USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 20
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The surveyor's party, having in a few weeks finished their work, commenced descending the Missouri in a canoe, intending to reach the place where they had left their horses; after which they would proceed by land to the rendezvous.
One night as they were borne down rapidly by a very strong current, after having by the dim starlight barely escaped many real snags, planters, drifts and the like, and after having imagined a hundred others, they were at length driving towards a dark mass; whether real or not could at first be only conjectured. Alas! it was no fancy; but before the direction of the canoe could be altered, it was driven violently against a drift-island, and upsetting, was carried directly under it, and so effectually hid or destroyed as never to be seen again. One man at the in- stant of collision, leaped upon the island : the others were thrown into the water; but they succeeded, although torn and bruised in the attempt, and with much difficulty, in gaining the floating mass and getting on it. 'All their property, provisions, clothes,
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surveying instruments, guns, &c. were lost, except the rifle which the hunter always kept in his hand, the clothes on their persons, and the notes and records of the surveys which Mr. Glenville had accidentally put early that evening into his hat and pockets !
This, reader, was what is termed out there-"a nasty fix ;" and yet our friends were still moving, not indeed very fast, for extem- poraneous islands move at all times sullenly, and often come to an anchor suddenly, and there remain for a week, a year, and sometimes they never float again. Still, it deserves to be called -a fix; for first they were fixed absolutely on the drift, and relatively as to the banks; again, it was now late in the fall, and a very cold night was fixing their clothes into ice or ice upon them; and lastly, they were fixed by their sudden unfix from the canoe, and by being hungry, wet, and cold, and yet destitute of all affixes, suffixes and "fixins." And so this curious fixation of our heroes may aid Webster in his subsequent attempts to fix the American-English by unfixing the English-English.
The comrades now made a survey of their territory, and found they owned an island of logs, tree-tops and brush, matted and laced every way, with an alluvion of earth, sand, and weeds; the whole running, at present, due north and south, one hundred yards, with easting and westing of nearly fifty yards. No sign of human habitation was visible nor trace of living animal; and it soon became morally certain the island was desert : and hence our friends began to devise means of abandoning the involuntary ownership. But the sole means appeared to be by swimming : and in that was great hazard, yet it must be done, unless they should wait for accidental deliverance; or till the party below disap- pointed at their non-arrival, should ascend the river to search for them. After a gloomy council it was unanimously decided to swim away from their island.
The hunter immediately and voluntarily offered to adventure the first, promising, on reaching the shore, to stand at the best landing point, and there shout at intervals as a guide to the others. Contrary to all entreaties and dehortations, he was resolved to swim with his rifle-that weapon being, in fact, always in his hands like an integral part of his body. His only reply was- "She's-(rifles in natural grammar are she's; to a true woodsman
.
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a rifle is like a beloved sister ; and he no more thinks of he-ing and him-ing, or even it-ing the one than the other)-"she's bin too long in the family, boys, to be desarted without no attempt to save her; no, no, it's not the fust time she's been swimm'd over a river; uncle Bill, arter that bloody fight with the Injins, jumped down the cliff with her and swimm'd her clean over the Ohio in his hand, and I kin outrassel and outswim uncle Bill any day-no no-we sink or swim together : so good bye, boys, here goes, I'll holler as soon as I git foothold." The splashing of the water drowned the rest; and away with his heavy rifle in one hand, and striking out with the other, swam the bold hunter, till borne down by the fierce current he had soon passed out of sight and hearing.
With intense anxiety the remaining two waited for their com- rade's promised shout; but no noise came save the rushing of the boiling and angry waters past and under the drift-wood. Twenty long minutes had elapsed, and yet no voice-ten more- and all silence, except the waters! Could it be, as they had all along dreaded, that the hunter was indeed sunk with his fav- ourite gun !- or had he been carried one or more miles down be- fore he could land? The force of the current rendered this probable; and, therefore, they would wait an hour, to give him time to walk up the bank opposite the island and shout. But when that long and dreadful hour had elapsed, and no voice of the living comrade yet came across the dark and tumultuous waves, the agony of the hunter's only brother (for such was the surveyor on the drift with Glenville,)-became irrepressible, and he said, "I must see what's become of poor Isaac-I can't stand it any longer, here's my hand, Glenville, my poor boy-farewell ! -- if I reach the shore I'll holler, if not, why we must all die-fare- well." The next instant the surveyor was borne away; and the noise of his swimming becoming fainter and fainter was soon imperceptible, and John Glenville stood alone!
Reader, my brother-in-law was then, compared with men, only a boy ; and yet he stood there alone and without fear! And was there nothing of the morally sublime in that ?- a very young man thus alone in the middle of the Missouri, on a dark and cold night; beyond the outskirts of civilized life; far enough away
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from his mother's home, and affectionate sisters; and listening for the shouts of that second swimmer-and without fear? Could any body old or young be in such circumstances, and not be alarmed? Where was that noble hunter? was he drowned? Would the second swimmer reach the shore? And if hardy and strong woodsmen escaped not, could he, a boy, expect to reach the shore? True, thoughts of his mother now rushed in un- called; but these only nerved his purpose, and he resolved, with God's aid, to use his art and skill for their sakes; or, if he must perish in the tumultuating flood of the wilderness, to die putting forth his best exertions to live-hark! what comes like a dying echo !- can it be !- yes, hark! it comes again, the voice of the second swimmer-there it is again! Thank God-one is safe, but where is the other. Thus encouraged, Glenville prepared for his conflict with the waves. He was an expert swimmer, and often in early boyhood had swum from Philadelphia to the op- posite island in the Delaware. Could he, therefore, now pre- serve his self-possession, why might he not accomplish a less dis- tance in the Missouri; for the shore he knew could not be more than a quarter of a mile from the drift. Accordingly he divested himself of all clothes, except shirt and pantaloons, made up the garments taken off into a small bundle, in the midst of which, securing the papers of the survey, he fastened it together with his hat between his shoulders: and then, wading out to the end of a . projecting tree, he earnestly implored God for help, cast himself boldly into the turbid waters of the dark and eddying flood. And never did he seem to float more buoyant or swim with greater ease, without any perturbation permitting the river to bear him down- ward on its bosom: and yet directing his efforts as much as possible, towards the point whence at intervals was borne to his ears the shouting of his comrade; till, in some fifteen minutes he landed unhurt and not greatly wearied about one hundred yards below the voice, whither he instantly hastened, and to his heart- felt joy, was soon shaking hands not only with the surveyor, but also with the hunter. Yes! poor fellow-he had found his favourite too heavy, and one arm, powerful as it was, too weak for his long battle with a king of floods. Long, long, very long had he held to his gun; but half-suffocated, his strength failing,
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and he whirling away at times from the shore almost reached, to save his life he had at last slowly relaxed his grasp, and his rifle sank. Yet even then repenting, he had twice gone down to the bottom to recover the weapon : and happily, failing in finding it-his strength never would have sufficed incumbered again with a gun to reach the land.
Indeed, when he gained the bank he was barely able to clamber up, and could scarcely speak or even walk, when discovered by his brother : who had easily reached the shore himself, and, after shouting once or twice to Glenville, had gone down on the bank a full quarter of a mile before finding the hunter. By the aid of the surveyor, the hunter then had walked up till they had reached the spot where they were both now met by Glenville; and thus by the goodness of Providence, our three friends were delivered from their peril.
Upon reconnoitering, it was conjectured that they must be near the squatter's hut, with whom had been left their horses; and hence taking a course, partly by accident and partly by observa- tion, not long after they were cheered by the distant bark of his dogs, and next by the gleam of fire through the chinks of his cabin. Here, of course, the party was welcomed, and supplied with whatever was in the squatter's power to afford for their refreshment ; principally, however, a hearty dram of whiskey, some corn bread and jerked vension, but above all, a bed of dry skins, and a heap of blazing logs.
In the morning they obtained supplies of skins and blankets, agreeing to pay their host if he would go with them to the rendez- vous; which he did, and was suitably and cordially rewarded. It was now perceived that if the poor hunter had left his rifle on the drift-island, she could have been regained by means of a raft: but to tell where she had been abandoned in the river was impossible. Otherwise our hunter would have made many a dive for the rescue of his "deer slayer ;" as it was, he came away disconsolate, and, indeed, as from the grave of a comrade-almost in tears!
CHAPTER XXIV.
"Ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum Cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant Eruere agricola certatim: illa usque minatur, Et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat : Vulneribus donec paulatim evicta, supremùm Congemuit, traxitque jugis avulsa ruinam."
OUR party reached the rendezvous only a few hours beyond the appointed time. Here, as a bee-tree had been just reported, it was unanimously determined to commemorate the deliverance and safe arrival of our three friends by a special jollification. In other words, it was voted to obtain the wild honey; and then, in a compound of honey, water and whiskey, to toast our undrowned heroes and their presence of mind and bravery :- no small honour, if the trouble of getting the honey is considered. For, on follow- ing the aerial trail of the bees, the hive was ascertained to be in a hollow limb of the largest patriarchal sire of the forest-a tree more than thirty feet in circumference! and requiring six men at least, touching each other's hands, to encircle the trunk!
And this is a fair chance to say a word about the enormous circumambitudialitariness (!) of many western trees. It is com- mon to find such from six to seven feet in diameter ; and we have more than once sat on stumps and measured across three lengths of my cane, nearly ten feet; and found, on counting the con- centric circles, that these monsters must have been from seven to eight hundred years old-an age greater than Noah's, and almost as venerable as that of Methusaleh! Shall we feel no sublimity in walking amid and around such ancients? Trees that have tossed their branches in the sun light and winds for eight cen- turies !- that have scorned the tempests and torandoes, whose fury ages ago prostrated cities and engulfed navies !- that have sheltered wildfowl in their leaves, and hid wild beasts in their caverns from the dooms-day looking gloom of many total solar eclipses ! and have gleamed in the disastrous light of comets re- turning in the rounds of centenary cycles !
Such trees, but for the insidious and graceless axe, that in its powerlessness begged a small handle of the generous woods, such
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would yet stand for other centuries to come, at least decaying, if not growing: they are herculean even in weakness and dying! And dare finical European tourists say we have no antiquity ! Poor souls !- poor souls !- our trees were fit for navies, long years before their old things existed! Ay, when their oldest castles and cities were unwrought rock and unburnt clay! Our trees belong to the era of Egyptian architecture-they are coeval with the pyramids !
Near the junction of the White River of Indiana and the Wabash, stands a sycamore fully ninety feet in circumference! Within its hollow can be stabled a dozen horses; and if a person stand in the centre of the ground circle, and hold in his hand the middle of a pole fifteen feet long, he may twirl the pole as he pleases, and yet touch no part of the inner tree! He may, as did Bishop Hilsbury, mounted on a horse, ride in at. a natural opening, canter round the area, and trot forth to the world again! But to the bee-tree.
It is a proverb, "He that would eat the fruit must first climb the tree and get it:" but when that fruit is honey, he that wants it must first cut the tree down. And that was the present necessity. No sooner was this resolved, however, than preparation was made for execution ; and instantly six sturdy fellows stood with axes, ready for the work of destruction. They were all divested of garments excepting shirts and trowsers ; and now, with arms bared to the shoulders, they took distances around the stupendous tree. Then the leader of the band, glancing an eye to see if his neighbour was ready, stepped lightly forward with one leg, and swinging his weapon, a. la Tom Robison, he struck; and the startled echoes from the "tall timber" of the dark dens, were telling each other that the centuries of a wood-monarch were numbered! That blow was the signal for the next axe, and its stroke for the next; till cut after cut brought it to the leader's second blow: and thus was completed the circle of rude har- mony; while the lonely cliffs of the farther shores, and the grim forests on this, were repeating to one another the endless and regular notes of the six death-dealing axes! And never before had the music of six axes so rung out to enliven the grand soli- tudes -and a smaller number was not worthy to bid such a tree fall !
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Long was it, however, before the tree gave even the slightest symptom of alarm. What had it cared for the notchings of a hundred blows! Yet chip after chip had leaped from the wounded body-each a block of solid wood-and the keen iron teeth were beginning to gnaw upon the vitals! Alas! oh! noble tree, you tremble! Ah! it is not the deep and accustomed thunder of the heavens, that shakes you now !- no mighty quaking of the earth! That is a strange shivering-it is the chill shivering of death! But what does death mean where existence was deemed immortal! Why are those topmost branches, away off towards the blue heavens, so agitated ! Tree !- tree !- no wind stirs them so-they incline towards the earth-away! hunter, away! away! Hark !- the mighty heart is breaking! And now onward and downward rushes yon broad expanse of top, with the cataract roar of eddying whirlwinds; and the far-reaching arms have caught the strong and stately trees; and all are hurrying and leaping and whirling to the earth, in tempest and fury! Their fall is heard not. In the overwhelming thunder of that quiver- ing trunk, and the thousand crushings of those giant limbs, and the deep groan of the earth, are lost all other noises, as the slight crack of our rifles and the sudden bursting of the electric cloud ! There lies the growth of ages! Once more the sun pours the tide of all his rays over an acre of virgin soil, barely discerned by him for centuries!
Well might Glenville feel rewarded and honoured, when for' his sake such a tree lay prostrate at his feet! And yet in all this was fulfilled the saying,-the sublime and ridiculous are separated by narrow limits; for, could any thing be grander than such a tree and such an overthrow? Could any be meaner than the purpose for which it fell ?- viz :- To get a gallon of honey to sweeten a keg of whiskey !
CHAPTER XXV.
"Provide the proper palfries, black as jet To hale thy vengeful wagon swift away, And find out murderers in their guilty caves."
AFTER many other trials and adventures Glenville returned safe to his home in Kentucky. Here with his wages he loaded a boat with "produce," and set float for New Orleans; intending with the cash realized by the trip, on his return, to go into Illinois with a stock of goods and "keep store." But at Orleans he was seized with the yellow fever, and was finally given over by his physician, and orders issued, in anticipation of death, for his interment. That very night, however, in delirium, and while his kind yet weary nurse slumbered in a chair, he arose and finding a basin of water brought to wash him in the morning, he instantly seized and swal- lowed the whole contents-the only thing deemed wanting to kill him! And yet when put again into bed, he fell into a calm and delicious slumber; perspired freely, and when he awoke the fever was gone, and my friend saved. Let careful persons, there- fore, who keep a memorandum book put this along side the celebrated Scotch-herring-recipe,-"Cure for Orleans fever: two quarts of cold water, and cover up in bed."
Glenville did, indeed, get home and with some money from a successful sale ; but he was worn and emaciated, and many months passed, before he could cross the Ohio and set up his store. His cup of bitterness was not drained; and evil came now in a form demanding stout heart and steady nerves. Ay! our dark and illimitable forests then hid men of lion hearts, of iron nerves, of sure and deadly weapons! Perhaps such dwell there yet; if so, wo! to the enemy that rashly arouses them from their lairs and challenges, where civilized discipline avails not ! and where battle is a thousand conflicts man to man, rifle to rifle, knife to knife, hatchet to hatchet ! And Glenville, boy as he was, proved himself worthy a name among the lion-hearted !
We stood once on a solemn spot in the wilderness and leaned against the very tree where the bloody knife of the only survivor had rudely and briefly carved the tale of the tragedy. It stood nearly thus:
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"18 injins-15 wites-injins all kill'd and buried here-14 wites kill'd and buried too-P. T." .
Laugh away, men of pomatum and essence, at Hoosiers, and Corncrackers, and Buckeyes : ay ! lace-coats, mow them down in an open plain with canister and grape, you safely encased behind bulwarks; or cut them to pieces with pigeon breasted, mailed and helmed cuirassiers,-but seek them not as enemies in their native and adopted woods! The place of your graves will be notched in their trees, and you will never lie under polished marble, in a fashionable and decorated cemetery !
But Glenville, in store keeping witnessed a farce before his tragedy. Among his earthen and sham-Liverpool, were found some articles, similar to things domesticated in great houses, and which, although not made unto honour, were in the present case very unexpectedly elevated in the domestic economy. These modesties occupied a retired and rather dusky part of the store; when one day an honest female Illinois-(i. e. a Sucker's wife)- în her travels around the room in search of crocks suddenly ex- claimed : "Well! I never! if them yonder with the handles on, aint the nicest I ever seen !- Johhny, what's the price ?- but I must have three any how ;- here Johnny do up this white one- (rapping it with her knuckles)-and them two brown ones up thare."
A large purchase, to be sure, of the article; but curiosity asked no questions : and in due time the trio were packed and hanging in a meal bag from the horn of the lady's saddle; who, on taking leave, thus addressed our marvelling shopkeeper :-
"Mr. Glenville, next time you go gallin, jist gimme and my ole- man a call,-we've got a right down smart chance of a gall to look at-good bye."
Our hero, who had early discovered, that store keeping is none the worse when the owner is in favour with the softer sex, did not forget this invitation, and in due season made his kind friends a visit : and when supper was placed on the table by the smiling maid and her considerate mother, what do you think was there ?
"Corn bread?"
Hold your ear this way-(a whisper.)
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"No !- he! he! he!"-
Yes, indeed, and doubledeed !- the white one full of milk !! And after that you know our humblest democrat, may well look up to the presidency.
It had become about this time necessary for Mr. G. to visit Louisville. For that purpose, he left his store in charge of a young man; the latter promising among other things to sleep in the store, instead of which, however, he always slept at a neigh- bouring cabin. Hence what was feared happened,-the store was robbed. Not truly in the eastern style, of small change in the desk, some half dozen portable packages, or paltry three dozen yards of something ;- no, no, the robbery was on the wholesale principle commensurate with the vastness of our woods and prai- ries. The entire stock in trade was carried off-bales, boxes, bags, packages, and even yard-sticks and scales to sell by-yes, ! and hardware, and software, and brittleware,-ay! crocks with and without handles, and whatever may have been their standing in society,-all, all-were taken! so that when the clerk came in the morning to retail to the Suckers, there was indeed, a beg- garly account-not of empty boxes, these being mostly carried away-but of empty shelves, and empty desks, and empty store. His occupation was even more completely gone than Othello's.
On the river bank 1 were, indeed, traces enough of a mysterious departure of merchandise; but whether the embarkation had been in skows, or "perogues," and other troughlike vessels, was uncer- tain. Nor could it even be conjectured, for what port the store had been spirited away; or for what secret cove or recess of tall weeds matted into texture with sharp briars and thorny bushes !
Previous to Glenville's return, a fellow that had been noticed lurking in the woods near the store for two days before the rob- bery, was recognised in a small village, the day after, and in sus- picious circumstances. He was, therefore apprehended; when, after a short imprisonment, he confessed having been employed by some strangers to steer a flat boat loaded with something or other from Glenville's landing. On his return, our merchant went to the sheriff, who indignant at villainy that had so com- pletely ruined a very young man after years of toil and danger
1 The Big-Fish-River.
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'passed in acquiring his little property, did himself suggest and offer voluntarily to aid in a scheme to compel the prisoner to dis- close, at least, where the goods were concealed, and before they should be removed from the country or ruined by the damp.
We are not advocates for lynching, but we do know that where laws cannot and do not protect backwoodsmen, they fall back on reserved rights and protect themselves. Nay, such, in- stead of laying aside defensive weapons, after legislators shall have been wheedled, or frightened, or bribed into vile plans by puling or fanatical moralists to nurse the wilful and godless mur- derer on good bread, wholesome water and occasional soups, all the remainder of his forfeited days-we know that such woodmen will go better armed, to slay and not unrighteously on the spot every unholy apostate that maliciously and wilfully strikes down and stamps on God's image! And when the day comes that the avenger of a brother's blood wakes in our land-let no canting infidel or universalist blame those that now resist the abrogation of divine laws !- but let him blame hypocritical juries, rabble- rousing governor's, and all that are now deserting the weak, the innocent, the unwary, the defenceless, and crying "God pity and defend and save and bless-the murderer !"2 and "Shame on the dead-poor lifeless, victim !"
The sheriff and Glenville with two fearless and voluntary asso- ciates prevailed on the jailor to loan them the prisoner for a day or two, making known their scheme and giving suitable pledges for his redelivery. The loan was made, and then, on reaching a fit place, the prisoner was dismounted, and Glenville proposed to him the following :
"My friend, we know very well you helped to rob my store, and that you know well enough where your comrades are and how the goods can be recovered; now, if you will tell, not only will we get you out of jail, provided you will leave the country,
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