CHAPTER FIVE.
I HAVE CAUSE TO REJOICE THAT I DID NOT AVENGE MYSELF--MY GREAT MEDICINEWORK--I RISE IN THE ESTIMATION OF MY NEW FRIENDS--AN INDIAN ENCAMPMENT--AM OFFERED A WIFE, BUT COMPELLED TO DECLINE THE HONOUR--JOHN PIPESTICK--SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES--A FIERCE ATTACK--WE FIGHT WITH DESPERATION, ANDRESOLVE TO DIE LIKE BRAVE MEN.
The disappointment of my Ottoe friends was very considerable when theyfound all their enemies killed, and not even a scalp remaining to carryoff as a trophy; besides which, a large portion of the propertycontained in the tent had been destroyed. There was still enough,however, to be looked upon as a valuable prize by the red-skins, and Iaccordingly begged them to appropriate it. This they, without any showof reluctance, did, and immediately set to work to hollow out a largehole under the snow where they might bury it. How thankful I felt thatmy hand had refrained from slaughtering those poor wretches when theylay in my power.
As I considered the subject, I had no doubt of the cause of thecatastrophe. After the savages had consumed the cask of spirits theyhad fallen on the barrel of gunpowder, probably hoping that it mightcontain more of their favourite fire-water. They were very likelysmoking at the time, and perhaps all bending round the cask in theireagerness to get some of its contents. A spark from one of their pipesmust in an instant have finished their business. I cannot say that Iindulged in any sentimental grief at what had occurred. It wasvexatious to lose so many things which might have been of use, but themost serious loss was that of the gunpowder. Fortunately, however, Ihad a good supply, which would last for some time. I never was addictedto burning gunpowder uselessly.
The warriors proposed to await the arrival of the rest of the partywhere we were, but I entreated them to return to meet their friends. Ipointed out to them that perhaps other bands of Pawnees might be movingabout--probably, as I found was the case, suffering from hunger; andthat first their wives and those with them, and then we ourselves, mightbe overpowered. John Pipestick translated what I said, and finally theywere persuaded to follow my advice. They laughed very much when Iproposed to bury the remains of the dead men, and replied that it wouldbe just as well to let the wolves perform that office, which in thecourse of another night they certainly would do. They found quiteenough labour, indeed, in concealing the remains of my property. Afterthey had dug the hole they deposited all the articles within, and thenbuilt up a pile of logs over it, which even an inquisitive bear wouldhave had some difficulty in pulling to pieces.
My chief anxiety was now about Obed. I got the Ottoes to describe to meexactly the position of their village, about a hundred miles to thesouth-east of where we then were. Then I took one of the sticks whichhad served me for a crutch, and making a split in one end, I stuck theother deep into the ground. On a leaf which I tore from my pocket-book,I wrote a brief account of what had occurred and where I was going, andputting it into the cleft of the stick, bound the whole securely up.The Ottoes looked on with intense wonder at my proceedings, till Johntold them I was performing a great medicine work, which satisfied them.
Having thus done my best to enable Obed to join me, I set off with myfriends to return to their camp. I paused again for an instant when Ireached the summit of the hill, to take what I hoped might be a farewelllook at the place which had been the scene of so much suffering to me,and lately that of so dreadful a catastrophe. A small black patch onthe dazzling white plain alone was perceptible to mark the spot. Iturned from the contemplation of the melancholy scene, and hastenedafter my friends. I found them moving very leisurely along. I urgedJohn to persuade them to go faster. I could not cast from my mind thenotion that more parties of Pawnees, Dacotahs, or other hostile tribesmight be about, driven out by hunger to forage in the neighbourhood, andwere very likely to attack them. I had, therefore, what I might havecalled a presentiment that my friends were in danger. I am notgenerally influenced much by such sensations. Certainly I was moreliable to be so at the present moment than at any other. I do not denythe existence of such an influence, but still I cannot help thinkingthat it is caused by our reason, which tells us that such a thing islikely to happen. Sometimes it does happen, but often probably we findthat we are mistaken. My red friends had an idea that the stick I hadplaced in the ground had something to do with the matter, and that I waspositively informed of what was about to occur, so hurried on fasterthan I found agreeable.
My feet had become very sore from my previous exercise, and whenever wecame to soft places they sunk into the snow, the thick cake of ice abovecutting my ankles almost to the bone. Sometimes I felt that I muststop, but I was anxious to help my new friends, and I knew that it wouldnever do even to appear to flag on such an occasion. I had won theirgood opinion by the powers of endurance I had hitherto exhibited. Theyespecially admired me for killing the two Pawnees, and for escaping fromtheir comrades; though they could not understand why I had not destroyedthe whole gang when I had the power of doing so, and of adorning my beltwith their scalps. I saw, therefore, that it would be verydisadvantageous to me to run any risk of being lowered in theirestimation. John Pipestick and one of the Indians remained with me,while the others went on faster ahead; but, exerting myself to theutmost, we pushed on to overtake them. Besides the idea which I hadoriginated that their friends might be attacked, hunger induced them tomove at a rapid rate; for they had brought but a scanty supply ofprovisions with them, and they had no means of cooking the rice found inthe tent. We were passing a wood when I stopped my companions, for myeye had fallen on several prairie-fowls sitting on the boughs of one ofthe outer trees a little way off.
"We should have no chance of hitting at this distance," said JohnPipestick.
"Stay then, I will try what my rifle can do," I answered; and creepingcarefully up till I got them within easy range, I settled in my mindwhich bird I should fire at with my first, and which with my secondbarrel. I let fly; down tumbled a bird, and the next barrel was evenmore fortunate than the first, for two birds were brought to the ground.Both my companions warmly expressed their delight. I had establishedmy fame as a first-rate shot, and had, moreover, provided the wholeparty with a meal. Knowing how welcome we should be, my companionshelping me along, we pushed on, and at length overtook our friends,preparing to camp for half an hour or so in the thicket, that they mightbe the better able afterwards to pursue their course.
I need not say that the game I brought was thankfully welcomed, and veryquickly cooked and consumed. I found that the Indians were growinganxious at not by this time meeting with the rest of their party, andthey were about, while resting, to hold a consultation as to what courseto pursue. We were soon again in motion; night or day made nodifference to us. On we pushed. It was about noon when, on reaching aheight, we saw a thin light smoke curling up into the pure, intense bluesky, from the bottom of a pine-clad ravine below us. All appeared torest in perfect peace and quietness, and I began to be ashamed of mynervous anxieties. I was greatly afraid that I should lose my influencewith my friends, and as my predictions, or rather warnings, had not beenverified, I should in future be looked on as a false prophet.
"There are our friends, most probably," said John Pipestick; "but wedon't proceed as carelessly as you people from the East are apt to do.We shall send out scouts and approach cautiously, lest our enemiesdevise some means to destroy us. Such a thing has been done before now.Those left in an encampment while the rest have been out hunting havebeen attacked and slaughtered, while their enemies have taken possessionof their tents, and dressed and painted themselves like those they havekilled. There they have remained till the hunting-party haveunsuspiciously returned, perhaps a few at a time, and thus all in detailhave fallen victims. It was a clever trick, but we should deserve todie if we allowed it to be repeated on us."
While John was speaking, three of our party, making a wide circuit,crept cautiously forward towards the edge of the ravine, so that theymight look down and see what was going on below. We, meantime, lay downbehind some bushe
s so as to be completely concealed, the chief onlykeeping watch, that he might direct us to act according tocircumstances. I could not help admiring their caution, though it wasvery tiresome to wait in the cold instead of being within their warmtents. At last the chief gave the sign for us to proceed. I startedup, prepared to meet the enemy I expected. We advanced towards the edgeof the ravine and began to descend, when we caught sight of the tentspitched at the bottom of it, the smoke issuing forth from the aperturesin their summits. I inquired of John Pipestick if all was right.
"Yes, all right," he answered; "no enemies have come; they may perhapsthough; but we shall not remain here many hours."
The scene was very different from any I had, for many weeks, set eyeson. By the side of what I knew was a stream were three tents. Each wasformed of some eighteen or twenty long, slender rods, the butt-end stuckin the ground, in a circle, and the tops bent over to meet each other,forming the framework of the habitation. Over this was stretched acovering of buffalo-skins, very neatly sewed together with thin stripsof leather, and secured so firmly at the foot with pegs, that it was astight as a drum, and capable of throwing off any amount of rain, or thesnow melting from the heat within. The hides, being tanned white, had avery neat and tent-like look. I cannot say much for the cleanlinessinside, but I have been compelled in my wanderings to put up in dirtierplaces, and that is all I can say in their favour.
These habitations are much more substantial than the wigwams of theCanadian Indians, which are formed in a conical shape by uniting at thetop a dozen straight poles stuck in a circle in the ground, and bycovering them thickly with birch-bark. In both cases a hole is left atthe top to serve as a chimney. Inside the tents of my present friendsthe ground was spread with mats all round the edges, except in thecentre, where a bare spot was left for the fire-place. Many of thetribes differ in the way of forming their cooking-place, and often theonly means of ascertaining whether friends or foes have encamped on thespot, is by an examination of the place where they have lit their fires.The cots for the babies, and the pots and pans, and bows and arrows,and fishing-spears, and buffalo tongues, and bears' hams, withnumberless other articles, are hung up to the tent rods, and oftengarnish them rather oddly.
As we approached the tents, men, women, and children hurried out to meetus, and welcomed us warmly, all eager to hear our adventures. ButIndians are not addicted to rattling out news, as is our habit in theold country, so they had to wait till various ceremonies were first gonethrough.
The old chief invited me into his tent, an honour John advised me not torefuse, and then having sat down before his fire, and taken off my outercoat and my torn moccasins, his women-kind hooked out of a huge pothanging from the centre over the fire, a lump of bear's flesh, andseveral other dainties, the exact nature of which I could not at firstlearn. Curiosity prompted me to inquire, by holding up a piece of themeat between my thumb and fingers, when a respectable old dame, whom Itook to be his spouse, replied by a "_bow-wow-wow_," by which I guessedrightly that it was a bit of a young puppy.
A few days afterwards a deep "bow-wow-wow" showed me that I was diningoff an older animal of the same species. I cannot say that I had anyrepugnance to the meat, for after living on wolves' flesh for so long itwas to me a delicate luxury. I objected rather to the quantitythan the quality of the food placed before me, for the oldchief--_Waggum-winne-beg_ was his name, at least it sounded like that--wishing to do me unusual honour, gave me a double allowance each time hestuck his stick into the pot. I expressed my gratitude as well as Icould, and pointed first to my chest and then to my throat, to show himthat I thought the food must have got thus high; but he only laughed,and kept on helping me as before. At last I stuck a piece in my mouth,and pretended that I could not get it down further; but he was too goodan anatomist to be so taken in, and offered to get a ramrod to help medown with it.
"Now, old fellow," said I, getting savage, "it may be a very good joketo you; but more I will not eat, and that's enough."
Luckily John Pipestick coming in, explained that though Englishmen eatas much as any red-skins, they were in the habit of taking severalmoderate meals during every day throughout the year, and that the Indianfashion of one day gormandising, and for many days starving, would notsuit them. I was not sorry to find that my friends were almost as muchtired as I was, and that they would remain another whole day to rest.
During the day, however, I received a piece of information from JohnPipestick, which somewhat discomposed me. I found that the old chief,my host Waggum-winne-beg, proposed bestowing on me one of his daughtersto become my wife. Now, although I had no dislike to the notion ofmatrimony, I had a decided preference for a wife of my own colour andstyle of education. Miss Waggum-winne-beg was a very charming younglady, I had no doubt, and could dress a puppy-dog to perfection, andcould manufacture moccasins unsurpassed by those of any other youngdamsel in the tribe, and embroider with coloured grass, or make mats ofgreat beauty; indeed, I cannot enumerate all her accomplishments andattractions. Still she had not won my heart, and indeed, a wife,whether white, or red, or black, would have been very inconvenient whileI was leading my present wandering style of life. I gave this as thebest reason I could think of for not accepting my host's generous offer;but he laughed at my scruples, and replied that I should find a wifevery useful, as she could work for me, and carry my gun and baggage ofevery description; that she would also cook my food and make mymoccasins and tent covering, and weave fringe for my leggings and othergarments, and manufacture the mats and various requisite utensils.Indeed it would be difficult to find, in any part of the world, soaccomplished a young lady, or one more industrious and obedient; that Imight always beat her as much as I liked, if I found her either idle ordisobedient.
I begged Pipestick to explain that, however good the customs of thered-skins were--a point I did not wish then to dispute--those of theEnglish differed from them; that there were a few idle, lazy,good-for-nothing fellows in England, among the chiefs, who looked outfor wives with fortunes, and among the lower classes, who made theirwives work for them, but it was the pride and endeavour of all truebraves to secure the means of supporting their wives, either throughinheriting a fortune from their ancestors, or by the exertion of theirown strength and talents, and that this latter way was considered themost honourable. This was the method I proposed to follow, and before Icould accept the peerless daughter of the chief, I must procure themeans of supporting her. Pipestick did not exactly understand thereasons I gave for declining the chief's offer, but he explained them aswell as he could. I was rather thunder-struck when the chief remarkedthat, though he approved of them highly, he would waive all sucharrangements in my case, and that he would supply his daughter withample goods and chattels for our use. To this I could only reply that Iwas highly flattered by his preference, but that it was against mymedicine to avail myself of his offer; that I was an Ottoe at heart;that I loved the Ottoes, and would fight for the Ottoes, and that thetime might come when I should be an Ottoe indeed; but that, at present,my medicine did not show me how that was to be accomplished.
The name of the young lady, the subject of this long conversation, was,I found, the "Firefly"; and certainly, as I watched her light figure,decked with red feathers and garments with red trimmings, I thought shewas very appropriately so called; at the same time, I did not for onemoment indulge the base idea of accepting the chief's offer. My earnestdesire was to find my way back, as soon as possible, to the society ofcivilised men. I was heartily glad, then, when, once more, our tentswere struck, and we continued our journey. As we travelled with women,children, and a wagon, our progress was very much slower than when wehad gone alone. Often it was hard work getting the wagon through thesnow. Generally the poor women had to drag it; and I rather scandalisedthe red warriors by putting my shoulder very frequently to the wheel andby pushing on behind. Pipestick said that it was considered veryderogatory to the dignity of a warrior. I said that I thought it mightbe
disagreeable to the inclinations of an idle rascal; but that chiefsin my country never let their wives do any hard work at all, and that Icould not bear to stalk on ahead with only my rifle at my back, whilethe poor creatures were toiling away in that fashion. I supposePipestick translated my remarks correctly, for the chiefs tossed theirheads and afterwards had a very long talk about the matter. I saw thatthey began to look on me as a sad republican, and to suspect that Ipurposed introducing mutiny into their camp.
At last we reached the spot where I had spent so many weeks of sufferingand anxiety. Scarcely a particle of the remains of the Indians were tobe seen, but a few scattered bones and torn bits of garments. Thethings hidden by the Ottoes were untouched, so they dug them up, and Ihaving added a few words to the paper in my medicine stick, as I calledit, we proceeded on our way. We encamped four or five miles off thatnight, and the next day made good very nearly fifteen miles. The tentswere pitched on the lee side of a wood, where there was but little snow,and the air was comparatively warm. All hands, that is to say the womenand children, were soon employed in gathering sticks for our fires, andin digging up hickory nuts. It was the chief occupation of the men inthe evening, as they sat round the fire, to crack and chew these nuts:the taste indeed was pleasant. The camp was not left altogether withoutsome fortification. The wagon was placed in front, and some logs ofhalf rotten timber were dragged out, and served to fill up the spaceleft open in the little nook in which the tents were ensconced.
John Pipestick had a tent of his own, but he came to the old chiefstent, where I had been asked to take up my abode, to act as interpreter.We sat up till a late hour, cracking nuts and telling very long-windedstories, which, as Pipestick occasionally interpreted them for mybenefit, took up a double portion of time, and were not especiallyinteresting. I was not sorry, at last, to find myself comfortablycovered up by a pile of buffalo-skins, with the prospect of a soundsleep till daylight.
How long I had slept I do not know, when I was awoke by the barking ofone of the dogs, then by another and another, till the whole tribe werein full yelp, in every key, from full bass to double treble. The oldchief sprang off his couch, so did I, and as we rushed out of the tent,we found all the warriors standing on the alert, and with their riflesin their hands, peering out into the darkness. Two or three advancedcautiously into the wood, the dogs following at their heels yelpingfuriously, till they were summoned back by those in the camp. I triedto discover the cause of the alarm, but could discover nothing over thewhite plain spread out before us. If there were enemies, they were inthe wood; but to see them was impossible. We waited for the return ofthe scouts. There was a complete silence: the howl of the wolves hadceased; not a night-bird disturbed the quiet of the night. Suddenly apiercing, terror-inspiring, unearthly shriek was heard ringing throughthe quiet wood. Directly afterwards the feet of one of the scouts, aswe supposed, were heard rushing through the wood. It was one of ourcompanions. The whirl of a dozen tomahawks flying after him showed howclosely he was pursued, as he broke into the encampment, crying out,"The enemy are upon us, the enemy are upon us!" What made the suspensemore trying was, that not a foe could be seen. We had no doubt thatthey were there in strong force, and that the two other scouts had beensurprised and slaughtered by them. Probably the wood swarmed with them,yet I did not see a sign of fear among any of my friends. OldWaggum-winne-beg was in his element, and he was ably seconded by JohnPipestick. To send any more scouts into the wood would have beenperfect madness; so, each man sheltering himself as best he could behindtrees and bushes, and logs of fallen timbers, we waited in silence forthe attack. Some time passed away.
"I wonder if it is a false alarm," thought I. "Still, if it is so, whathas become of the scouts?" I whispered to Pipestick that I thought itmight be a mistake.
"Not at all," was the answer; "wait a bit. It you ever shot well, shootwell now, if you care for your scalp."
The advice had scarcely been given, when there arose a sound close tous, more hideous and terrific than I ever before heard in my life. Thered-skin's war-whoop was heard above all. I turned my head for aninstant to the east. The first faint streaks of dawn were appearing inthe sky. Through the pale light thus afforded I could see a number ofdark forms flitting about among the trees, while they kept up acontinued discharge of arrows and darts. Now and then a musket-ballcame whizzing by us; but it was very evident that the greater number ofour assailants were armed only with bows and arrows; at the same timethere could be no doubt that they very far outnumbered us. This wouldprove of serious consequence should they come to close quarters.
Red-skins, however, are not fond of close quarters, unless they can takean enemy by surprise, which our dogs and scouts had prevented them doingin our case. I do not think it is fair to call them cowards. Theirnotions are altogether different to ours, and they consider stratagemand deceit as the chief art of warfare. They have no notion of riskingtheir own lives, if they can by any other way destroy their enemies, andthey consider white men as committing the height of folly when theystand up and exchange shots with similar weapons in a duel. I don'tknow that they are far wrong.
Our assailants, having tried to shake our nerves by their shrieks andshowers of arrows, appeared to retire, and again the whole wood waswrapped in perfect silence. It was but of short continuation. Oncemore those unearthly shrieks and cries broke forth, and this time theywere echoed by our people, who kept their muskets ready, and the momentan enemy appeared flitting from one tree to another, did not fail tofire--with what effect I had not time to observe. I felt that I wasbound, on every account, to take an active part in the fight, andkneeling down behind a log of timber, I loaded and fired as rapidly as Icould, whenever my eye caught sight of the dusky form of an Indianwarrior. I did not often miss, but I suspected that I inflicted morewounds on the limbs than on the bodies of our enemies.
"Who are they, think you?" I asked of Pipestick, who was at my side.
"Dacotahs or Pawnees," he answered. "They have had scouts on our trailfor some time probably. When they discovered that their friends weredestroyed, they thought that we had done the deed, and have come inforce resolved to be revenged."
It appeared to me that we might as well have tried to shoot down all thetrees in the wood, as to destroy our enemies. They swarmed round uslike hornets, seemingly resolved, as John observed, to cut us off to aman. I turned my eye to the right; a band was just emerging on thatside from the wood, and the same minute I saw another coming out on theleft, in a long line, evidently for the purpose of surrounding us. Ipicked off two or three fellows as they flew over the snow, but so rapidand eccentric were their movements, that it was no easy matter to get afair shot at them, especially as all the time we were assailed withshowers of arrows. Some were sent from too great a distance to do usmuch harm; but at the same time they not a little distracted us. Othersagain had more deadly effect. Some of our people were struck down; twowere killed outright, the arrows passing right through their bodies;while several were more or less injured. I, happily, had hithertoescaped unhurt, and so had Pipestick; but the old chief was wounded inthe arm, and one of the poor little children was killed, in spite of theprotection its mother attempted to afford it. This made me feel morebitter than anything else, and yet such an incident is but a too commonconsequence of warfare.
The old chief proved himself well worthy of the dignity bestowed on him.By word and gesture he animated his people to fight bravely, and toresist to the last; and every time they raised one of their war-whoops,he led the chorus, which these returned with no less vehemence. Still,as I considered the matter, I began to apprehend that we were completelyin the power of our vindictive enemies. While we were inside ourentrenchments, they knew that it was more prudent not to come to thehand-to-hand encounter; but if we attempted to move onward, we should beinstantly surrounded and cut down. The Dacotahs had enough men to keepwatch and watch, and to tire us out. Had we been a party of men alone,we might have c
ut our way through them; but, of course, with the womenand children that was impossible. As long as the powder lasted we mightkeep them at bay; and thus all we could do was to hold out bravely, andto hope that some turn might occur in our favour.
The cold grey dawn was just breaking, when with shrieks and whoopslouder, more terrific than ever, numbers of the savages rushed out ofthe wood, closely pressing round us. To count how many there were wasimpossible, for they flew here and there, and sprang about in a mostwonderful way, and then on they came in a body towards us. Several ofour people were knocked over, and as I saw the hideous fellowsflourishing their tomahawks and scalping-knives, I began to feel a mostpainful sensation round the top of my head. The old chief stood boldlyat his post, picking off his enemies as they drew near, while JohnPipestick did no dishonour to his father's land or the men of Kent, Idid my best to reduce the number of our foes, but it was of littleavail, and in another instant we were engaged, with overwhelmingnumbers, in a desperate hand-to-hand conflict. I looked round; not aray of hope appeared, and thus like brave men we resolved to make ourfoes pay a heavy price for our lives.
Dick Onslow Among the Redskins Page 5
