The Backwoodsman; Or, Life on the Indian Frontier

by Unknown

CHAPTER XXX.

THE PURSUIT.

Lasar and I were occupied for several weeks on the settlement of Messrs. Clifton and MacDonnell and a Mr. Wilson. The latter had arrived from Georgia with a considerable fortune and numerous negroes, and the three young men settled together on Turkey Creek, in the neighbourhood of Widow White. We helped them by word and deed, and in a short time a very large lot of ground was cleared and sown with maize, although it was late in the year for it, and a large garden laid out, and the necessary buildings erected at a spot where very recently an axe had never been laid against a tree, or a plough had turned a furrow in the earth. The three young men set eagerly about the heavy work which such a new settlement demands, and were busy the whole day in the garden or the field, or else in felling wood. While doing so, they often forgot that they and not we were now living on the outermost Indian frontier, and constantly went from home unarmed. They went into the woods with an axe to fell trees, or rode without any weapons into the prairie, to drive home their milch kine, or fetch their draught oxen. Lasar and I had frequently blamed them for this negligence, but it was of no use, and often when we visited them, one or the other was away from home unarmed; while we, during the years, that we had no neighbours, when working in the field, chained up our dogs round it, in order to be informed of the approach of stalking Indians, and carried our rifles either on the plough or on our backs, they ploughed and worked for days without a dog or any other weapon but their hands. Their dwelling stood on the south bank of the river where it joined the prairie; but they had their field on the northern side in a wood, which extended for a considerable distance.

At an early hour one morning they all three crossed the river with a few negroes, in order to thin the growing maize crop, which operation is generally performed in the morning, as you are obliged to stoop constantly, which is very fatiguing in the hot sun. All three took their weapons into the field, and rested them against the fence, as they thought it too much trouble to carry them on their backs. They followed the rows of maize, one behind the other, from one end of the field to the other, and were again nearing the spot where they had placed their rifles, when suddenly some fifty Indians dashed over the fence with a loud war yell and attacked them. They could not think of flight, as the Indians surrounded them before they could recover from their first terror. Resistance was equally impossible, as they were quite unarmed, and hence the sole chance of escape lay in the mercy of the barbarians to whom they surrendered. The two negroes were accidentally at the other end of the field, and, at the first glimpse of the Indians, leapt over the fence into the woods, to save themselves by hiding in its recesses; on looking round, they saw that each of the three young men was surrounded by a party of Indians busied in tying his arms behind his back. They ran through the wood to the river, swam across it, and on reaching the houses, leapt with the other negroes on horses and mules, fled with the utmost speed toward the south across the prairie, and reached my Fort before sunset, horrified and half frightened to death.

The terrible news aroused all my people. I at once sent a negro to Lasar's to tell him of what had happened, and at the same time beg him to join me as speedily as possible, in order to pursue the Indians, and, if possible, save the prisoners, during which time we made our preparations for immediate departure. I had provisions got ready and packed on a mule, which this time was not faithful Jack, as he had been galled by a badly fastened saddle; after this a stock of ammunition was laid in, and we sat down to supper, which meal we had hardly finished when our friends from Mustang Creek, eight in number, galloped over the prairie, led by old Lasar himself, who was fire and flame, and vowed revenge like the youngest of us. Tiger, Antonio, Königstein, and one of the colonists of the name of Lambert, accompanied me, and we were soon urging our horses at full speed through the gloomy forest.

Tiger led our party, who trotted on as long as the moonlight lasted, but then fell into a walk, and towards morning reached the deserted blockhouses of the prisoners. We expected that the Indians would have burnt them down, but found them uninjured, which proved to us in what haste they must have departed with their quarry. We rode through the river into the wood, and found the spot where the savages had lifted their prisoners over the fence, and led them to its northern end. Here we found the traces of numerous horses galloping in the direction of the northern mountains. Tiger examined all the signs very carefully, and after we had followed the trail for about an hour, dismounted and sought about in the grass. Ere long he stretched out his arms and parted fingers to the north and north-west, and told me that the fellows we were pursuing had divided here, and were pursuing different routes, which fact I was also able to recognise after a slight investigation. I asked Tiger what we were to do, but he laughed, and joining his hands together and pointing to the north, he stated that the Indians would come together again on the other side of the mountains in two days.

We now followed a trail which ran along a deeply-trodden buffalo-path, and reached before sunset a spot in a valley covered with isolated rocks, trees, and bushes, which was bordered on both sides by steep hills. Here Tiger suddenly stopped and leapt from his horse. I rode up to him, and he showed me on the bare rocks that several horses had left the track and turned off to the left down the glen. He showed me several pebbles which had been turned over by the horses, and on the rocks the graze of their hoofs, as well as here and there a trampled leaf or a broken blade of grass. He followed this trail carefully, and requested me to follow him, while making a sign to the others to remain on the path. A few thousand yards farther on the track wound between large masses of stone till we reached a clearing, on the other side of which we found signs of an extinguished fire near a spring. Tiger picked up a blackened bit of wood and showed me by rubbing it with his finger that the wood was still wet, and hence, as it lay in the open sunshine, must have gone out shortly before. He now begged me to call up our comrades, so that we might rest ourselves and our tired horses here for a little while. I rode up to them, and when we returned to Tiger, he showed us behind the spring the shambles where one of the unhappy prisoners had ended his life. On a large flat stone we saw a quantity of curdled, half-dry blood, and behind it lay the entrails of a man. Round the stone we found marks of boot-heels, which had probably belonged to the murdered man, and had been put on by one of the savages. Our fury against them was terrible, and we would gladly have pursued them without resting had our horses been able to carry us, but they were too tired, and greatly required a rest.

We supped, and slept till near day, and by dawn we were following the trail again, along the path which we had quitted on the previous evening. Without halting longer than was necessary, we rode hard all day through the most impassable regions of the San Saba mountains, and reached in the evening the prairies on their north side. We were still on the same trail, which had been made by five or six horses, and unsaddled when the sun had long disappeared behind the hill, and Tiger was unable to follow the trail. We had ridden very sharply, so that our horses would hardly touch the good fodder here offered them, and we had no sooner watered them in an adjacent stream, than they lay down in the grass with a long breath and fell asleep. We did not tie them up, so that they might graze directly they awoke, but kept up a good fire the whole night, and posted a sentinel.

At daybreak we were en route again and hurrying after Tiger, who led us along the foot of the mountains. About noon we rode through one of the streams that flow into the Colorado, and found in the wood on its bank a deserted camp, from which the fugitives could not be gone long, as the bushes and weeds trampled by the horses were not dry yet. We merely watered our horses and then urged them on, for Tiger believed that we must catch up the Indians that same evening, as their horses were tired and did not raise their feet high from the ground. Evening arrived, and in the distance another forest rose out of the prairie, which we reached with night; but our foe had gone farther on, and we were compelled to halt again, as we could not follow their trail. Our guide consoled us with the morrow, and said their horses could not last out any longer. We rode the whole day, however, without seeing anything of the Indians, save the track of their horses. About sunset we rode into another forest, in which we hoped to find running water: we soon halted on its bank and noticed on the other side the last camping-place of the Indians, for several of their fires were still burning, and Tiger said that they now supposed themselves out of danger and would not ride so fast. We crossed the stream, in order to occupy the deserted camp, but had scarce reached it when Tiger called to me and pointed to a young tree, with a smooth shining bark, the lower part of which was dyed with blood. He told me that one of the white men had been murdered here: the Indians had tied him up to the tree and fired arrows at him, and the bark displayed numerous marks of their points. At the height of a man the tree was sprinkled with blood, and over it we found a deep cut, which appeared to have been made by a tomahawk. The Indians seemed to have come together again here, for a number of fires had been lighted, and the trampled ground indicated a large troop of horses. We all insisted on riding on at once, but Tiger reminded us that it was impossible to follow the trail, and by overriding it we might easily lose much time, and give the cannibals a chance of escape.

Our impatience had attained the highest pitch, all were ready to start, but it was still too dark: we stood by our grazing cattle and counted the minutes till dawn appeared, and allowed us to see the track of our enemies once more. Then we hastened on, and joyfully greeted every thicket in front of us, as we hoped to find the cannibals in it and be able to take vengeance on them for our friends. Our hopes were frequently disappointed, and the sun was approaching the western hills when we still urged on our awfully tired horses, following the trail of the Indian horses, which could not possibly be far from us, as their excreta on the path plainly indicated. Once again a wood rose before us on the prairie, but it was still so distant that we could not hope to reach it before dark. Tiger told me that we must either ride very sharply so as to reach the wood by daylight, or camp on this side and approach the wood at dawn, as we should get the worst of it if we came upon the savages in the darkness. We resolved on the former course, and collected the last strength of our animals. Spurring and flogging we went on at a trot or a gallop, as if certain of reaching our destination to-day. One of our friends might possibly be saved by a few minutes' sharp riding, and so we paid no heed to the fatigue and pace of our horses. We rapidly approached the wood, but so did the sun the hills, which soon spread their lengthened shadow over the plain. The country before us became more uneven and covered with large blocks of stones, and here and there rose an isolated clump of trees and bushes, while the forest appeared to be half an hour's ride distant. The darker it grew the sharper we rode, and we dashed at a gallop between the rocks toward a patch of young oaks, with Tiger some distance ahead of us. While galloping round some rocks I saw him suddenly turn his piebald towards us and halt in the clump of trees, which we reached in a few minutes, and Tiger informed us that the savages were sleeping no great distance ahead on the barren bank of a river.