Strange True Stories of Louisiana
Page 9
V.
DOWN BAYOU PLAQUEMINE--THE FIGHT WITH WILD NATURE.
Plaquemine was composed of a church, two stores, as many drinking-shops,and about fifty cabins, one of which was the court-house. Here lived amultitude of Catalans, Acadians, negroes, and Indians. When Suzanne andMaggie, accompanied by my father and John Gordon, went ashore, I declinedto follow, preferring to stay aboard with Joseph and Alix. It was atPlaquemine that we bade adieu to the old Mississippi. Here our flatboatmade a detour and entered Bayou Plaquemine.[12]
Hardly had we started when our men saw and were frightened by the force ofthe current. The enormous flatboat, that Suzanne had likened to a gianttortoise, darted now like an arrow, dragged by the current. The people ofPlaquemine had forewarned our men and recommended the greatest prudence."Do everything possible to hold back your boat, for if you strike any ofthose tree-trunks of which the bayou is full it would easily sink you."Think how reassuring all this was, and the more when they informed us thatthis was the first time a flatboat had ventured into the bayou!
Mario, swearing in all the known languages, sought to reassure us, and,aided by his two associates, changed the manoeuvring, and with watchfuleye found ways to avoid the great uprooted trees in which the lakes andbayous of Attakapas abound. But how clouded was Carpentier's brow! And myfather? Ah! he repented enough. Then he realized that gold is not alwaysthe vanquisher of every obstacle. At last, thanks to Heaven, our flatboatcame off victor over the snags, and after some hours we arrived at theIndian village of which you have heard me tell.
If I was afraid at sight of a dozen savages among the Spaniards ofPlaquemine, what was to become of me now? The bank was entirely coveredwith men, their faces painted, their heads full of feathers, moccasins ontheir feet, and bows on shoulder--Indians indeed, with women simplywrapped in blankets, and children without the shadow of a garment; and allthese Indians running, calling to one another, making signs to us, andaddressing us in incomprehensible language. Suzanne, standing up on thebow of the flatboat, replied to their signs and called with all the forceof her lungs every Indian word that--God knows where--she had learned:
"Chacounam finnan! O Choctaw! Conno Poposso!" And the Indians clappedtheir hands, laughing with pleasure and increasing yet more their gesturesand cries.
The village, about fifty huts, lay along the edge of the water. Theunfortunates were not timid. Presently several came close to the flatboatand showed us two deer and some wild turkeys and ducks, the spoils oftheir hunting. Then came the women laden with sacks made of bark and fullof blackberries, vegetables, and a great quantity of baskets; showing all,motioning us to come down, and repeating in French and Spanish, "Money,money!"
It was decided that Mario and Gordon should stay on board and that all therest of the joyous band should go ashore. My father, M. Carpentier, and'Tino loaded their pistols and put them into their belts. Suzanne didlikewise, while Maggie called Tom, her bulldog, to follow her. Celestedeclined to go, because of her children. As to Alix and me, a terriblecontest was raging in us between fright and curiosity, but the latterconquered. Suzanne and papa laughed so about our fears that Alix, lesscowardly than I, yielded first, and joined the others. This was too much.Grasping my father's arm and begging him not to leave me for an instant, Ilet him conduct me, while Alix followed me, taking her husband's arm inboth her hands. In front marched 'Tino, his gun on his shoulder; after himwent Maggie, followed by Tom; and then Suzanne and little Patrick,inseparable friends.
Hardly had we gone a few steps when we were surrounded by a human wall,and I realized with a shiver how easy it would be for these savages to getrid of us and take all our possessions. But the poor devils certainlynever thought of it: they showed us their game, of which papa bought thegreater part, as well as several sacks of berries, and also vegetables.
But the baskets! They were veritable wonders. As several of those that Ibought that day are still in your possession, I will not lose much timetelling of them. How those half-savage people could make things so wellcontrived and ornamented with such brilliant colors is still a problem tous. Papa bought for mamma thirty-two little baskets fitting into oneanother, the largest about as tall as a child of five years, and thesmallest just large enough to receive a thimble. When he asked the price Iexpected to hear the seller say at least thirty dollars, but his humblereply was five dollars. For a deer he asked one dollar; for a wild turkey,twenty-five cents. Despite the advice of papa, who asked us how we weregoing to carry our purchases home, Suzanne and I bought, between us, morethan forty baskets, great and small. To papa's question, Suzanne repliedwith an arch smile:
"God will provide."
Maggie and Alix also bought several; and Alix, who never forgot any one,bought two charming little baskets that she carried to Celeste. Each ofus, even Maggie, secured a broad parti-colored mat to use on the deck asa couch _a la Turque_. Our last purchases were two Indian bows painted redand blue and adorned with feathers; the first bought by Celestino Carlo,and the other by Suzanne for her chevalier, Patrick Gordon.
An Indian woman who spoke a little French asked if we would not like tovisit the queen. We assented, and in a few moments she led us into a hutthatched with palmetto leaves and in all respects like the others. Itsinterior was disgustingly unclean. The queen was a woman quite or nearly ahundred years old. She sat on a mat upon the earth, her arms crossed onher breast, her eyes half closed, muttering between her teeth somethingresembling a prayer. She paid no attention to us, and after a moment wewent out. We entered two or three other huts and found the same povertyand squalor. The men did not follow us about, but the women--the wholetribe, I think--marched step by step behind us, touching our dresses, our_capuches_, our jewelry, and asking for everything; and I felt wellcontent when, standing on our deck, I could make them our last signs ofadieu.
Our flatboat moved ever onward. Day by day, hour by hour, every minute itadvanced--slowly it is true, in the diminished current, but it advanced. Ino longer knew where I was. We came at times where I thought we were lost;and then I thought of mamma and my dear sisters and my two pretty littlebrothers, whom I might never see again, and I was swallowed up. ThenSuzanne would make fun of me and Alix would caress me, and that did megood. There were many bayous,--a labyrinth, as papa said,--and Mario hadhis map at hand showing the way. Sometimes it seemed impracticable, and itwas only by great efforts of our men ["no zomme," says the original] thatwe could pass on. One thing is sure--those who traverse those same lakesand bayous to-day have not the faintest idea of what they were [il zete]in 1795.
Great vines hung down from lofty trees that shaded the banks and crossedone another a hundred--a thousand--ways to prevent the boat's passage andretard its progress, as if the devil himself was mixed in it; and,frankly, I believe that he had something to do with us in that cavern.Often our emigrants were forced to take their axes and hatchets in hand toopen a road. At other times tree-trunks, heaped upon one another,completely closed a bayou. Then think what trouble there was to unbar thatgate and pass through. And, to make all complete, troops of hungryalligators clambered upon the sides of our flatboat with jaws open todevour us. There was much outcry; I fled, Alix fled with me, Suzannelaughed. But our men were always ready for them with their guns.
FOOTNOTES:[12] Flowing, not into, but out of, the Mississippi, and, like it, towardsthe Gulf.--Translator.