fact that he had
been wandering on the prairies for two years or more before he fell in
with the great company of Comanches and Kyoways whose encampment we had
found on the headwaters of the Platte, and with whom he had come south
to the vicinity of the Spanish settlements. Venturing into Santa Fe, he
had been fairly well received by the Spanish, and though forbidden to
leave certain bounds, was otherwise free, and doing quite well as a
carpenter.
As my attendant corporal knew nothing else than Spanish, Pursley and I
were able to talk with the utmost freedom. When, in the midst of the
account of his truly remarkable adventures, he told how he had found
gold on the upper reaches of the Platte, westerly of the Grand Peak, and
how he had refused to divulge the place to the Spaniards because it
might lie within the bounds of Louisiana Territory, I became so
convinced of his stanch loyalty and patriotism that I confided in him
the circumstances of our party.
He was immensely interested, but shook his head over my suggestion that
he should attempt to join the expedition. He did not see how this could
be of any benefit either to the party or to himself, especially, he
explained, as Allencaster had already sent out well-mounted spies to
find and report on the party of hunters with whom I claimed
companionship. He, Pursley, could not hope to overtake these expert
horsemen; while, on the other hand, if caught trying to escape, he would
surely be jailed in the terrible _calabozo_.
In the midst of our argument of the question, I was summoned into the
presence of the Governor. He met me with a frown, and showed how closely
I had been watched by peremptorily ordering me to hold no further
communication with Pursley. My attempt at a French shrug flung him into
a passion, in which he decreed my exile to San Fernandez, a tiny village
four days south of Santa Fe, there to remain in the charge of Lieutenant
Malgares until word should come from Chihuahua.
Finding His Excellency thus once more harshly disposed, I was not
altogether reluctant at being banished, more especially as my exile was
in the direction I wished to travel. Nor did I regret the change when I
came to San Fernandez and made the acquaintance of Lieutenant Don
Faciendo Malgares.
He was, I soon learned, the son of one of the royal judges of the
Kingdom of New Spain, and immensely wealthy. But neither his birth nor
his wealth prevented him from being the most courteous gentleman I have
ever met. That he was a daring and dashing officer was evident from his
modest account of that remarkable excursion through the heart of the
Comanche country and north to the Pawnees.
The question of his expedition chanced to come up within a week after my
arrival, and having already gauged his gallant character, I felt free to
rally him upon his invasion of our domain.
"_Nom de Dieu!_" I mocked, as he concluded by telling how his party had
returned southward from the Arkansas, along the outer face of the front
range of mountains, and into Santa Fe through an easy pass eastward of
that town. "_Nom de Dieu!_ you invade territory indisputably ours with a
force little short of a regiment; yet when I would repay the
compliment,--one lone man, lost in the Western wilds, your righteous
Governor has a mind to garrotte me!"
"Not he, senor," replied Malgares. "Rest assured he will leave that to
the decision of the Governor-General."
"He will send me to Chihuahua!" I exclaimed.
"I fear as much, senor. There can be little doubt that General Salcedo
will order you before him."
"_Quien sabe?_" I muttered, affecting a doleful tone. My fear had been
that I might be sent the other way. A sudden thought brought my hand to
my bosom. "_Perdone_, senor lieutenant, if I seem impertinent, but is it
usual for Spanish officers to present savages with banners embroidered
by the ladies?"
He stared at me blankly. "Embroidered banners?"
"I chanced to visit that Pawnee town some three weeks after yourself.
Examining the flag you left, I observed upon its lower corner--"
"Ah!" he interrupted, "I comprehend. The flag from Senorita Vallois. But
I assure you, Senor Robinson, it was the lady's own whim. She requested
me to fly her banner at the point where I should make nearest approach
to your settlements."
"Ah!" I exclaimed, in turn, masking my delight with difficulty. "So your
Spanish senoritas still send out their knights errant bearing their
colors."
"True," he replied. "Yet you mistake in part. It was not Senora Malgares
who gave me the banner in question, but her friend, Senorita Vallois."
"Vallois?" I repeated;--"Vallois? That is a French name."
"No less is it Spanish, senor; though it is in point that my friend Don
Pedro claims descent from French royalty. One can well believe the claim
in the presence of his niece."
"My word to that!" I cried. "She's the most beautiful lady under
heaven!"
"_Santisima Virgen!_" he exclaimed. "You know her?"
"I had the honor of meeting her in my own country."
By a flash of intuition he divined all on the instant. "_Dios!_" he
murmured, and he swept me a wide bow. "A love that could draw a man
across that vast desolation of desert and sierra! Most unjust the fate
that would not requite the deed!"
"You have seen her. Do you wonder that I should have made the venture?"
"Less than a year has passed since I won my own lady," he said. "The
Virgin grant that I may be the one to escort you to Chihuahua! I have
not seen my senora since I marched north, last year."
When a Spaniard opens his heart to you, count on it you have found a
friend. I nodded understandingly.
"Ah, my Dolores! my _nina_!" he sighed.
"But she is yours; you have already won her; while I--!"
He nodded, in turn. "My Dolores writes that every bachelor of Chihuahua,
from the greatest _haciendados_ to the youngest sub-lieutenants, are
suitors for the hand of Senorita Alisanda. Yet take heart. At the last
writing, not even Medina had won recognition from her."
"Medina?" I inquired, full of jealous inquietude.
"Salcedo's favorite aide-de-camp,--a braggadocio fellow."
"Could you not take it upon yourself to hurry me south at once?" I
urged.
"_Poder de Dios!_ I, a soldier, to march without orders? But be assured.
The order will come before many weeks. In the meantime we should
prepare." He looked me over smilingly. "It will never do for you to come
before your lady in this savage costume. Great is my regret that in this
remote village we cannot find you garments after the European mode, yet
there are worse attires than that of a Spanish country gentleman--a
_caballero rusticano_."
Notwithstanding my protests against imposing upon his generosity, he
insisted upon at once conducting me to a man qualified to tailor the
Spanish modes. Within the next fortnight I was completely fitted out _a
la Espanola_ from top to toe. But although it was the first time I had
ever worn the costume, I cannot say that in the company of similarly
attired Spaniards I felt ill at ease in these garments. In part at least
they were well adapted to the needs of this hot, arid climate,
particularly the broad-brimmed shade-hat, or sombrero. Silk stockings
and Spanish breeches, buttoned down the outer seams and open below the
knees, took the place of my tattered pantaloons and buffalo leggings.
For belt I wore a sash of scarlet silk, with ends dangling like a lady's
drape. Above it was a waistcoat as large as the jacket was short, while
the circular cloak over all gave me quite the air of an hidalgo. My one
difficulty was with the stiff jack-boots upon which jangled my
barbarously gaffed spurs. After months of freedom in pliant moccasins,
my feet found this hard confinement barely endurable even when I was
mounted.
In return for the numberless courtesies of Malgares, I was able to make
part payment by practising gratis among the people. It was, at the same
time, a most interesting experience to come into intimate contact with
the population, from the _gachupines_, or Spaniards of Old Spain, and
the native-born Spaniards, whom we call creoles, to the far more
numerous _mestizos_, or mixed-bloods, and their half-brothers, the
pueblo, or tame Indians.
One day I had gone up to see a patient at Atrisco, a little village next
below Albuquerque. It was, as I remember, the seventh of March, exactly
a month after I had left my comrades at the stockade in the valley. The
Commandant, at whose house I was staying, had borrowed for me a Spanish
grammar from Father Ambrosio, and I was deep in the verbs, when my host
stepped into the room, with a bow and a sonorous introduction:
"_Perdone, hermano!_ Present _usted_ Senor el Capitan Mun-go-meri-paike,
your compatriot."
I started up, and found myself confronting--Pike!
He stared back at me, half in doubt that it could be I, so vast was the
change in my appearance and health.
"John!" he exclaimed. "It cannot be!"
"Yet it is," I replied, aglow with delight.
There could be no mistaking him, if only that he still wore his scarlet
fur-lined cap and blanket cloak,--though much of his dress was new, and
his face presented far other than the ghastly, emaciated aspect it had
worn at our parting.
But as I reached out to clasp his hand, he suddenly recalled our
agreement not to recognize one another, and drew back with feigned
hauteur. "Who are you, sir? I do not know you."
"'T is of no use, Montgomery!" I cried. "I cannot hide my friendship. I
should call out to you though they had the garrotte at my neck. What is
more, the secret is out. I have already confessed my connection with the
expedition to Lieutenant Malgares, who, though a Spaniard, has proved
himself a true friend. I could no longer endure the thought of
concealment from him. It has not cost me his friendship; and I am
prepared to risk the worst his superiors can inflict upon me."
"No, no, John!" he protested. "We shall all come through safely, and you
shall win your lady."
"Ah! Alisanda! My thanks for the good wish. But you?" I demanded. "Are
you and the men also prisoners in the hands of that capricious
Governor?"
"Prisoners!" he repeated, dropping his hand on his sword-hilt. "Does
this look like it? No! They lured us into Santa Fe with false promises.
But my men still carry their guns and ammunition. Let the tyrants so
much as raise a finger against us, and we will flee to their enemies the
Apaches, and lead the savages against their settlements!"
"We could do it!" I cried. "Yet first--"
"First you would go to Chihuahua; and so would I," he assented, his blue
eyes twinkling. "I made a loud protest when this over-wise Governor said
it was necessary for me to go south. But we are going as 'guests under
constraint'--not as prisoners, please note, John. The addle-pated don
did not know enough to send us packing the shortest way out of the
country, to the Red River,--which, it seems, lies far to the eastward,
in the Comanche nation. No! he must needs march us down through the
heart of the Northern Provinces. Could we ask more?"
"Not if Salcedo sets you free."
"Sets me free? No less yourself, John!"
I shook my head dubiously. But at the moment there entered a Captain
D'Almansa, whom I had met at Santa Fe, and who, I now learned, was
conducting down the Lieutenant and his men to place them under the
escort of Malgares. When Pike explained to him that I had been a member
of the expedition, the old captain smiled knowingly. Few among the
Spaniards had doubted my connection with the mad _Americanos_ after the
party was brought in.
We left D'Almansa in the house, seated over a bottle of ardent spirits
with my host, and went out to where the six privates who had come with
the Lieutenant from the stockade were in waiting. I was rejoiced to see
that, though still for the most part clad in their tatters, their
rounding cheeks showed the welcome effects of Spanish hospitality, and
that the ones worst frosted now hardly limped in their gait. Not one of
them had been required to walk a mile since leaving the fort, horses
having been provided them from the first.
It was no less affecting than amusing to see the manner in which,
obedient to orders, they stared at me with an air of stolid indifference
even when I came up to them with their Lieutenant. But the moment he had
explained that all was discovered, they crowded about me with
exclamations of joy. It was truly a happy meeting for us all, despite
the uncertainty of what might befall us in the hands of the tyrannical
Spanish authorities.
As soon as I had sketched my adventures, Pike, in turn, told theirs.
"For several days after you left," he began, "I spent the time in
hunting, reading, and exploring the valley around the fort. But a
fortnight ago, while out with Brown, we fell in with a dragoon and an
Indian of the militia, who, after telling us of your arrival at Santa
Fe, insisted upon following us to the fort. In the morning, after we had
made them a few gifts, they started back to Santa Fe, from which place
they had been sent out to spy upon us."
"True!" I broke in. "Allencaster must have suspected from the first that
my party of hunters was no less than the American expedition. I have
learned that Senor Lisa sent word from St. Louis of the expedition's
plans, to the Spanish authorities in Texas. All the Northern Provinces
have been on the lookout for us for months, and Malgares has told me
that the real purpose of his great expedition was either to capture us
or to turn us back."
"That I have myself learned," replied Pike. "Well, they have us now. May
they have joy of their find! But to return. The same day that the spies
left, Jackson and his party came in with Menaugh. But poor Sparks and
Dougherty, alas! neither had been able to take a dozen steps, and the
others could not bear them through those deep drifts."
"Good God!" I cried. "They left their comrades again, in that terrible
valley, famished, crippled, sick! Had I but gone--!"
"No, John, they are not famished, nor are they sick. Jackson found them
well nourished. The gangrene had not spread. They will recover. You
yourself said they would recover if the disease did not spread in this
time. Jackson restocked them with meat, and within three days after his
return Meek and Miller volunteered for a second rescue-party. As their
orders were to go first for Baroney and Smith and the horses, there can
be no doubt that this time our poor lads will be brought in."
"Then they are not at the fort?" I asked.
"I cannot say. They had not yet come in when the Spanish dragoons came
to lure us away. But you know the obstinacy and combativeness of Meek.
_He_ will bring them in. Yes, by now they must be over the mountains and
on their way to Santa Fe, guided by the Spaniards left at the fort for
that purpose. Allencaster has promised to send them after us as soon as
they can march. By the way, he has complimented you with the return of
your rifle and pistols. As I positively refused to be disarmed, the
diplomatic supposition is that we need our weapons to provide against
attacks of the Apaches."
"Your papers?" I inquired, "all those invaluable charts and journals?"
He gave me a rueful look. "The enemy have them trapped in my little
paper trunk, most of them. When we first came into Santa Fe all the more
valuable ones were concealed in the clothes of these lads." He shook his
head sadly at the six privates. "But the over-hospitable ladies plied
them so freely with wine and ardent spirits that I feared some of the
papers might be lost during their tipsy antics. So I returned to the
trunk all except your copy of my courses. Immediately afterwards the
trunk was seized, and is now in the charge of our escort."
"They may be returned," I argued.
He shook his head.
"You say they lured you into Santa Fe?"
"Upon the report of his spies, Allencaster sent out a force of a hundred
men, under pretence that the Yutah Indians were about to attack us.
They were extremely courteous, and invited me to come into Santa Fe,
stating that the Governor wished to know our reasons for entering his
territories. When I had expressed our strategic supposition that we were
on the Red River, and they had explained that these were the waters of
the Rio del Norte, I at once hauled down our flag and agreed to
accompany them.
"As with yourself, Allencaster was at first exceedingly haughty to me.
But after I had expressed my opinion of their invasion of our
territories, and stated that I had come in merely to be directed how to
find the Red River, that my party might follow it down to Natchitoches,
he mellowed exceedingly. I believe the old fox thought he was playing me
a sly trick in thus sending us south through the heart of his country."
"He will be hoist by his own petard!" I cried. "Papers or no papers,
Salcedo is bound to free you at least, and you have a fine memory. My
fate will not affect the splendid advantages which will accrue to our
country from this blunder of the dons."
"Your fate?" he demanded.
"I am now a spy confessed. But enough of that when we reach Chihuahua!
Until then we shall have no cause for complaint. We go under the escort
of Malgares, than whom there is no truer gentleman under the sky."
Pike shook his head doubtfully.
But the next day I had the great pleasure of introducing him to
Malgares, who promptly talked himself into the Lieutenant's good
graces, and entertained us that evening by ordering a _fandango_ to be
danced in our honor by the prettiest girls of the vicinity.
Of our southward journey, which we began on the ninth of March, I will
mention only that the first stage alone carried us some three hundred
and fifty miles down the valley of the Rio del Norte, to El Paso. The
most prominent features of this trip were a notorious arid desert called
the Jornada del Muerto, or Journey of the Dead Man, which we avoided by
a long detour, and two ranges of mountains to the eastward of the
river,--the glittering, snow-clad Sierra Blanca and the Sierra de los
Organos,--in whose fastnesses lurk the murderous Apaches, said by
Spaniards to be the most terrible of all Indians.
The second day south of El Paso we had to toil across a region of
shifting sand hills similar to those at the west end of our pass through
the Sangre de Cristo. The stop that evening was made at the Presidio of
Carrazal, where, for the first time since our meetings with Governor
Allencaster, we were received without the effusive hospitality to which
we had become accustomed. When Malgares introduced us to the Commandant,
the latter bowed with utmost coolness, and muttered in Spanish an
ungracious statement to the effect that Malgares was welcome to his
quarters, but that _los hereticos_ could lodge themselves, together with
their privates of infantry, in the common hovel provided for
travellers.
Malgares bowed his grandest. "_Perdone_, senor!" he replied. "I could
not bring myself to trouble your hospitality. What is good enough for my
friends is good enough for me."
Such was Malgares's stateliness of manner that the Commandant, although
his superior officer, was bowing in most apologetic fashion before our
friend had ceased speaking.
"_Perdone, hermano!_" he murmured. "I erred most deplorably in imagining
that _los senores Americanos_ came as persons under constraint. _Con
permiso_, I hasten to rectify my error by urging them to honor my humble
abode with their presence."
"I fear that the Senor Commandant will have to excuse _los Americanos_,"
I said.
"The sky is ever a welcome roof to us," added Pike, no less offended
than myself.
"But that is impossible, senores!" urged the Commandant, with growing
concern. He turned appealingly to Malgares--"Pray persuade them, Don
Faciendo! Should they refuse my hospitality I could never forgive
myself!"
"From the first our countrymen have given them the warmest of welcomes,"
remarked Malgares, his chin still high.
"_Por Dios!_ Do I deny it? Yet consider, I have but now received the
gazette from the City of Mexico."
"The gazette?" inquired Malgares, unbending.
"With the account of the terrible Colonel Burr."
"Senor, we will be pleased to accept your hospitality," said Pike.
Immediately there was a general exchange of amicable bows, and the
Commandant conducted us to his quarters. I could see that Malgares was
hardly less eager than Pike and myself to hear the news about Burr. But
diplomacy, no less than etiquette, compelled us to repress our burning
curiosity until our host had exemplified his hospitality with a light
evening meal. As we rose from the table, he remarked that we might
better enjoy our _cigarros_ under the starlight, on the _azotea_.
"_Perdone, amigo_," replied Malgares, suavely. "You spoke of the
gazette. I would hardly venture to say how old was the last gazette
which I saw at Santa Fe."
"_Con permiso_, senores," said the Commandant, bowing to Pike and
myself.
At his command the attendant fetched the gazette, which he took into his
own hands and tendered to us, with a polite bow. When we shook our heads
over the Spanish text, he waved us back to our seats, and proceeded to
translate into French a most extraordinary mess of wild and
contradictory rumors regarding Aaron Burr.
The redoubtable Colonel had descended the Ohio with an immense army; he
had invaded the Province of Texas; he was marching upon Santa Fe; he had
captured New Orleans; he was operating against Pensacola, with a view to
the conquest of the Floridas; he had joined forces with the British
fleet and had sailed to invest Vera Cruz; he was fighting the Eastern
_Americanos_; no! the atheist Jacobin Jefferson had sent a second army
to help him to conquer New Spain. Only the firm stand of the honest and
most upright _Americano_ Commander-in-Chief, General Wilkinson, had
prevented _los hereticos_ from breaking their sacred pledge by crossing
the Sabine River into the disputed territory. Risking the anger of the
hypocritical Jefferson, the brave Wilkinson had met the treacherous and
ferocious Burr in a terrific battle; had defeated the desperadoes and
either slain or captured the would-be conqueror of the domains of His
Most Catholic Majesty, King Ferdinand.
So the account ran--a bushel of chaff heaped about a few scant grains of
fact. Yet even out of these garbled and fantastic details of an
evidently panic-stricken Spanish scribe, we could extract at least an
inkling of the truth. There could be no doubt that Colonel Burr had
actually embarked upon one or more of his venturesome enterprises, and
that there had ensued more or less public agitation, if not an armed
conflict.
To my wider knowledge of the Colonel's schemes many things were clear
which puzzled and bewildered my friend, and I was not altogether
surprised to see by Malgares's look that he understood the situation
nearly as well as myself. When, however, at the first opportunity, I
sought to obtain an intimation that he had been a sharer in the Mexican
end of the great project, he avoided the inquiry with his usual tactful
reserve.
For my own part, I concluded that my worst suspicions regarding the
treasonable intentions of Colonel Burr were all too true. Evidently
relying upon Wilkinson to force hostilities on the Texas border, he had
planned to sweep down the Ohio and the Mississippi, with the rallying
cry of "War with Spain!" to bring the frontiersmen flocking after him in
a vast army. With all the loyal-hearted marching to the conquest of
Mexico under Wilkinson and Jackson, it would then have been a simple
matter to seize New Orleans, declare a separation of the West from the
East, and appeal to the States and Territories west of the Alleghanies
to join in creating an empire which should extend westward to the far
distant Pacific and south to remote Panama.
That the West was, and for years had been, far too loyal to listen to
the traitorous proposal, was not the question. The point was, that, had
Wilkinson supported the arch-plotter so far as the seizure of New
Orleans, the result would have been a bloody internecine war among our
people, with France and England alike gloating upon our dissensions, and
waiting, eager-fingered, to tear us asunder at the first opportunity.
So it was that, taking matters at their face value in so far as I could
conjecture the facts, I gladly gave General Wilkinson credit for the
part he seemed to have played in checkmating the alleged invasion of the
lower Mississippi by Burr.
The manner in which our host watched our faces as he read the gazette to
us, explained the discourtesy of his first greeting. It was evident that
he regarded our expedition as a reconnoitring party sent out by the
hated _Americanos_ to explore a road for the expected army of invasion.
For my part, I firmly believe it was in fact so intended by General
Wilkinson, who had been known to boast that he could take all New Mexico
in a single campaign. But whether or not he had intended to use our
discoveries to further the treasonable projects of Burr, I will leave to
the verdict of History. At the time, it was enough for me that he had
not joined forces with Burr, but, on the contrary, it would seem had
averted the possibility of the dashing Colonel's capture of New
Orleans.