The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, and Western Texas

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER XXVII.

  We remained a few days where we were encamped to repose our horses andenable them to support the fatigues of our journey through the ruggedand swampy wilderness of North-east Texas. Three days after theexecution of the three prisoners, some of our Indians, on their returnfrom a buffalo chase, informed us that several Texan companies,numbering two hundred men, were advancing in our direction, and thatprobably they were out upon an expedition against the Indians of theCross Timbers, as they had with them many waggons evidently containingnothing but provisions and ammunition.

  We were encamped in a strong position, and of course did not think ofretiring. We waited for the Texan army, determined to give them a gooddrubbing if they dared to attempt to molest us. Notwithstanding thesecurity of our position, we kept a good watch during the night, butnothing happened to give us alarm. The next morning, two hours aftersunrise, we saw the little army halting two miles from us, on theopposite shore of a deep stream, which they must necessarily pass tocome to us. A company of the Comanches immediately darted forward todispute the passage; but some flags of truce being displayed by theTexans, five or six of them were allowed to swim over unmolested.

  These worthies who came over were Captain Hunt, of whom I have beforemade mention, and General Smith, commanding the Texan army, who was acertain butcher from Indiana, who had been convicted of having murderedhis wife and condemned to be hanged. He had, however, succeeded inescaping from the gaol, and making his way to Texas. The third eminentpersonage was a Colonel Hookley, and the other two were interpreters. Asan Indian will never hurt a foe who comes with a flag of truce, theComanches brought these gentlemen up to the camp.

  As soon as General Smith presented himself before the Comanche chief, hecommenced a bullying harangue, not stating for what purpose he had come,telling us gratuitously that he was the greatest general in the land,and that all the other officers were fools; that he had with him aninnumerable number of stout and powerful warriors, who had no equal inthe world; and thus he went on for half an hour, till, breath failinghim, he was obliged to stop.

  After a silence of a few minutes, he asked the Comanche chief what hecould answer to that? The chief looked at him and replied, with the mostineffable contempt: "What should I answer?" said he; "I have heardnothing but the words of a fool abusing other fools. I have heard thehowl of the wolf long before the buffalo was wounded; there can be noanswer to no question; speak, if thou canst; say what thou wishest, orreturn from whence thou comest, lest the greatest warrior of Texasshould be whipped by squaws and boys."

  The ex-butcher was greatly incensed at the want of breeding and mannersof the "poor devil of a savage," but at last he condescended to come tothe point. First of all, having learned from Captain Hunt the wholetransaction at Lewisburg, and that the Comanches had detained theprisoners, he wished to have them restored to him. Next he wanted to getthe three young Pale-faces, who were with the Comanches (meaning me,Gabriel, and Roche). They were three thieves, who had escaped from thegaols, and he, the general, wanted to punish them. After all, they werethree vagabonds, d----d strangers, and strangers had nothing to do inTexas, so he must have them. Thirdly and lastly, he wanted to havedelivered unto him the five Americans who had left Captain Hunt to joinus. He suspected them to be rascals or traitors, or they would not havejoined the Indians. He, the great general, wished to investigate closelyinto the matter, and so the Comanches had better think quick about it,for he was in a hurry.

  I should here add, that the five Americans, though half-ruined by thethefts of the Texans, had yet with them four or five hundred dollars ingood bank-notes, besides which each had a gold watch, well-furnishedsaddle-bags, a good saddle, and an excellent travelling horse.

  The chief answered him: "Now I can answer, for I have heard words havinga meaning, although I know them to be great lies. I say first, thoushalt not have the prisoners who murdered those of thine own colour, forthey are hung yonder upon the tall trees, and there they shall remaintill the vultures and the crows have picked their flesh.

  "I say, secondly, that the three young Pale-faces are here and willanswer for themselves, if they will or will not follow thee; but I seethy tongue can utter big lies; for I know they have never mixed with thePale-faces of the south. As to the five Yankees, we cannot give themback to thee, because we can give back only what we have taken. They arenow our guests, and, in our hospitality, they are secure till they leaveus of their own accord. I have said!"

  Scarcely were these words finished, when the general and his fourfollowers found themselves surrounded by twenty Comanches, who conductedthem back to the stream in rather an abrupt manner. The greatest officerof the land swore revenge, but as his guides did not understand him, hewas lucky enough to reserve his tongue for more lies and more swearingat a more fitting time.

  He soon rejoined his men, and fell back with them about a mile,apparently to prepare for an attack upon our encampment. In the evening,Roche and some five or six Indians passed the stream a few miles below,that they might observe what the Texans were about; but unfortunatelythey met with a party of ten of the enemy hunting, and Roche fellheavily under his horse, which was killed by a rifle-shot. One of theComanches immediately jumped from his horse, rescued Roche from hisdangerous position, and, notwithstanding that the Texans were at thatinstant charging, he helped Roche to his own saddle and bade him fly.Roche was too much stupefied by his fall that he could not reflect, orotherwise his generous nature would never have permitted him to save hislife at the expense of that of the noble fellow who was thus sacrificinghimself. As it was, he darted away, and his liberator, receiving theshock of the assailants, killed two of them, and fell pierced with theirrifle-balls[23].

  [Footnote 23: So sacred are the laws of hospitality among these Indians,that a dozen lives would be sacrificed if required, to save that of aguest. In sacrificing himself for Roche, the Comanche considered that hewas doing a mere act of duty.]

  "They galloped across the plain, dragging after themthree mangled bodies."]

  The report of the rifles recalled Roche to his senses, and joining oncemore the three remaining Indians, he rushed madly upon the hunters, and,closing with one of them, he ripped him up with his knife, while theComanches had each of them successfully thrown their lassoes, and nowgalloped across the plain, dragging after them three mangled bodies:Roche recovered his saddle and holsters, and taking with him the corpseof the noble-minded Indian, he gave to his companions the signal forretreat, as the remaining hunters were flying at full speed towardstheir camp, and succeeded in giving the alarm. An hour after, theyreturned to us, and, upon their report, it was resolved that we shouldattack the Texans that very night.

  About ten o'clock we started, divided into three bands of seventy meneach, which made our number about equal to that of the Texans; Roche,who was disabled, with fifteen Indians and the five Americans remainingin the camp. Two of the bands went down the river to cross it withoutnoise, while the third, commanded by Gabriel and me, travelled up thestream for two miles, where we safely effected our passage. We had leftthe horses ready, in case of accident, under the keeping of five men forevery band. The plan was to surprise the Texans, and attack them at oncein front and in rear; we succeeded beyond all expectations, the Texans,as usual, being all more or less intoxicated. We reached their firesbefore any alarm was given.

  We gave the war-whoop and rushed among the sleepers. Many, many werekilled in their deep sleep of intoxication, but those who awoke and hadtime to seize upon their arms fought certainly better than they wouldhave done had they been sober. The gallant General Smith, the bravest ofthe brave and ex-butcher, escaped at the very beginning of the affray,but I saw the Comanche chief cleaving the skull of Captain Hunt withhis tomahawk.

  Before their onset, the Indians had secured almost all the enemy'swaggons and horses, so that flight to many became impossible. At thatparticular spot the prairie was undulatory and bare, except on the leftof the encampment, where a few bushes skirted th
e edge of a smallstream; but these were too few and too small to afford a refuge to theTexans, one hundred of whom were killed and scalped. The remainder ofthe night was passed in giving chase to the fugitives, who, at last,halted at a bend of the river, in a position that could not be forcedwithout great loss of life; so the Indians left them, and, after havingcollected all the horses and the booty they thought worth taking away,they burnt the waggons and returned to their own camp.

  As we quitted the spot, I could not help occasionally casting a glancebehind me, and the spectacle was truly magnificent. Hundreds of barrels,full of grease, salt pork, gin, and whisky, were burning, and theconflagration had now extended to the grass and the dry bushes.

  We had scarcely crossed the river when the morning breeze sprung up, andnow the flames extended in every direction, gaining rapidly upon thespot where the remaining Texans had stood at bay. So fiercely andabruptly did the flames rush upon them, that all simultaneously, men andhorses, darted into the water for shelter against the devouring element.Many were drowned in the whirlpools, and those who succeeded in reachingthe opposite shore were too miserable and weak to think of anything,except of regaining, if possible, the southern settlements.

  Though protected from the immediate reach of the flames by the branch ofthe river upon the shore of which we were encamped, the heat had becomeso intense, that we were obliged to shift farther to the west. Except inthe supply of arms and ammunition, we perceived that our booty was worthnothing. This Texan expedition must have been composed of a verybeggarly set, for there was not a single yard of linen, nor a miserableworn-out pair of trousers, to be found in all their bundles and boxes.

  Among the horses taken, some thirty or forty were immediately identifiedby the Comanches as their own property, many of them, during thepreceding year, having been stolen by a party of Texans, who had invitedthe Indians to a grand council. Gabriel, Roche, and I, of course, wouldaccept none of the booty; and as time was now becoming to me a questionof great importance, we bade farewell to our Comanche friends, andpursued our journey east, in company with the five Americans.

  During the action, the Comanches had had forty men wounded and only ninekilled. Yet, two months afterwards, I read in one of the Americannewspapers a very singular account of the action. It was a report ofGeneral Smith, commandant of the central force of Texas, relative to theglorious expedition against the savages, in which the gallant soldiersof the infant republic had achieved the most wonderful exploits. Itsaid, "That General Smith having been apprised, by the unfortunateCaptain Hunt, that five thousand savages had destroyed the rising cityof Lewisburg, and murdered all the inhabitants, had immediately hastenedwith his intrepid fellows to the neighbourhood of the scene; that there,during the night, and when every man was broken down with fatigue, theywere attacked by the whole force of the Indians, who had with them sometwenty half-breeds and French and English traders. In spite of theirdisadvantages, the Texans repulsed the Comanches with considerable loss,till the morning, when the men were literally tired with killing, andthe prairie was covered with the corpses of two thousand savages; theTexans themselves having lost but thirty or forty men, and these peopleof little consequence, being emigrants recently arrived from the States.During the day, the stench became so intolerable, that General Smithcaused the prairie to be set on fire, and crossing the river, returnedhome by slow marches, knowing it would be quite useless to pursue theComanches in the wild and broken prairies of the north. Only one Texanof note had perished during the conflict--the brave and unfortunateCaptain Hunt; so that, upon the whole, considering the number of theenemy, the republic may consider this expedition as the most gloriousenterprise since the declaration of Texan independence."

  The paragraph went on in this manner till it filled three close columns,and as a finale, the ex-butcher made an appeal to all the generous and"liberty-loving" sons of the United States and Texas, complainingbitterly against the cabinets of St. James and the Tuileries, who,jealous of the prosperity and glory of Texas, had evidently sent agents(trappers and half-breeds) to excite the savages, through malice, envy,and hatred of the untarnished name and honour of the great NorthAmerican Republic.

  The five Americans who accompanied us were of a superior class, threeof them from Virginia, and two from Maryland, Their history was that ofmany others of their countrymen, Three of them had studied the law, onedivinity, and the other medicine. Having no opening for the exercise oftheir profession at home, they had gone westward, to carve a fortune inthe new States; but there everything was in such a state of anarchy thatthey could not earn their subsistence; they removed farther west, untilthey entered Texas, "a country sprung up but yesterday, and where animmense wealth can be made." They found, on their arrival at thisanticipated paradise, their chances of success in their profession stillworse than in their own country. The lawyers discovered that, on amoderate computation, there were not less than ten thousand attorneys inTexas, who had emigrated from the Eastern States; the president, thesecretaries, constables, tavern-keepers, generals, privates, sailors,porters, and horse-thieves were all of them originally lawyers, or hadbeen brought up to that profession.

  As to the doctor, he soon found that the apologue of the "wolf and thestork" had been written purposely for medical practice in Texas, for assoon as he had cured a patient (picked the bone out of his throat), hehad to consider himself very lucky if he could escape from half-a-dozeninches of the bowie-knife, by way of recompense; moreover, every visitcost him his pocket-handkerchief or his 'bacco-box, if he had any. Ihave to remark here, that kerchief-taking is a most common joke inTexas, and I wonder very much at it, as no individual of the malespecies, in that promised land, will ever apply that commodity to itsright use, employing for that purpose the pair of snuffers which naturalinstinct has supplied him with. At the same time, it must be admittedthat no professional man can expect employment, without he can flourisha pocket-handkerchief.

  As for the divine, he soon found that religion was not a commodityrequired in so young a country, and that he might just as well havespeculated in sending a cargo of skates to the West Indies, or supplyingMussulmans with swine. The merits of the voluntary system had not beenyet appreciated in Texas; and if he did preach, he had to preach byhimself, not being able to obtain a clerk to make the responses.

  As we travelled along the dreary prairies, these five Eldorado seekersproved to be jovial fellows, and there was about them an elasticity oftemper which did not allow them to despond. The divine had made up hismind to go to Rome, and convert the Pope, who, after all, was a cleverold _bon vivant_; the doctor would go to Edinburgh, and get selected,from his superior skill, as president of the Surgical College; one ofthe lawyers determined he would "run for legislature," or keep a bar (awhisky one); the second wished to join the Mormons, who were a set ofclever blackguards; and the third thought of going to China, to teachthe celestial brother of the sun to use the Kentucky rifle and "brushthe English." Some individuals in England have reproached me withindulging too much in building castles in the air; but certainly,compared to those of a Yankee in search after wealth, mine have beenmost sober speculations.

  Each of our new companions had some little Texan history to relate,which they declared to be the most rascally, but _smartish_ trick in theworld. One of the lawyers was once summoned before a magistrate, and afalse New Orleans fifty-dollar bank-note was presented to him, as theidentical one he had given to the clerk of Tremont House (the greathotel at Galveston), in payment of his weekly bill. Now, the lawyer hadoften dreamed of fifties, hundreds, and even of thousands; but fortunehad been so fickle with him, that he had never been in possession ofbank-notes higher than five or ten dollars, except one of the gloriousCairo Bank twenty-dollar notes, which his father presented to him inBaltimore, when he advised him most paternally to try his luck inthe West.

  By the bye, that twenty-dollar Cairo note's adventures should be writtenin gold letters, for it enabled the traveller to eat, sleep, and drink,free of cost, from Louisvi
lle to St. Louis, through Indiana andIllinois; any tavern-keeper preferring losing the price of a bed, or ofa meal, sooner than run the risk of returning good change for bad money.The note was finally changed in St. Louis for a three-dollar, bank ofSpringfield, which being yet current, at a discount of four cents to thedollar, enabled the fortunate owner to take his last tumbler ofport-wine sangaree before his departure for Texas.

  Of course, the lawyer had no remorse of conscience, in swearing thatthe note had never been his, but the tavern-keeper and two witnessesswore to his having given it, and the poor fellow was condemned torecash and pay expenses. Having not a cent, he was allowed to go, for itso happened that the gaol was not built for such vagabonds, but for thegovernment officers, who had their sleeping apartments in it. Thiscircumstance occasioned it to be remarked by a few commonly honestpeople of Galveston, that if the gates of the gaol were closed at night,the community would be much improved.

  Three days afterwards, a poor captain, from a Boston vessel, wassummoned for the very identical bank-note, which he was obliged to pay,though he had never set his foot into the Tremont Hotel.

  There is in Galveston a new-invented trade, called "the rag-trade,"which is very profitable. I refer to the purchasing and selling of falsebank-notes, which are, as in the lawyer's case, palmed upon any strangersuspected of having money. On such occasions, the magistrate and theplaintiff share the booty. I may as well here add a fact which is wellknown in France and the United States. Eight days after the Marquis deSaligny's (French charge d'affaires) arrival in Houston, he was summonedbefore a magistrate, and upon the oaths of the parties, found guilty ofhaving passed seven hundred dollars in false notes to a land speculator.He paid the money, but as he never had had in his possession any money,except French gold and notes of the Banque de France, he complained tohis government; and this specimen of Texan honesty was the principalcause why the banker (Lafitte) suddenly broke the arrangement he hadentered into with General Hamilton (charge d'affaires from Texas toEngland and France) for a loan of seven millions of dollars.