PREPARATIONS.
The period at which our story happens was a happy time for desperate
enterprises and filibustering expeditions.
In fact, the political commotions that had overthrown Europe some time
previously had brought to the surface, and set in motion, a great number
of those unprincipled men, whose sole object is to secure from the
revolutions that desolate their country very lucrative, if not very
honourable, positions, and for whom anarchy is the sole safety valve.
But, after the first convulsions inseparable from a revolution, when the
popular effervescence began gradually to cool down, and the overflowing
waters returned to their bed--in a word, when society, wearied of paltry
struggles sustained for no avowable motives, and merely kept up to
satisfy the disgraceful ambition of a few men of no value, understood
that the re-establishment of order was the sole path of salvation, all
those individuals who had for a season played a part more or less
important found themselves cast on the pavement of the towns without
resources; for, with that improvidence inherent in their natures,
squandering day by day the favours which blind fortune had lavished on
them, they had kept nothing for bad times, convinced as they were that
the state of things they had produced would last for ever.
For a few months they struggled, not courageously, but obstinately,
against adversity, seeking by every means to recapture the prey which
they had so foolishly allowed to slip from their grasp. But they were
soon compelled to allow that times had changed, that their hour was
past, and that the ground which had hitherto maintained them was sinking
hourly beneath their feet, and threatened to swallow them up.
Their position was becoming critical. It was impossible for them to
resume their humble and peaceful avocations, and return to that
nothingness from which a mad caprice of chance had drawn them. The idea
did not even occur to them. They had tasted luxury and honour; they
could not and would not work again: pride and sloth imperiously forbade
it.
Cincinnatus has never found an imitator in history, and that is the
reason why his memory has been so preciously kept up by all to the
present day. The men of whom we are speaking were far from being like
Cincinnatus, though they in so far resembled the Roman Dictator that
they claimed to govern nations.
What was to be done?
Fortunately Providence, whose ways are incomprehensible, watched over
them.
The discovery of the rich placers of California, the news of which had
been almost stifled under the blow of the terrible European political
commotions, suddenly returned to the surface, and in a short time
assumed a considerable extension. The most extravagant stories
circulated about the incalculable riches that lay almost on the ground
in the soil of the new Eldorado. Then all the vagabond imaginations
began to ferment. All eyes were fixed on America, and the birds of prey
that wanted a booty in Europe rushed with a loud cry of joy toward that
unknown land, where they fancied they should find in a few days all the
joys with which they had been gorged, and which they hoped this time to
satisfy.
Unfortunately, in California, as elsewhere, the first condition for
acquiring wealth is incessant, permanent, and regular labour.
On landing in America numerous poignant deceptions awaited the
adventurers. The mines, indeed, existed--they were rich; but the gold
they contained could only be extracted with great difficulty, great
fatigue, and, above all, great expense--three impossibilities which our
gold-seekers could not overcome.
Many perished either of want, or of a violent death through pot-house
quarrels, or through the change of climate, to which they had not the
time to grow accustomed. Those who survived, wan and ragged, displayed
their starving faces in all the bad places of San Francisco, ready to do
anything for the smallest sum of money that would lull their wolfish
appetite.
In the meanwhile the first adventurers had been succeeded by others, and
still they flocked in. The few, privileged by fortune, who returned to
Europe rich in a few months, had naturally aroused the cupidity of the
numberless pariahs of civilisation; and San Francisco, that country
blessed by Heaven, whose climate is so fine and soil so fertile,
threatened to become a vast and mournful cemetery.
At this time it happened that a few enterprising men, seeing their
illusions fading away, and perceiving that the gold they coveted so
ardently constantly fled before them while they were unable to catch it,
turned their glances in another direction, and, despairing of growing
rich in the mines, resolved to seize, sword and revolver in hand, those
riches which it was impossible for them to acquire otherwise; that is to
say, they resuscitated for their own behoof the filibustering
expeditions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Thus was a new path opened to emerge from the frightful wretchedness in
which they languished, and the adventurers eagerly entered upon it.
Filibustering enterprises sprang up on all sides with as much regularity
as if they had been perfectly respectable financial operations; and the
plethora of San Francisco began, to the great relief of the peaceful
population, to be diverted on the surrounding countries.
The count had, therefore, arrived at a propitious moment to put in
execution the plan he meditated. He belonged to one of the oldest and
noblest families in France. He enjoyed, and that justly, a spotless
reputation in California; moreover, he was very strict in the selection
of the men he enlisted; finally, he offered an honourable scope for
their ambition, which is very flattering to men who have nothing to
lose. Nothing more was needed to excite the emulation of all the
ragamuffins, and urge them to place themselves under his orders.
Among the adventurers were many really estimable persons, who in no way
merited the sad fate they were undergoing, and who, seduced by the
unknown, had been attracted to California by the fallacious promises of
European speculators, and had been the victims of the scoundrels who
induced them to emigrate. These men endured their sufferings nobly,
awaiting with the patience of well-tempered hearts the opportunity to
take their revenge and regain that position which a moment of mad
intoxication and credulous simplicity had made them forfeit.
The Count, with that infallible glance he possessed, and the knowledge
of mankind which lengthened misfortune had enabled him to acquire, had
picked out the best men from the crowd that daily invaded his house so
soon as his intention became known, and assured himself of the
co-operation of devoted comrades of tried courage, who, regarding the
count's enterprise as the sole means of emerging from their frightful
position, attached themselves to him with a firm resolve to do or die.
Hence we will assert here that of all the expeditions formed at that
period in California, the only really honourable one which contained the
elements of success was that led by Count Louis de Prébois Crancé.
We do not go beyond the mark when we say that the count was adored by
his comrades. These rude adventurers, so harshly tried by destiny, had
guessed, with the ineffable perspicacity of men who have suffered
greatly, the inexhaustible kindness, perfect loyalty, and vast
intelligence locked up in the heart of their chief, and how much tender
solicitude and friendship for them were concealed beneath his mournful
countenance and the imposing severity of his liquid blue eye. Thus it
was not merely respect he inspired them with, but veneration and
devotion, extending almost to fanaticism.
An expedition like that the count was preparing was no easy thing to
organise, especially with the scanty resources he had at his disposal;
for he only obtained vague promises from his partners, and was forced to
seek in himself the means for satisfying all.
The rich placer which Belhumeur and Eagle-head pointed out to him had
been worked in the time of the Spanish monarchy; but since the
declaration of independence, carelessness and disorder having taken the
place of the energy displayed by the Castilians, the Indians soon
expelled the miners: the placer had, therefore, been temporarily
abandoned. Then gradually the Apaches and Comanches, growing bolder as
they perceived the weakness of the white men, advanced and recaptured
vast territories, on which they established themselves permanently,
knowing that the Mexicans would never attempt to drive them out. In this
way the placer to which we allude, formerly situated in the possessions
of New Spain, was now surrounded by Indian territory, and to reach it it
was necessary to wage a mortal contest with the two most dangerous
nations of the desert, the Apaches and Comanches, who would under no
pretext suffer the invasion of their frontiers by the whites, but would
defend their ground inch by inch against them.
The Mexican government had only authorised the formation of the mining
company founded by the count on the express condition that the miners,
organised as a military force, should pursue the Indians, attack them
whenever they came up with them, and definitively expel them from the
territory they had usurped since the proclamation of independence. The
count had accepted a rough and almost impossible mission: any other in
his place would have backed out and refused to accept such terms. But
Count Louis was a man in a thousand, gifted with a rare energy, which
obstacles only rendered greater. And then, personally, what did he care
for the issue of the affair? It was not wealth, but death, he sought;
still he did not wish to fall till he had given his comrades that wealth
he had promised them, and rescued them from the stings of adverse
fortune.
He accepted the conditions, then, but not blindly, ambitiously, or
egotistically. He accepted them as a man of heart, who sacrifices
himself for an idea, and for the general happiness; and who, while
recognising the almost insurmountable difficulties that oppose the
success of his noble projects, hopes to succeed in overcoming them by
his courage, perseverance, and abnegation.
The energy, patience, and intelligence which the count had displayed
during the two months since his parting with Valentine, no one but
himself could have told. One of the clauses in his contract with the
suspicious and shifting Mexican government obliged him not to take more
than three hundred men with him. The President of the Republic, General
Arista, doubtlessly feared the invasion and conquest of Mexico by the
French, had they been four hundred in number.
These wretched conditions are so ridiculous, that they would be
incredible were they not rigorously true. We could, if we pleased, write
down here the words uttered in the Senate of Mexico, in which this fear
of invasion is distinctly expressed.
The count, in order to dissipate all doubts on this head, and, above
all, not to arouse suspicions, decided on only taking two hundred and
sixty men instead of three hundred.
But this company, destined to traverse a country swarming with obstinate
enemies, compelled during the journey to fight perhaps several times a
day, constrained in this desolate country to supply its own wants (for
it had no help to expect anywhere), must receive a powerful
organisation.
This was what the count thought of first.
Those persons who have never worn that heavy harness called a military
tunic cannot form even a distant idea of the thousand difficulties of
detail which arise at every step in the complete organisation of a
company, so that the service may be done properly, and the soldier not
suffer needlessly.
The count was obliged to improvise. He had never served, and was not at
all aware of the nature of such a task as his; but he was a gentleman
and a Frenchman, two reasons for inventing what a man is ignorant of
when war is the subject. The military genius is so innate in the French
nation, that we may say every man is a soldier. At any rate, Louis
proved it in an undeniable manner.
Obliged to foresee everything, and provide for all eventualities, he
undertook everything; and, on seeing the nature of his arrangements, his
men, all old soldiers and connoisseurs in such matters, were convinced
that their chief had been long engaged in military affairs.
He made a regular army of his company; that is to say, he had infantry,
cavalry, and artillery. In order that the discipline might be strictly
maintained the infantry were divided into sections, commanded by tried
men selected by himself. A few sailors, accustomed to handle guns, were
appointed to serve a small mountain howitzer, which the count carried
with him, more for the purpose of terrifying the Indians than in the
hope that it would ever prove of use to him.
Lastly, some forty picked men, most of them old Chasseurs d'Afrique,
formed the cavalry, and were placed under the orders of an officer for
whom the count felt a peculiar esteem, whom he had known a long time,
and in whose ability he placed entire confidence.
But what we have described was nothing when compared with what still
remained to be done--purchasing arms, provisions, the necessary tools
for working the mine, ammunition, and, above all, means of transport.
The count was not discouraged. He improvised a commissariat, and
alone--alone we repeat; for he had refused the offer of large American
bankers, who at length, recognising his value, had proposed to take an
interest in his enterprise--with his scanty resources, he had done
everything, organised everything, and now only awaited his foster
brother's arrival, in order to pay the balance of his accounts, ship his
company, and set sail.
Now that we have fully explained these matters to our reader, which are
so important to a proper understanding of what follows, we will resume
our narrative at the point where we were compelled to break it off.