HOME AGAIN.
Tiger advised us to saddle at once, while he and Owl carefully removed
everything that could betray our recent presence here. All the logs were
carried into the stream in a deer hide, the horse excreta and scraps of
food hidden in the neighbouring bushes, and after giving our camp the
appearance as if its occupants had left it some days previously, we led
our horses over the firm stones down to the stream where I had shot the
stag on the previous evening, and then along it till we could survey our
path from a distance of about two miles from camp. Here we led our
cattle into a coppice where they were hidden from the Indians by the
bushes and rocks. Ere long the latter marched up the path. Tiger
recognised them as Apaches who were probably on the road to the eastern
trading ports of the United States, as they had their squaws and
children and large bales of hides with them. We let them pass in peace.
We then rode down the stream to the path and put our horses at a sharp
amble in the direction from which the Indians had just arrived. The path
led us round many blocks of granite into the glen, down into which we
had gazed that morning while stag hunting. John looked up at the
overhanging crag, on which his stag and pocket-handkerchief were, but
could not see it from here, and only regretted that he could not take
the antlers with him as a memento. He spoke about it several times, and
said he would willingly give ten dollars to have them. On this Owl rode
up to him and said he would procure them for him by the evening, after
which he turned off into the rocks. He shouted something to Tiger that
we did not understand and disappeared, while we soon reached the spot
where the valley turned to the east. On both sides of it rose the barren
mountains, and only an isolated yucca or mimosa grew out of the
crevices. The valley itself, here about two miles in width, was covered
with loose stones, and only from time to time did we notice on the
stream that wound through it a small clump of trees or patch of grass.
In spite of the great heat we hurried on till the sun was rather low,
and the mountain wall that closed the extremity of the valley cast a
long shadow into it. From here it trended to the south-west. The crags
that enclosed it sank, and we looked down into the valleys of the Puerco
River, between which and us lay smaller hills and mounds frequently
covered with forest. When the sun sank behind the southern pillar of the
mountain gate in front of Paso del Norte, the Diablo Mountains, we
unpacked at the first wood we reached after leaving the glen, and camped
on the bank of the stream which we had followed nearly all through it.
It was one of the numerous exquisite points we had found during our
tour, and the wonderful evening light did much to heighten its beauty.
We had lit our fire under the dark foliage of the oaks and thus
illumined the surrounding scenery, when Trusty rose from my side, walked
a few paces toward the pass and began growling. I called him to me
coaxingly and bad him lie down by my side, and at this moment we heard
the sound of a horse rapidly approaching us from the valley. We knew it
was Owl, but for all that every one seized his rifle and awaited the
arrival. Our friend soon rode up to the fire, took the enormous antlers
with the entire head of the stag off his horse, silently laid them and
the handkerchief before John, led his horse into the grass, and lay down
on his buffalo robe near the fire without saying a word. I asked him
whether he had seen anything of Indians, upon which he stated that he
had left his horse in the glen and gone up alone to the stag: after
cutting off its head and taking the handkerchief he went to our camping
place and ascended the nearest hill whence he could have an outlook.
The whole party of Indians were quietly camping on the spot, and at
least a dozen columns of smoke were rising from it.
We cut the antlers off the head and put them with the skull bone to dry
at the fire, and then got supper ready, while Owl turned the stag's
tongue on a spit. In the morning the familiar notes of awakening turkeys
aroused us again once more. After a long time we cheerily seized our
rifles and hurried down the stream toward them to the spot where large
peccan-nut trees enthralled them by the rich crop of nuts. We behaved
most unmercifully to these dainty birds, and when we returned to camp
had a perfect hill of them lying before us. We set to work roasting and
frying, in which we were greatly aided by the extraordinary quantity of
delicate fat which these birds have in autumn. The remaining turkeys
were cleaned, rubbed with salt, and wild pepper, which is very common in
the woods at this season, and packed on the mules; we then continued our
journey down through the hills to the long looked for valley of the
Puerco.
Our road was very fatiguing, and we were frequently obliged to dismount
and lead our horses down the steep slopes; at the same time the path was
covered with small sharp stones, which rendered going down hill still
more wearisome to the cattle, and it often ran over loose blocks of
stone, where they ran a great risk of breaking their legs. Still all
went well, and toward evening we rode out between the last hills into
the fresh verdure of the Puerco valley, and camped on the stream whose
course we had been following for some days, and which here ran as a
small river to the Puerco. We preferred riding down the valley along the
hills, in order to keep out of the way of the wandering Indians who
generally marched up and down the river, and whose number was large,
especially now, as all the tribes of the Comanches and their relatives
were _en route_ for the great council at the sources of this river.
Then, again, we could calculate on finding more game on this side of the
extensive valley, and had only one disadvantage, that we must at times
go without water. Nature everywhere showed us that we were approaching
home: the prairie was again ornamented with the gorgeous flora which had
so often delighted us there; the sky above us was darker, and, in the
distance, more hazy than in the north, and a warmer life seemed to be
stirring in everything. Still the vegetation, especially that of the
woods, did not bear the peculiar southern character which is so striking
at our home. We started very early, rode till far into the evening, and
rested, when we could manage it, at noon in some shadow, for the heat
was most oppressive from eleven till three. Moreover, we were in the
moon's first quarter, which lighted us a little when the sunshine had
departed, and enabled us to employ the cool of the evening on these
smooth plains in pushing on.
We marched, thus without halting for about a week along the hills,
during which the mountain chains on the west of the Puerco constantly
drew nearer to us and contracted the valley. We had followed our course
one whole morning without finding water, till about two o'clock p.m.,
when the heat became unendurable, and we looked out ahead for some
shadow in which we could rest for a few hours. At length we caught sight
of a clump of trees, and to our indescribable joy we saw distinctly that
they were poplars which retained their fresh foliage, an infallible sign
that there was water near; for such trees often stand in pools, and when
the water dries up their leaves turn yellow and fall off. We urged our
cattle on in order to reach the trees as speedily as possible, for now
that we might expect shadow, and probably water, we felt the sun's heat
doubly. On these plains objects are seen so clearly and distinctly for
incredible distances, that you often deceive yourself, and such was the
case with these poplars; we constantly believed that we must reach them
in a quarter of an hour, and yet hours passed ere we really arrived. We
hastened into the thick shade of the old trees, and I can scarce
describe the cheerful feeling that possessed us all on seeing close to
them, instead of a pool of muddy slime, two ponds of the clearest,
freshest spring water, one of which the poplars overshadowed with their
long branches. The cattle were quickly unloaded, and rolling themselves
on the grass they dried their wet backs, while we, reclining on the
turf, inhaled the cooler air. The pools, like the mountain-springs near
my house, had no visible connexion with any other water, but for all
that retained their freshness, though almost constantly exposed to the
burning sun.
We lay without stirring, so as to avoid any movement which might have
impeded our rapid cooling: not a breath of air stirred, the
easily-agitated leaves of the poplars hung motionless from the long
stalks, while over the water lay that quivering dazzling glow which
announces the highest degree of heat. The insect world alone seemed to
revel in this heat, and filled the air with an uninterrupted monotonous
buzz, like that which a patient hears in his fever dreams. Near me there
rose from the roots of an old poplar a chameleon, which probably found
it too warm. This wondrous lizard glistened and sparkled with a thousand
hues, puffed up the large orange-coloured bladder under its chin, and
displayed every tint, as if illumined by a variegated light in its
inside: it sat motionless, with widely-opened mouth, fixing its large
golden eyes on me, as if asking whether I would leave it the cool spot
it so enjoyed? I lay with my head on the roots of a poplar quite still,
so as to be able to gaze at the beautiful creature for as long a time as
possible; then my eyes turned from it to the ponds whose surface
dazzlingly reflected the sunlight, but quickly returned to the blessed
shade which we and our cattle were enjoying.
I accidentally looked again toward the sparkling water and noticed a
trunk of a tree in the middle of it, which I had not seen a few moments
previously. What could have raised it from the bottom of the pond to the
surface? I sat up a little and saw a second and a third emerge by its
side: I did not stir, but continued to gaze, and in ten minutes the
pools were covered with old wood. I cried in a low voice to Tiger to
look, but he had scarce done so ere he laughed, and said they were
alligators enjoying the sunshine. The surface of both pools was
literally covered with these monsters, mostly of a large size. I cried
to my comrades to take their rifles, quietly aim at their heads, and
fire when I gave the signal. I did so; our guns exploded simultaneously,
and the water spirted up furiously, and bedewed the grass for a long way
round. Only two of the monsters remained in sight, shooting backwards
and forwards in the water, and beating their tails so furiously that the
spray dashed over us. At this moment Antonio came up with a lasso, and
in an instant threw the noose over one of the furious creatures. We all
ran with the end of the rope over the grass, and dragged the alligator
on land, when it snapped savagely around with its fearful jaws, and
lashed its tail. We now set to work with pistols, and ere long its head
had so many holes in it that it could not move its dangerous jaws. Its
comrade was still swimming quietly on the top of the water, so we
fetched it out too on to the grass, when it behaved as furiously as the
first, but we soon put an end to its fun. They were two gigantic
animals, nearly sixteen feet long, and their throats were armed with
rows of terrible teeth, some of which we all took as a memento.
It is a riddle to me how the creatures got here, for the nearest stream
was many miles away, while they never quit the banks of the water in
which they live, and are as awkward as tortoises ashore, so that a land
journey was impossible. But even assuming that one of the creatures had
strayed and reached this spot after a long wandering, it could not be
assumed that hundreds of them had emigrated together to a spot so
distant from their element. Another question presented itself which was
more easy to answer, however, and which was settled before our
departure--on what such large creatures lived here? They were supplied
by the unfortunate inhabitants of this country, who came many miles to
this spot in order to quench their burning thirst at these glorious
springs, and strengthen their wearied limbs, during which they were
dragged under by the watchful monsters, and torn to pieces by thousands
of teeth. I am convinced that even a buffalo, in spite of its gigantic
strength, would be overpowered and killed by these monsters, if,
fatigued by a long journey over the prairie, it ran into their ponds to
cool itself.
The sun was near the hills, we had satisfied our hunger with turkey
breasts and venison, and were ready to leave this pleasant spot, when
Koenigstein slit up an alligator with his hunting knife and drew out of
the belly of one some deer feet, and then out of the other the leg of a
turkey. We would gladly have extirpated the whole nest of disgusting
monsters, but not one of them was now visible, and the evening sun
played as cheerily on the surface of the water, as if no horrors and
dangers were concealed beneath it. We watered our horses once again and
then trotted on in order to cover a good bit of ground, for the nearer
we got to our home, the greater grew our longing for it and all the
friends whom we had left there.
We continued our journey for about a week, and crossed a number of small
streams, which ran into the Puerco, till one noon we reached another
rivulet, on whose shady bank we resolved to rest. From this point we
surveyed in the south a large forest which ran across our road from the
eastern mountains to the Puerco, while we saw above it distant ranges of
mountains running in the same direction, which we saluted as the San
Saba Mountains. These were the only ranges that separated us from home,
and full of desire of them as old friends, we saddled toward evening,
and at midnight entered the forest, which we had seen before us ever
since our midday halt. The moon had hitherto distinctly shown us the
buffalo paths, but here her rule was at an end, and only now and then
did a ray fall through the lofty masses of foliage which now roofed us
over. We stopped on a very trampled path, which we could not follow,
however, through the forest, for even if our cattle kept the road, the
creepers hanging over it rendered our progress difficult. Our cattle
were very thirsty, and as we had no doubt of finding water in the forest
depths, we resolved to try and reach it. We dismounted, gathered dry
grass, out of which Owl and Tiger twisted torches, one of which we lit,
and then pressed on, leading our horses. We had not gone more than one
hundred yards into the forest when Tiger cried that he was at the river,
and shortly after we led our thirsty horses down the bank and refreshed
them in the cool stream: we filled our gourds and returned by the same
road to the prairie, where we fastened up our cattle in the grass and
lit our fire. As the horses were very hungry we did not drive them out
of the grass, but set a sentry over them who was relieved every half
hour. At daybreak we shot turkeys in the wood for breakfast, bathed in
the adjoining river, and then fetched up the sleep we had lost in the
night.
We stopped here till about 3 P.M., and then continued our journey
southward. As the banks of the stream were very steep here, we were
delayed a little till we had all our baggage across, but then rode for
two hours without a halt through the glorious shade of the forest, in
whose gloom only now and then a bright yellow patch was lit up by the
inquisitive sunbeams. We felt here as much at home as on the Leone or
the Mustang, and the conversation throughout the whole day turned upon
home and our friends there, for nature all around offered pictures of
those regions. The trunks of the trees here rose again side by side;
from their lofty branches llianas covered with gayest hues swung across,
and under the evergreen bushes the flowers displayed their brightest
colours. The parrots with their lustrous plumages hung high above us on
the branches head downward, and innumerable bright red cardinals flew
like live coals through the dark foliage. Here a proud stag with mighty
antlers peered out from a cozy glade, and there a timid antelope fled
with its two fawns behind it through the thicket. When we rode through
the last clumps and reached the prairie on the other side of the wood,
the sunbeams were falling on it obliquely, and we did not miss the
delightful shade so much as we should have done had we exposed ourselves
to the sun a few hours earlier. We rode sharply, and at about 9 P.M.
unsaddled at the foot of the San Saba Mountains, and camped on a torrent
that ran down thence to the Puerco.
The next morning we followed the stream to the river, and about noon
reached the principal Indian path that led from these valleys over the
San Saba Mountains, and greatly facilitated our passage over them. On
the third morning we looked down on the hills near our home, on which we
camped the same evening. The next day we reached Turkey Creek at sunset,
and would assuredly not have camped, but ridden home without resting had
not our cattle been so fatigued. It was very late ere we thought of
lying down to rest, and even then the conversation was carried on for a
long time. After the old fashion the turkeys announced to us that day
was breaking. On this occasion, however, we did not shoot any, but each
breakfasted quickly and got ready for going home. A little more
attention was paid this day to our costume; although we could not make
much of it with the greatest skill, still we looked altogether tidier
when we left camp, and each galloped on to be the first. I was obliged
to hint that we still had a long way to go, and ought not to begin with
galloping. The journey to-day seemed very long to us, although our
horses advanced sturdily, as if they too noticed that we were going
home. At about ten o'clock we made a half-way halt and let our cattle
rest for a few hours, while we lit a fire at the same spot where we had
made coffee at the beginning of our journey, and drank it again: at
about two o'clock, however, we saddled and spread over the baggage of
the mules the finest jaguar skins, above which the two splendid stags'
heads were displayed.
We were still busy with our horses, when suddenly Jack kicked up behind,
gave a few springs, and then trotted along the path that led to the
Leone. He would not be deprived of the pleasure of being first, for so
soon as we approached him he doubled his pace, and even galloped when it
appeared necessary. All our cattle now plainly showed that they knew
they were near home, and could not be held in. Long before sunset we
passed through the wood on the Leone, and entered the prairie below the
Fort, where we fired all our shots. We were greeted from the Fort in the
same way, and its inhabitants ran out to meet us and overwhelm us with
congratulations. Everything was as before, except that another good
harvest had been got in, that horses, cattle, pigs, and dogs had
multiplied, and that numerous new settlers had arrived both north and
south.
John was impatient to get home, and left me no time to change my
clothes, as I wished to accompany him. I therefore saddled Fancy, left
Koenigstein to look after Czar and Trusty, and rode with my companion
toward Mustang River. From a distance we could see that the Lasars had
built a large new house with glass windows and galleries, whose
whitewashed walls glistened through the gloom. We had reloaded and
announced our return to our friends some distance off. Soon after we saw
white handkerchiefs waving, light dresses hurrying out of the garden
gate, and old and young, black and white, hurried to meet us and
welcomed us with expressions of joy and congratulations. I had to
apologize for my dress and retire, but I was obliged to stay to supper,
which meal we took under the verandah, and after it we sat in the garden
before the house, where the perfumes of splendid flowers surrounded us,
which, illumined by the moonbeams, formed graceful groups around us. The
bottles went so rapidly the while, that I thought it advisable to seek
my homeward road before I had any difficulty in finding it.
It was about midnight when I reached the Fort, where I found everybody
up and also cheered by wine, for I had ordered Koenigstein, when I rode
away, to give them a treat. I, however, soon sought my bed-room with
Trusty, and slept with open doors and windows till the sun stood high
in the heavens. I hastened down to the river, and after a bathe the old
trunks were opened and the garb of olden times was taken out.
Some weeks passed ere I was quite at home again; all the works looked
after, others to be undertaken arranged, and repairs and improvements
carried out. I frequently came across the Lasars; visited, with the old
gentleman, the new settlers in the neighbourhood; consulted with him
about making roads and bridges, and was appealed to by him in any
important undertakings in his private affairs. Although we now felt no
alarm about the Indians coming to the numerous new settlements, their
friendly visits now grew wearisome and disagreeable. Every moment a new
tribe arrived, of whom we had scarce heard, to make friendship with us
and receive presents. Something must be given them, else we ran a risk
that they would take it out on our cattle, or fire the prairie when a
violent wind was blowing, or take some other revenge which would do more
injury than the value of the presents. They no longer ventured on open
hostilities within range of our settlements; to such only the more
distant squatters were exposed, who lived nearer to the desert.
Shortly after our return, arrived a Mr. White, from Virginia, with his
wife, two sons of twelve and fourteen years of age, and two younger
daughters. He applied to Lasar and myself to show him a good bit of land
on which he could settle. The people pleased us, they were friendly and
honest, lived on good terms together, as we noticed on our frequent
visits to their camp on the Leone, and were the right sort to defy such
a mode of life. Lasar and I resolved to take them under our wing, and
induced them to settle at our old camping place on Turkey Creek, for
which purpose we set out early one morning with them, Lasar ordering
twenty negroes to come with us and prepare an abode for the new-comers.
We built for them there in a few days a neat double blockhouse, that is
to say, two houses about twenty yards apart, over which and the space
between one long roof was thrown. Then we surrounded the house with a
palisade, in which they could lock their cattle at night, and fitted for
them a lot of wood, with which they could fence in a garden. Lasar gave
them a handsome cow, and I gave them a breeding sow, some fowls, and
maize to eat and to sow for the coming spring. White was one of those
resolute, unswerving men, who, after struggling for a long time with
misfortune in the civilized world, turn their attention to the western
deserts, where they try to extort from fate what has been refused to
them elsewhere. With his peculiar energy and restless execution of
everything he had once undertaken, he set to work in his new home, in
order, as soon as possible, to lay the foundation of his own and his
family's future prosperity; but unfortunately he was only able to see
the foundation, for the garden was hardly fenced in and the maize field
taken in hand, ere he fell ill, and a violent fever carried him off in a
few days. His eldest son, Charles, rode over to me to bring me the
melancholy news, and tell me that his mother wished to speak to me. I
rode across the next morning with Koenigstein and a negro. The widow was
sitting inconsolably by the side of her dead husband, without any plan
for the future; and on my entrance pointed--with sobs, and unable to
utter a word--to the dead body. I at once ordered the negro to dig a
grave, and buried the poor fellow; after which I sat down by the widow's
side, and tried to give her some consolation by offering her my
assistance. I proposed to her to settle near me till her sons were old
enough to look after their present farm. But she was of opinion that
they were able to do so already, although not strong enough to do the
heavy field work, such as clearing the land from bushes and trees as
well as felling and clearing the wood itself. If this could be done for
her, she would not leave the spot, as her lads could plough and use the
pick, while both fired a rifle as well as any frontierman; and she, too,
if it came to the point, knew how to use her husband's fowling-piece. I
made every possible objection to her plan of living here alone, but
promised my help and Lasar's if she insisted on adhering to it.
The next morning I said good-bye to the woman, who was determined to
stop here, and promised to send her help to prepare her garden and
fence, and bring her a few trifles for her comfort. I got home at an
early hour, and rode in the evening to Lasar's to tell him what had
happened. The old gentleman at once declared that he would send John off
the next morning with the requisite number of slaves to arrange
everything for the widow, and all the members of the family vied with
each other in displaying their sympathy by sending articles of clothing
and stores of every description. In a week everything was in order at
White's--the garden was laid out, and a field of five acres prepared for
planting with maize, beans, gourds, and potatoes. The best varieties of
vegetables were sown in the garden, and seeds of all sorts given to the
widow. The woman had for the present only to keep the garden in order,
while the sons procured game, which they could shoot at times from their
own door, for all her other wants were amply supplied. Thus peace and
contentment soon returned to this house, and the love of her children
restored Mrs. White the activity and determination which the loss of her
husband had palsied. Dawn found her busy with domestic duties--cleaning
the rooms, dressing her daughters, milking the cows, preparing
breakfast, salting and drying game, in short, with all sorts of
occupations; after that she was seen sitting in the shadow of the roof
between the houses, cleansing and spinning cotton to make clothes for
her children, while the two little girls sported around her, and the
sons were busy in the garden or hunting close at hand. She could recall
them at any moment by sounding an immense cow-horn which hung in the
passage between the two houses, near the door of the keeping-room.
Shortly after peace had settled down again on this solitary abode, the
widow was seated as usual in the cool passage with her daughters, while
her second son, Ben, had gone to the spring to fetch water, and Charles
had gone into the neighbouring wood with his rifle. All at once the very
sharp dogs which guarded the family made an unusual disturbance and ran
barking across the yard that surrounded the house. Mrs. White jumped up
and saw several Indians standing in front of the nearest wood, and then
retire into it again directly after. She seized the horn, sounded it
with all her might, then ran into the room and took down her deceased
husband's fowling-piece that was loaded with slugs, with a resolution
and courage such as has grown almost entirely strange to the feminine
sex in civilization, and is only found on rare occasions on its
outermost frontier on this continent. In a few minutes Ben ran up and
found his mother already behind the palisade with the gun in her hand.
"Quick, Ben, your rifle!" she cried to her twelve year old son; "but
don't forget your bullet, boy;" and then blew the horn again. The dogs
now came in again, and Mrs. White closed the hole in the fence through
which they passed. All at once a frightful yell was heard from the wood,
and from its gloom sprang a swarm of some thirty red-skinned fiends, who
dashed over the grass toward the house with an awful war-cry. "Don't
fire, Ben, till I have loaded again!" Mrs. White cried, and then rapidly
discharged both barrels, sending some forty leaden pellets among the
charging horde. The effect of the two shots at hardly fifty yards
distance was so tremendous that the horde darted in all directions as if
struck by lightning, and eight remained on the grass while the others
ran howling to the wood. "Fire, Ben!" Mrs. White cried to her son, who
had thrust his rifle through the palisades, while she poured a handful
of slugs down her gun, and placed two cotton wads upon them. Ben fired
into the thickest of the fugitives, and one of them fell with his feet
in the air, while the yells of the others filled the air. "I have hit,
mother," the boy said, as he poured fresh powder down the barrel.
"Bravo, Ben! but where is Charles? He ought to have been here by this
time, as he has not been gone long. Run into the house and have a look
at Fanny and Bessie, but come back again directly." Thus Mrs. White
called to her son while she was hurriedly making cotton wads, which she
moistened with her lips, and threw back her long raven hair which hung
over her shoulders. "Mother, Charles is coming with Kitty!" Ben cried,
as he ran out of the house and hurried to the hind part of the fence to
open the gate for their cow Kitty, which was trotting over the grass in
front of Charles. The latter had heard the horn and the shots and yells
of the Indians as he hurried home, had come across Kitty, and had driven
her home.
Everything was quiet, and the Indians did not make the slightest sound.
Charles and his mother secured the two fence gates with logs of wood,
and then the mother went to her young children, leaving her sons orders
to call her if they saw anything of the Indians. The day passed without
the savages making a fresh attack on the settlement; but the greater on
that account grew the widow's alarm, lest they should take advantage of
the night to satiate their vengeance. Toward evening, she bade her sons
lie down and sleep, so that they could keep awake during the night,
while she kept guard in front of the house. The sun set and darkness was
lying over the country, when Mrs. White and her two sons took their
places behind the palisade, and carefully surveyed the open prairie. It
was about nine o'clock, when they saw the light of a fire coming through
the wood, rapidly grow larger, and presently appear on its outermost
edge. Again the fearful yell was raised, with which the savages always
accompany their attack, and the light moved from the forest over the
grass. A dark object moved across the plain toward the house, and the
light shone out on both sides of it. The object slowly drew nearer, and
Mrs. White soon saw that it was a framework of bushes behind which the
Indians were concealed, and pushing it before them. This leafy wall had
advanced within twenty yards, when Charley and Ben fired at it, and the
groans of the wounded were distinctly heard amid the yells of the
assailants. For all that, the wall moved slowly forward, and in a few
minutes leaned against the corner of the palisade, after which flames
suddenly darted up and set the fence on fire. The savages had brought a
heap of dry wood with them behind the screen, piled it up against the
palisade and kindled it, after which they ran back about forty yards and
lay down flat in the grass.
The space behind the fence round the house was now so brilliantly
illumined that Mrs. White feared lest the savages might fire arrows
through the palisades at her boys; hence she retired with them into the
house, and went up under the roof, whither she took her daughters, too,
while the dogs ran furiously along the palisade. Then she raised several
of the shingles with which the roof was covered, and placed others under
them, so that she could survey the brilliantly-lighted prairie, where
she saw the Indians lying in the short grass. At the same instant,
however, sparks fell down from the roof, for the savages had fired a
number of burning arrows, which set fire to the dry shingle roof of
cedar-wood. An inhuman yell of joy from the savages greeted the first
flash of the flames, which soon ascended with a crackling sound.
"Charles, the axe!" Mrs. White shrieked to her son, while she thrust her
double-barrel through the roof and fired at a group of savages lying
together in the grass, who doubtless fancied themselves safe from the
besieged. The unhurt men leaped up with a yell and darted back to the
wood, while the second barrel was fired after them, and again brought
down several. Charles handed his mother the axe, with which she soon
made a hole in the roof and pulled out the blazing shingles, so that the
fire was extinguished in a few moments. Then she ran with axe and gun
down into the yard, reloaded, and checked the fire at the palisades,
which, as there was no wind, spread very slowly and was speedily put
out. The corner of the palisade was certainly burnt down, and there was
a large opening in it, while outside a large heap of burning coals
remained from the fire. Mrs. White, with her sons' help, pulled the
small cart which had conveyed their little property hither into the
opening, and then filled up all the gaps with logs of firewood. The
night was passed under arms, and when dawn lit up the country the heroic
woman looked out of the roof at the battle-field in front of her
fortress without being able to see a trace of Indians. The savages had
carried off the corpses of their comrades in the darkness, and had
probably departed with them in the night to let them rest with their
fathers; for the Indians take the dead bodies of their friends with them
and carry them hundreds of miles to the burial-place of the tribe.
Late on the following night the barking of my dogs awoke me, and when I
shouted out of the fort, asking who was there, Charles White announced
himself and told me what had happened. I had his wearied horse looked
after, gave him a bed, and early next morning rode with him to Lasar, to
consult with the latter what was to be done. This humane man soon formed
a resolution, and told me he would let a faithful old negro, who was not
of much use to him, live at Mrs. White's. He could sow a bit of land
with cotton, the proceeds of which would be his own, and the family
would have a protector in him, as he was an excellent shot and a
fearless, determined man. Within an hour, we were mounted and rode past
my fort, in order to fetch Owl and Tiger. We arrived in the evening at
White's, where we saw the damage done by the savages, and then heard the
story from Mrs. White's own lips, on which occasion she praised Ben's
bravery, who during the narration stood by his mother's side with her
arm thrown round him. The woman was most grateful for our kindness and
sympathy, and said that, with the help of the old negro, Primus, she
would withstand a whole Indian tribe. Primus remained there, and this
settlement was really never again disquieted by Indians. It was,
however, less the presence of the negro that made them refrain from
hostilities, than Mrs. White's heroic defence. At a later date, Indians
told me that the aggressors were Mescaleros, and Mrs. White fired so
many bullets among them all at once, as if the storm-god had been
scattering a hail-storm on the earth. Since then an Indian was hardly
ever seen there. Such atrocities often happened at the outermost
settlements, while very possibly the same Indians who committed them
came to us as friends and were dismissed with presents and assurances of
amity.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]