The Backwoodsman; Or, Life on the Indian Frontier

by Unknown

I reloaded, went back to the bloody trail, and found the deer dead about thirty yards ahead. I broke it up, skinned it, and placed the rump and bits of the liver before the fire which I lit, while Trusty had the kidneys and then amused himself with the shoulder blades. I stretched the skin out before the fire, as I intended to take it with me to sleep on. I enjoyed my breakfast, to which I ate but little of the salt I carried in my bag in a bladder in case of need. Trusty had also eaten heartily and pacified his hunger. I cut some good lumps off the deer's back, filled my flask with fresh water, and set out once more, still hoping to reach the river. I walked up hill and down, having on my left the lofty mountain ranges, and in front of me a sea of rocks whose end I could not see. I was accustomed to such scenes of solitude, still I now greatly felt what a difference there is in looking down from the back of a stout horse on the desert and having to cross the enormous tracks on foot. The only anxiety that oppressed me was the agony my comrades must be feeling about me, as they would naturally suppose that some accident had happened to me. I knew they would not quit these mountains till they were certain of my fate, and I listened continually for signal shots. I dared not fire them for fear of expending my ammunition, and it would have been unnecessary, as they would certainly not neglect this method of showing me the road to them.

The day passed without my hearing the echo of a shot, and the sun was rather low when I reached a small stream whose banks were both rather thickly covered with wood. I resolved to spend the night here, as I had wood and water, and was protected from the weather, which had got up rather fiercely since the afternoon, I looked for a suitable spot, carried wood to a fallen tree, and was about to light my fire, when I looked up at the hill before me and felt a desire to take a look from it at the valley beyond to see whether the long looked-for river was there. It was still early, the sun had not yet set, and though I was tolerably tired I set out. I walked up a steep gorge into which several narrow passes opened on both sides; it was covered with several large masses of rock and loose stones, and the nearer I got to the top the narrower it grew, and the steeper were the precipices enclosing it.

I had just passed one of these narrow gorges on my right and was approaching a second, when I noticed an opposite pass on my left. I cautiously crept along the rock to be able to have a peep into this pass, and see whether there was any game in it, and was only a few yards from the angle of the wall, when suddenly a small bear, which I took for a one-year-old black bear, though it looked different, sprang from the pass on my right and hastened up the opposite one. As I said, it appeared to me rather smaller than a one-year-old black bear, but there was no time for reflection, and its skin might be of great service to me. I raised my rifle, fired, and saw the bear roll over the stones like a ball, uttering plaintive cries like those of a child; at the same instant the hasty bounds of a heavy animal reached my ears simultaneously with an awful roar. It became dark at the angle of the precipice before me, and the upright gigantic form of a grizzly bear appeared only a few paces from me. I fell back a step in horror, involuntarily stretched out my rifle to keep the bear off, and at the same moment saw Trusty fly past me under its belly. The rifle exploded—a fearful blow hurled me

back several yards against the precipice—my eyes flashed fire—I lost my senses and fell.

I must have lain here about half an hour, and on opening my eyes again felt that my forehead was wet and cold. I saw that Trusty was standing over me with his honest face and licking me. I got up and sprang on one side in horror, for close to me lay the shaggy body of the bear, with widely opened throat, from which a stream of black, curdled blood ran under me. It was a she bear whose three months' old cub I had shot, and she had wished to avenge its death. My guardian angel had saved me, for my bullet, which entered its throat and passed through the skull, had killed the bear on the spot. In its fall it had torn the rifle from my hand, and forced me back so violently that I had struck my head against the rock, and the pain deprived me of consciousness. As on so many previous occasions, an invisible hand had again saved me from a terrible danger, whose extent I could appreciate now that I saw the monster lying before me. I stood motionless reflecting on my position, when the hoot of a passing owl reminded me that night had set in. While reloading, I remembered that this was the pairing time of the bears, and that very possibly male bears would be following the female, and hence this was the most dangerous spot I could select. I went up to the cub, threw it on my back, and hurried down the gorge to my camping place, where I at once made a blaze, the safest and only way of protecting oneself against the four-footed denizens of these regions. I now saw for the first time that brave Trusty was covered with blood, and had three severe wounds on his back, dealt him by the bear. Two of them I at once sewed up and washed them repeatedly with the clear cold water by which I was camped. I then skinned the cub, put a sufficient quantity of its tender fat meat to roast at the fire, made a bed of brushwood, and after supper I rolled myself in the shaggy, fresh bear-hide upon my deer-skin, and fell into my usual sound sleep.

I had not been sleeping long when Trusty barked sharply several times, and I sat up and seized my rifle. A frightful howling of wolves rang from the heights through the valleys, and between it a hollow roar resembling that which the bear raised when she attacked me. The night was very dark, and the fire, which had burnt down, solely lit up the nearest spots, while I could only distinguish the outlines of some evergreen holly-trees around me standing out against the clear star-lit sky. I quickly threw some small wood in front of the glowing trunk and blew up the flame. At this moment I heard something dash away close by, and directly after, at the foot of the ravine, renewed howls and roars, while Trusty stood close by my side growling. I carried some heavy logs to the fire, rolled myself again in my warm skin, and fell asleep, though I only allowed one ear to sleep, as Tiger said. The howling lasted the whole night. I looked after my fire every now and then, and was waked by the dawn without having had my sleep any further disturbed. After breakfast, I hung the two skins on my back, and followed the valley for about three miles ere I crossed the heights to the north, as I wished to avoid the spot where the bear lay, upon which the wolves and bears had held a grand feast during the past night. On reaching the saddle of the mountain, the idea occurred to me for the first time that the lost river must necessarily flow to the north, and I was amazed at myself for not thinking of this sooner. Hence I marched due west, and saw about noon a chain of hills whose direction lay northward, which animated me with fresh hope of finding my comrades again. At the foot of these hills, from which spurs stretched out eastward like ribs, the valleys were thickly wooded, and displayed generally a richer vegetation than the small gulleys in which I had hitherto been marching. With much difficulty and toil I reached the mountain chain in a few hours, exhausted and starving; but the longing to learn whether I should find at its top a pleasanter change in my prospects did not let me rest. I selected the least steep spot, and climbed up over loose boulders which constantly rolled away under me and brought me down. I had only one hand at my service to hold on to the few mimosa bushes or to pull myself up, for I carried my rifle in the other, and would sooner have injured myself than it.

At last I climbed the last patch, bathed in perspiration and red-hot, and words fail to describe the joyous surprise which befel me, on seeing before me the wooded vale and river, which I had been seeking so long in vain. In the first joy of my heart I forgot that it was still very uncertain whether I should find my comrades there, and that my existence might depend on a charge more or less in my possession. I fired my rifle and listened attentively to its echo as it rolled away along the mountains. I halted for a long time awaiting an answer, but to no effect. I looked long up the river with my excellent telescope to try and discover smoke, but also without success. Far and wide the rocky landscape lay before me, with no other sign of life than that of the buzzards circling round the heights. I had been resting for about half an hour and cooling myself in the fresh breeze, when I seized my rifle and proceeded down to the valley, which I reached in a much shorter time. I went up it to the foot of the hills, where I had fewer obstacles to contend with than in the wood that covered the river banks, till the declining sun as well as hunger and fatigue warned me to select my camp.

I had gone a considerable distance when the sun stood over the distant hills, for I had walked on without resting, and had no rocks to scale. I turned off to a spring in the wood, and threw off my skins on the first bushes I came to, as they fatigued me too much, though their weight was not great. My fire was soon lighted at the roots of a stump, a stock of wood collected, my meal made, and supper eaten, which consisted of the remainder of the bear meat. Before I entered the wood, I had looked up to the hills above me, and reflected whether at nightfall I should light a fire there, which would certainly be seen a long way down the river. I might possibly give my friends a hint of my whereabouts, but equally well betray my halting-place to hostile Indians, who, if any were in the neighbourhood, would see something unusual in it. But then again it was an easy matter to hide myself from them, and as I was without a horse, seek a refuge which could easily be defended. I resolved to carry out my design, took my weapons and went up the hills, whose summit I reached at nightfall. I then collected fallen branches and brushwood round an old stone piled them up to a great height, and the fire quickly darted up crackling and roaring. I carried up a great number of logs from the trees lying around and threw them on the fire, which reminded me of the bonfires we used to light at home when I was a boy. When I thought the pile of wood large enough to last at least an hour I left the hill and went to the nearest knoll, where I sat down near some rocks and lit a pipe, which enjoyment I only allowed myself morning and night in order to make my tobacco last as long as possible, as the leaves of the sumach, which are a good substitute for tobacco, were not to be had. I had been sitting there for about half an hour when Trusty got up, uttered an almost inaudible growl, and gazed at the slope under my feet. I pressed his head to the ground, laying myself on the top of him, and distinctly heard beneath me light human voices and some footsteps, which went under the precipice to the hill on whose top my fire was burning. What had I better do? Should I call out? They might be my friends, but if they were strange Indians, I should expose myself to unnecessary danger; if they were my friends, on reaching the fire, they would certainly make themselves known by their voices or by firing. I remained perfectly quiet and gazed steadfastly at my fire. After a while I saw a dark object moving before it, then another and another, and I was soon able to see clearly through my telescope that the men moving round it wore no hats. They were consequently Indians, and I was very glad I had not betrayed myself.

All at once I saw a long way off to the south-west a light which rapidly grew larger, and in spite of the great distance so increased that I could distinctly perceive the smoke through my glass. I greeted it with a loudly beating heart as the answer of my friends, for no one in these dangerous regions lights a widely gleaming fire save under such circumstances, and I was now certain I should join them again next day, for they were safe to keep up the fire, so as to show me my course by its smoke. I remained quietly seated under the rocks, and did not think of sleep though I was very tired, for I did not dare return to my camp, as the fire was certainly still burning there, and the Indians would have seized my skins, whose absence I now severely felt. I was beginning to chill, and as I could not await daylight on these bare heights, I resolved to march during the night as well as I could. I crept in a stooping posture from my seat to the nearest hollow which ran down from the hills to the valley, and on reaching the foot of them, I walked slowly on through the darkness.

I had been walking for about an hour, and had fallen several times, though without hurting myself, when I heard a shot right ahead of me. It was doubtless fired by my friends, who were seeking me in spite of the darkness: my fatigue disappeared, and I walked with greater certainty over the bare sloping ground. I soon heard another shot, and now could no longer refrain from answering it. I fired, and soon after heard two shots responding to me. It was a terribly tiring walk, for though it was bright starlight I could not distinguish the boulders and small hollows sufficiently to avoid them. I also got several times among prickly scrub and swamps between the hill sides.