Frontier life; or, Tales of the south-western border

Contents

Pagb

I. THE CYPRESS SWAMP, .... 7

I. A SCAMPER IN THE PRAIRIE, . . 69

Chapter I. The Cypress Swamp

It was a sultry September afternoon in the year 18—. My friend Carleton and myself had been for three days wandering in the prairies, and had nearly filled our tin boxes and other receptacles with speci¬ mens of rare and curious plants. The penalty of our zeal as naturalists had been a complete roasting from the sun, which had shot down its rays during the whole time of our ramble, with an ardor only to be appreciated by those who have visited the prairies of Louisiana. What made matters worse, our little store of wine had been nearly expended; some taffia, with which we had replenished our flasks, had also disappeared ; and the scanty supplies of

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

water we had been able to discover contained so much vegetable and animal matter, as to be undrink¬ able, unless in some way qualified. In this dilemma, we came to a halt under a clump of hickory trees, and dispatched Martin, Carleton’s Acadian servant, upon a voyage of discovery. He had assured us that we must, ere long, fall in with some party of Amer¬ icans — or Cochon Yankees, as he called them — who, in spite of the hatred borne them by the Acadians and Creoles, were daily becoming more numerous in the country.

After waiting, in anxious expectation of Martin’s return, for a full hour, during which the air seemed to grow more and more sultry, my companion waxed impatient.

“ What can the fellow be about?” cried he. “ Give a blast on the horn,” he added, handing me the in¬ strument ; “I cannot sound it myself, for my tongue cleaves to my palate from heat and drought.”

I put the horn to my mouth, and gave a blast; but the tones emitted were not the clear echo-awak¬ ening sounds that cheer and strengthen the hunter ; they were dull and short, as though the air had lost all elasticity and vibration, and by its weight crushed back the sounds into the horn. It was a

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

warning of some inscrutable danger. We gazed around us, and saw that others were not wantiifg.

The spot where we had halted was on the edge of one of those pine forests that extend, almost with¬ out interruption, from the hills of the Cote Gelee to the Opelousa mountains, and of a vast prairie, sprinkled here and there with palmetto fields, clumps of trees, and broad patches of brushwood, which ap¬ peared mere dark specks on the immense extent of plain that lay before us, covered with grass of the brightest green, and so long as to reach up to our horses’ shoulders. To the right was a plantation of palmettos, half a mile wide, bounded by a sort of creek or gully, whose banks were covered with gigan¬ tic cypress trees. Beyond this, more prairie and a wood of evergreen oak. To the east, an impenetrable thicket of magnolias, papaws, oak and bean trees — to the north, the pine wood before mentioned.

Such was the rich landscape we had been sur¬ rounded by, one short hour before. But now, on looking around, we found the scene changed. Our horizon was circumscribed by rising clouds of blu¬ ish gray vapor, which approached us rapidly from the wind quarter. Each moment this fog thick¬ ened ; the sun no longer dazzled our eyes when we 1 *

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

gazed on it, but showed through the mist like a pale red moon; the outlines of the forest disap¬ peared, vailed from *our sight by masses of vapor; and the air, which, during the morning, had been light and elastic, although hot, became heavier and more difficult to inhale. The part of the prairie that was still visible, had the appearance of a narrow, misty vale, inclosed between two mighty ranges of gray mountains, which the fog represented. As we gazed around us and beheld these strange phenomena, our eyes met, and we read in each other’s countenance that embarrassment which the bravest and most light-hearted are apt to feel when hemmed in by perils of which they cannot conjec¬ ture the nature.

“ Fire off your gun,” said I tö Carleton. I started at the alteration in my own voice. The gun went off, but the report seemed stifled by the compressed atmosphere. It did not even alarm some water-fowl that were plashing and floundering in the creek a few hundred paces from us.

“ Look at our horses! ” exclaimed Carleton. “ They are surely going mad.” The animals were evidently uneasy. They pricked up their ears, turned half round, and gazed with startled eyes behind them :

THE CYPKESS SWAMP.

then strained their heads and necks.in the opposite direction to the vapor, snorting violently, and at last tried to break away from the trees to which they were tethered. A short time previously they had appeared much fatigued, but now they were all fire and impatience.

“It is impossible to remain here,” said Carleton.

“But whither shall we go?”

“Whithersoever our horses choose to take us.”

We untied the animals and sprang upon them. Scarcely were we in the saddle, when they started off at a pace as frantic as if a pack of wolves had been at their heels ; and, taking the direction of the creek, which ran between the palmetto plantation and a cypress wood, they continued along its banks at the same wild gallop. As we advanced, the creek widened ; in place of palmettos, clumps of marsh reeds and rushes showed themselves here and there. An unearthly stillness prevailed, only broken now and then by the cry of a wild-goose: and even that had something strange and unnatural in its sound.

“What can be the meaning of this?” cried Carleton. “I burn with heat, and yet have not the slightest moisture on my skin. These signs are

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

incomprehensible. For God’s sake, sound the horn again.”

I did so, but this time the sound seemed forced back through the horn, and died away upon my lips. The air was so hot and parching, that our horses’ coats, which, a short time previously, had been dripping with sweat, were now perfectly dry, and the hair plastered together as with lime; the animals’ tongues hung out of their mouths, and they panted for cooler air.

“Look yonder!” cried Carleton, and he pointed to the line of the horizon, which had hitherto been of gray, lead-colored vapor. It was now reddish in the south-west quarter, and the vapor had taken the appearance of smoke. At the same time we heard a distant crackling, like a heavy running-fire of musketry, repeated at short intervals. Each lime it was heard, our horses were scared and trembled.

The creek grew rapidly wider, and the ground was so swampy, that we could proceed no farther. Seeing this, we agreed to return to the prairie, and to try if it were not cooler among the palmettos. But when we came to the place where we had crossed the creek, our horses refused to take the leap again, and it was with the greatest difficulty

we at length forced them over. All this time the redness in the horizon was getting brighter, and the atmosphere hotter and drier; the smoke had spread itself over prairie, forest, and plantations. We continued retracing our steps as well as we could to the spot where we had halted. “See there,” said Carleton; “ not half an hour ago those reeds were as fresh and green as if they had just sprung out of the earth, and now look at them— the leaves hang down parched and curled by the heat.”

The whole prairie, the whole horizon to the south-west, was one mass of dense smoke, through which the sun’s disk looked scarcely brighter than a paper-lantern. Behind the thick curtain which thus concealed every thing from our view, we heard a loud hissing, like that of a multitude of snakes. The smoke was stifling and unbearable; our horses again turned panting round, and tore madly to¬ ward the creek. On reaching it we dismounted, but had the greatest difficulty, to prevent them from leaping into the water. The streaks of red to our right became brighter and brighter, and gleamed through the huge, dark trunks of the cypress trees; the crackling and hissing were louder than

A!>TV:.V TITRES IN LOUISIANA.

ever. Suddenly the frightful truth flashed upon us. “The prairie is on fire!” exclaimed Carleton and I, in a breath.

As we uttered the words, there was a loud rust¬ ling behind us, and a herd of deer broke headlong through a thicket of tall reeds and bulrushes, and dashed up to their necks into the water. There they remained, not fifty paces from us, little more than their heads above the surface, gazing at us as though imploring our help and compassion. We fancied we could see tears in the poor beasts’ eyes.

We looked behind us. On came the pillars of flame, flickering and threatening through the smoke, licking up all before them; and preceded by gusts of a wind so hot and blasting that it seemed to dry the very marrow in our bones. The roaring of tfle fire was now distinctly audible, mingled with hissing, whistling sounds, and cracking reports, as of mighty trees falling. Suddenly a bright flame shot up through the stifling smoke, and immedi¬ ately afterward a sea of fire burst upon our aching eyeballs. The whole palmetto field was in flames.

The heat was so great, that we every moment expected to see our clothes take fire. Our horses

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

dragged us still nearer to the creek, sprang into the water, and drew us down the bank after them. Another rustling and noise in the thicket of reeds. A she-bear, with her cubs at her heels, came toward us; and at the same time a second herd of deer rushed into the water not twenty yards from where we were standing. We pointed our guns at the bears ; they moved off toward the deer, w r ho remained undisturbed at their approach; and there they stood, bears and deer, not five paces apart, but taking no more notice of each other than if they had been animals of the same species. More beasts now flocked to the river. Deer, wolves, foxes, horses—all came in crowds to seek shelter in one element from the fury of another. Most of them, however, went farther up the creek, where it took a northeasterly direction, and widened into a sort of lake. Those that had first arrived followed the new-comers, and we did the same.

All of a' sudden we heard the baying of hounds. “Hurra! there are dogs; men must be near.” A volley from a dozen rifles was the answer to our exclamation. The shots were fired not two hundred yards from us, yet we saw nothing of those who fired them. The wild beasts around us trembled and

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

crouched before this new danger, but did not move a step. We ourselves were standing in the midst of them up to our waists in water. “Who goes there?” we shouted. Another volley, and this time not a hundred yards off. We saw the flashes of the pieces, and heard voices talking in a dialect compounded of French and Indian.. We perceived that we had to do with Acadians. A third volley, and the bullets whistled about our ears. It was getting past a joke. “Halt!” shouted we; “stop firing till you see what you are firing at.” There was a dead silence for a moment, then a burst of savage laughter. “Fire! fire!” cried two or three voices.

“If you fire,” cried I, “look out for yourselves, for we shall do the same. Have a care what you do.”

“Morbleu! Sacre!” roared half a score of voices. “Who is that who dares to give us orders? Fire on the dogs! ”

“If you do, we return it.”

“Sucre/” screamed the savages. “They are ge; tlemen from the towns. Their speech betrays them. Shoot them — the dogs, the spies! What do they want in the prairie ? ”

“Your blood be on your own heads!” cried I. And, with the feelings of desperate men, we leveled

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

onr guns in the direction m which we had seen the flashes of the last volley. At that moment — “Halt! What is here?” shouted % stentorian voice close to us.

“ Cease firing, or you are dead men! ” cried five or six other voices.

u Monsieur Carleton! ” cried a voice.

“Here!” replied my friend. A boat shot out of the smoke, between us and our antagonists. Carleton’s servant was in it. The next moment we were surrounded by a score of Acadians and half-a-dozen Americans.

It appeared that the Acadians, so soon as they perceived the prairie to be on fire, had got into a boat and descended a creek that flowed into the Chicot creek, on which we now were. The beasts of the forest and prairie, flying to the water, found themselves inclosed in the angle formed by the two creeks, and their retreat being cut off by the fire, they fell an easy prey to the Acadians—wild, half-savage fellow8,’who slaughtered them in a profusion, and with a brutality, that excited our disgust; a feeling which/ the Americans seemed to share.

ADVENTUEES IN LOUISIANA.

“Well, stranger,” said one of the latter, an old man, to Carleton, “ do you go with them Acadians, or come with us?” .

“Who are you, my friends?”

“Friends!” repeated the Yankee, shaking his head, “your friendships are soon made. Friends, indeed! We ain’t that yet; but if you be minded to come with us, well and good.”

“I met these American gentlemen,” now put in Martin, “ and when they heard that you had lost your way, and were out of provisions, they were so good as to come and seek you.”

“You be n’t much used to the prairie, I reckon?” observed the American who had spoken before.

“No, indeed, my friend,” said I.

“ I told you a’ready,” replied the man, with some degree of pride, “we ain’t your friends; but if you choose to accept American hospitality, you’re welcome.”

We glanced at the Acadians, who were still firing, and dragging the beasts they slaughtered into their ^boat and to the shore. They looked like perfect sav¬ ages, and there was little temptation to seek guidance or assistance at their hands.

“If it’s agreeable to you, we will accompany you,”

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

said I to the American, making a step toward the boat. We were eager to be off, for the heat and smoke were unbearable. The Yankee answered neither yes nor no. His attention was engrossed by the proceedings of the Acadians.

“ They ’re worse than Injuns,” said he to a youngman standing by him. “They shoot more in an hour than they could eat in a year, in their tarnation French wastefulness.”

“I’ve a notion o’ makin’ ’em leave off,” replied the young man.

“The country’s theirs, or their master’s, at least,” rejoined the other. “I reckon it’s no business of ours.”

This dialogue was carried on with the greatest possible degree of drawling deliberation, and under circumstances in which certainly none but a Yankee would have thought of wasting time in words. A prairie twenty miles long and ten broad, and a couple of miles of palmetto ground, all in a blaze—the flames drawing nearer every minute, and having in some places already reached up to the shores of the creek. On the other side a couple of dozen wild Acadians were firing right and left, without paying the least attention where or whom their bullets

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

struck. Carleton and myself were standing up to our waists in water, but still the Americans chatted together as unconcernedly as if they had been seated under the roofs of their own block-houses.

“Do you live far from here?” said I at length to the Yankee, rather impatiently.

“Not so far as I sometimes wish,” answered he, with a contemptuous glance at the Acadians, “but far enough to get you an appetite for your supper, if you ain’t got one already.” And taking a thin roll of tobacco out of his pocket, he bit off a piece of it, laid his hands upon the muzzle of his rifle, leant his chin upon his hands, and seemed to have forgotten all about us. To men in our situation, such apathy was intolerable.

“ My good man,” said I, “ will you put your hos¬ pitable offer into execution, and take—”

I could not continue, for I was suffocated with the heat and smoke. The water of the creek was actually getting warm.

“I’ve a notion,” said the Yankee, with his usual drawl, and apparently only just perceiving our distress, “I’ve a notion we had better be movin’ out o’ the way o’ the fire. Now, strangers, in with you.” And he helped Carleton and myself into the

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

boat, where we lay down, fainting from heat and exhaustion.

When we recovered a little, we found ourselves in the bottom of the boat, and the old Yankee standing by us, with a bottle of whiskey in his hand, which he invited us to taste. We felt better for the cordial and able to look around us.

Before us lay an apparently interminable cypress swamp. Behind us was a sheet of water, formed by the junction of the two creeks, and at present overhung by a mass of smoke which concealed the horizon from our view. From time to time there was a burst of flame that lit up the swamp, causing the cypress trees to look as if they grew out of a sea of fire.

“Come,” said the old Yankee, “we must get on. It is near sunset, and we have far to go.”

“And which way lies our road?” I asked.

“Across the cypress swamp, unless you’d rather go round it.”

“The shortest road is the best,” said Carleton.

“The shortest road is the best!” repeated the Yankee contemptuously, and turned to his compan¬ ions. “Spoken like a Britisher. Well, he shall have his own way, and the more so that I believe it as /

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

good a one as the other. James,” added he, turning

to one of the men, “you go further down, through

Snapping Turtle Swamp; we will cross here.”

• *

“And our horses?” said I.

“They are grazing in the rushes. They’ll be took care of. We shall have rain to-night, and to-morrow they may come round without singeing a hoof.”

I had found myself once or twice upon the borders of the swamp that now lay before us, but had always considered it impenetrable, and I did not understand, as I gazed into its gloomy depths, how we could possibly cross it.

“Is there any beaten path or road through the swamp?” inquired I of the old man.

“Path or road! Do you take it for a gentleman’s park? There’s the path that natur’ has made.” And he sprang upon the trunk of a tree covered with moss and creepers, which rose out of the vast depth of mud.

“Here's the path,” said he.

“Then we will wait and come round with our horses,” I replied. “Where shall we find them?”

“As you please, stranger. We shall cross the swamp. Only, if you can’t do like your horses, and sup off bulrushes, you are likely to fast the next twenty-four hours.”

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

“And why so? There is game and wild-fowi for the shooting.”

“No doubt there is, if you can eat them raw, like the Injuns. Where will you find, within two miles round, a square foot of dry land to msfe your fire on?”

To say the truth, we did not altogether like the company we had fallen into. These Yankee squatters bore in general but an indifferent character. They were said to fear neither God nor man, to trust entirely to their ax and their rifle, and to be little scrupulous in questions of property; in short, to be scarce less wild and dangerous than the Indians themselves.

The Yankee who had hitherto acted as spokesman, and who seemed to be in some way or other the chief of the party, was a man apparently near sixty years of age, upward of six feet high, thin in person, but with bone and muscle indicative of great strength. His features were keen and sharp; his eye like a falcon’s; his bearing and manners spoke an exalted opinion of himself, and (at least as far as we were concerned) a tolerable degree of contempt for others. His dress consisted of a jacket of skins, secured round the waist by a girdle in which was stuck a

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

long knife; leather breeches, a straw hat without a brim, and moccasins. His companions were similarly accoutered.

“Where is Martin?” cried Carleton.

“Do you mean the Acadian lad who brought us to you.”

“The same.”

The Yankee pointed toward the smoke. “Yonder, no doubt, with his countrymen; but I reckon their infernal hunt is over. I hear no more shots.”

“Then we will go to him. But where are our horses?”

“I’ve a notion,” said one of the younger men, “the stranger don’t rightly know what he wants. Your horses are grazing a mile off. You would not have had us make the poor brutes swim through the creek tied to the stern of the boat? ’Lijah is with them.”

“And what will he do with them?”

“Joel is going back with the boat, and when the fire is out he will bring them round,” said the elder

Yankee. “You don’t suppose—?” added he-He

left the sentence unfinished, but a smile of scornful meaning flitted over his features.

I looked at Carleton. He nodded. “We will

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

go with you,” said I, “ and trust entirely to your guidance.”

“You do well,” was the brief reply. “Joel,” added he, turning to one of the young men, “where are the torches? We shall want them.”

“Torches?” exclaimed I.

The Yankee gave me a look, as much as to say—• Yju must meddle with every thing, must you? “Yes,” replied he; “And if you had ten lives, it would be as much as they are all worth to enter this swamp without torches.” So saying, he struck fire, and selecting a couple of pine splinters from several lying in the boat, he lighted them', doing every thing with such extraordinary deliberation, and so oddly, that in spite of our unpleasant situation, we could scarcely help laughing. Meantime the boat pushed off with two men in it, leaving Carleton, myself, the old man, and another American, standing at the edge of the swamp.

“Follow me, step by step, and as if you were treading on eggs,” said our leader; “and you, Jona¬ than, have an eye to the strangers, and don’t wait till they are up to their necks in the mud to pick them out of it.”

We did not feel much comforted by this speech;

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

but, mustering all our courage, we strode on after our plain-spoken guide.

We had proceeded but a very short distance into the swamp before we found out the use of the torches. The huge trunks of the cypress-trees, which stood four or five yards asunder, shot up to a height of fifty feet, entirely free from branches, which then, however, spread out at right angles to the stem, making the trees appear like gigantic umbrellas, and covering the whole morass with an impenetrable roof, through which not even a sunbeam could find a pas¬ sage. On looking behind us, we saw the daylight at the entrance of the swamp, as at the mouth of a vast cavern. The further we went the thicker became the air ; and at last the effluvia was so stifling and pesti¬ lential, that the torches burnt pale and dim, and more than once threatened to go out.

“Yes, yes,” muttered our guide to himself, “a night passed in this swamp would leave a man ague-struck for the ~est of his days. A night—ay, an hour would do it, if your pores were ever so little open ; but now there’s no danger; the prairie fire’s good for that; dries the sweat and closes the pores.”

He went on conversing thus with himself, but still striding forward, throwing his torchlight on each log

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

or tree-trunk, and trying its solidity with his foot before he trusted his weight upon it—doing all this with a dexterity and speed that proved his familiarity with these dangerous paths.

“Keep close to me,” said he to us, “but make yourselves light—as light, at least, as Britishers can

make themselves. Hold your breath, and-ha!

what is that log? Hollo, Hathan,” continued he to himself, “what’s come to you, man? Don’t you know a sixteen foot alligator from a tree ? ”

He had stretched out his foot, but, fortunately, before setting it down, he poked what he took for a log with the butt of his gun. The supposed block of wood gave way a little, and the old squatter, throw¬ ing himself back, was within an ace of pushing me into the swamp.

“Aha, friend!” said he, not in the least discon¬ certed “you thought to sarcumvent honest folk with your devilry and cunnin

“What is the matter?” asked I.

“Hot much the matter,” he replied, drawing his

A *

knife from its sheath. “ Only an alligator : there it is again.”

And in the place of the log, which had disap¬ peared, the jaws of a huge alligator gaped before us.

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

I raised my gun to my shoulder. The Yankee seized my arm.

“Don’t fire, whispered he. “Don’t fire, so long as you can help it. We ain’t alone here. This will do as well,” he added, as he stooped down, and drove his long knife into the alligator’s eye. The monster gave a frightful howl, and lashed violently with its tail, besprinkling us with the black, slimy mud of the swamp.

“Take that!” said the squatter with a grim smile, “and that, and that!” stabbing the brute repeatedly between the neck and the ribs, while it writhed and snapped furiously at him. Then wiping his knife, he stuck it in his belt, and looked keenly and cautiously around him.

“I’ve a notion there must be a tree trunk hereaway; it ain’t the first time I’ve followed this track. There it is, but a good six foot off.” And so saying, he gave a spring, and alighted in safety on the stepping place.

“Have a care, man,” cried L “There is water there. I see it glitter.”

“Pooh, water! What you call water is snakes Come on.”

I hesitated, and a shudder came over me. The

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

leap, as regarded distance, was a trifling one, but it was over an almost bottomless chasm, full of the foulest mud, on which the moccasin snakes, the deadliest of American reptiles, were swarming.

“Come on!”

Necessity lent me strength, and, pressing my left foot firmly against the log on which I stood, and which each moment sank with our weight deeper into the soft slimy ground, I sprang across. Carleton followed me.

“Well done!” cried the old man. “Courage, and a couple more such leaps, and we shall be getting over the worst of it.”

We pushed on, steadily but slowly, never setting our foot on a log till we had ascertained its solidity with the butts of our guns. The cypress swamp extended four or five miles along the shores of the creek: it was a deep lake of black mud, covered over and disguised by a deceitful bright green vail of creeping plants and mosses, which had spread themselves in their rank luxuriance over its whole surface, and over the branches and' trunks of the trees that were scattered about it. These latter were not placed with any very great regularity, but had yet been evidently arranged by the hand of man

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

“There seems to have been a sort of path made here,” said I to our guide, “for—”

“ Silence! ” interrupted he, in a low tone ; “ silence, for jour life, till we are on firm ground again. Don’t mind the snakes,” added he, as the torch-light revealed some enormous ones lying coiled up in the moss and lianas close to us. “Follow me closely.”

But at the very moment that I stretched forward my foot, and was about to place it in the print that his had left, the hideous jaw of an alligator was sud¬ denly stretched over the tree-trunk, not twelve inches from my leg, and the creature snapped at me so suddenly, that I had but just time to fire my gun into his glittering, lizard-like eye. The monster bounded back, uttered a sound between a bellow and a groan, and striking wildly about him in the morass, disappeared.

The American looked around when I fired, and an approving smile played about his mouth as he said something to me which I did not hear, owing to‘the infernal uproar that .now arose on all sides of us, and at first completely deafened me.

Thousands, tens of thousands, of birds and reptiles, alligators, enormous bull-frogs, night-owls, ahingas, herons, whose dwellings were in the mud of the

THE CYPRESS SWAMP.

swamp, or on its leafy roof, now lifted up their voices, bellowing, hooting, shrieking, and groaning. Issuing from the obscene retreats in which they had hitherto lain hidden, the alligators raised their hideous snouts out- of the green coating of the swamp, gnashing their teeth, and straining toward us, while the owls and other birds circled round our heads, flapping and striking us with their wings as they passed. We drew our knives and endeavored to defend at least our heads and eyes; but all was in vain against the multitude of enemies that surrounded us; and the unequal combat could not possibly have lasted long, when suddenly a shot was fired, followed immediately by another. The effect they produced was magical. The growls and cries of rage and fury were ex¬ changed for howls of fear and complaint: the alliga¬ tors withdrew gradually into their native mud; the birds flew in wider circles around us; the unclean multitude were in full retreat. By degrees the va¬ rious noises died away. But our torches had gone out, and all around us was as black as pitch.