By the time we had secured our booty it was noon, and we recovered from our fatigue over a cup of coffee and maize cake, then we went back to the spot we had started from and followed the swarm to the small affluent, where we found the bees in another old plane close to the prairie. We also robbed this tree; it was even richer than the first, and contained layers of honey probably fifteen years old, the oldest of which were nearly black. When we had finished this job our two casks were full, and the bucket loaded with quite fresh comb.
Evening had arrived, and the bees had collected in a dense mass on a branch of the felled tree. We held an open sack under them, shook them in, and then rode back to the first tree, whose colony we also took. We returned home with our sweet stores, emptied our sacks into two hollow trees, and placed them on a scaffolding near the fort. The honey was conveyed to the storeroom, and the wax melted and laid by when cold in plates. The Indians keep their honey and bear lard in fresh deer hides, which they slit as little as possible in skinning; they cut off the neck and legs, sew the openings up very tightly with sinews, fill the skin, and close the last opening in the same way, into which they thrust a reed and squeeze the honey as they want it through the latter. The honey keeps in this way very well, and is easier to carry on horseback than in hand vessels. We employed the honey in every way sugar is used in the civilized world. We sweetened our coffee and tea with, it, employed it in cooking various dishes, in preserving fruit, such as grapes, plums, mulberries, &c. In a word, it fully took the place of that expensive and hardly procurable product of civilization, and could always be obtained in such quantities that we never ran short of it. When hunting in the neighbourhood we very often found bee trees, which we marked in order to plunder them as we wanted.
Our table was now enriched by a fresh delicacy which we enjoyed during the winter months: it consisted of wild ducks and geese. These birds visited our river at this season in great numbers, and spread in flocks over the water. The very lofty banks, the numerous sharp turns, and the insignificant breadth of the stream rendered it extraordinarily easy to kill heaps of these birds in a short time. I usually took with me two guns and a man with a pack horse, who followed at some distance and placed the dead birds on the saddle. I followed the steep river bank, every now and then creeping down to the incline, and could then see from one bend to the other where the birds were resting on the water. I generally contrived to creep through the wood exactly over this spot, without the birds perceiving me. I then whistled, while holding the muzzle of my very large gun over the bank, and the birds in their fright drew closer together. Then I sent a charge of shot among them, and fired the other right among the rising flock. Then I took the other gun and sent the contents of both barrels after the flying ducks or geese. I frequently shot in this way twenty in one flock. The remainder generally joined the next flock farther down the stream. Trusty and some spaniels accompanied me on this chase and fetched the shot birds.
Most of the ducks and geese that visited us were very like the European, though rather larger; both are very fat and well tasted, which is probably caused by the splendid acorns they find among us. We generally carried a whole load home, from which we merely cut the breasts, legs, and livers, and boiled them into a jelly.
One afternoon, when Tiger had ridden off at an early hour in pursuit of game, I took my gun to go after geese down the river, which I heard croaking from the fort: I went out without calling a dog, and ran down to the water; I passed the garden and the ford, where the river winds to the north in the wood, and went into the bushes in order to approach the geese, which I had seen about a hundred yards farther on. All at once I heard something like the footfall of a horse echo through the forest on the opposite side. I listened, and convinced myself that I was not mistaken. Tiger had gone southward in the morning to Mustang Creek, and I could not imagine how he was now returning from the north. I lay down among the bushes, so as to keep an eye on the ford: the noise drew nearer, till a mounted Indian appeared on a path on the opposite side, who stopped there and looked cautiously around.
After a while the Redskin crossed the ford, ascended the opposite bank, and taking his long rifle in his right hand, he led his horse into a thick bush about forty paces ahead of me. There he fastened it up, laid his rifle across his left arm, and shook fresh powder into the pan from his horn. What could the Indian intend, and to what tribe did he belong? These questions occurred to me simultaneously with the suspicion that he might probably have hostile designs. My gun was loaded with not very heavy shot, but it carried as far as the Indian's rifle, though it did not kill so certainly. I had, however, some slugs in my hunting pouch, and while he was repriming, I, as I lay flat on the ground, pulled out two of the largest bullets that fitted my gun. I thrust them both into the barrels, and then slowly drew the ramrod, pressed two paper wads on the bullets, and returned the ramrod to its place.
During this the Indian had returned his powder-horn to its place, taken his tomahawk from the saddle and thrust it through his belt, woven several large leafy branches of evergreen myrtle and rhododendron under his saddle, so that they concealed the colour of his light horse, and then, leaving the path, went in a stooping posture through the wood toward my garden. I cautiously followed him at a distance of about one hundred yards, bending down close to the ground, continually keeping behind the bushes and disappearing in the grass when he stopped or made a movement as if to look round. He seemed, however, only to keep his eye on the garden, and bent lower the nearer he got to it. Suddenly he fell into the tall grass between the evergreen bushes, and disappeared from my sight. Had he heard me or seen me fall down? The point now was which of us should see the other first. The grass in which I lay was not very high, but green bushes hung down to the ground in front of me, too close to be seen through by my foe, but still leaving me sufficient gaps through which to peep, while the bushes round him were scrubby and the grass alone concealed him. If he had seen me he would certainly not remain lying, as he would have the worst of it.
I had raised myself sufficiently to survey his place, and after a while noticed the grass waving a little to the left of the spot where I had last seen him. Everything became still and motionless again, and we lay thus for nearly a quarter of an hour, when I saw the Indian raise his head out of the grass and look about him; he had not noticed me yet, or else he would not have exposed himself so recklessly to my fire. He rose slowly and glided towards the garden; he got close to the fence, which was made of ten logs placed in a zigzag over each other, and on the outerside were heaped up the branches of the trees from which the wood for the palisades had been cut. I had put this up to prevent the buffaloes and deer from forcing their way into the garden.
The Indian now stepped close to the wall of dry branches, while I lay in the bushes about a hundred yards behind him. He stopped, looked into the garden for a long time, and then round the wood; he then stooped and crept under the brushwood up to the fence, seated himself crosslegged close to the latter, and laid his rifle across one of the logs. While he was working his way through the branches and brushwood, I crept on all-fours nearer to him and remained behind an oak about forty yards from him. Just as I reached the tree, I broke a thin dry branch with my hand, and the very slight sound scarce reached the savage's ear, ere he started round and gazed intently in my direction. I did not stir, but held my gun firmly, with the determination that he should not leave the spot alive.
He looked towards me for nearly a quarter of an hour, still trusting to the sharpness of his ears, when suddenly one of my men, who was coming down from the fort with two buckets to fill at the spring, could be heard whistling on the other side of the garden. The Indian started round, thrust his rifle through the fence, pointed at the spring, and knelt down behind its long barrel. At the same instant I sprang out from behind the oak, raised my gun, and sent the charge of the right-hand barrel between the savage's shoulders; he leapt up, and while doing so, I gave him the second charge, after which he fell backwards into the brushwood. I shouted to my man who, in his alarm, was running back to the fort, and rushed to the Indian, who was writhing in his blood and striking around with hands and feet. My comrade hurried through the garden, and clambering over the fence, gazed down at the shot man in horror. I explained to him in a few words how accident had preserved his life, as the savage had been lying in wait for him and had his rifle pointed at him, and I then buried my knife in the heart of the quivering savage. We took his rifle and medicine bag, fetched his horse after I had reloaded, and took it up to the fort, where we fastened it inside the enclosure.