MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (leveled readers txt) π
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- Author: FREDERICK MARRYAT
Read book online Β«MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (leveled readers txt) πΒ». Author - FREDERICK MARRYAT
Goes Within The Reach Of This Tremendous Thrashing Instrument; For, No
Matter How Strong Or Muscular, If Human, He Must Suffer Greatly, If He
Escape With Life. The Monster, As He Strikes With This, Forces All
Objects Within The Circle Towards His Jaws, Which, As The Tail Makes A
Motion, Are Opened to Their Full Stretch, Thrown A Little Sideways To
Receive The Object, And, Like Battering-Rams, To Bruise It Shockingly In
A Moment."
Yet, As I Have Said, The Alligator Is But Little Formidable To Man. In
Western Louisiana And Eastern Texas, Where The Animal Is Much Hunted for
The Sake Of His Grease, With Which The Planters Generally Oil The
Machinery Of Their Mills, Little Negroes Are Generally Sent Into The
Woods, During The Fall, "Grease-Making," As At That Season The Men Are
Better Employed in cotton-Picking Or Storing The Maize. No Danger Ever
Happens To The Urchins During These Expeditions, As, Keeping Within The
Sweep Of The Tail, They Contrive To Chop It Off With An Axe.
M. Audubon Says:--
"When Autumn Has Heightened the Colouring Of The Foliage Of Our Woods,
And The Air Feels More Rarified during The Nights And The Early Part Of
The Day, The Alligators Leave The Lakes To Seek For Winter-Quarters, By
Burrowing Under The Roots Of Trees, Or Covering Themselves Simply With
Earth Along Their Edges. They Become Then Very Languid And Inactive,
And, At This Period, To Sit Or Ride On One Would Not Be More Difficult
Than For A Child To Mount His Wooden Rocking-Horse. The Negroes, Who Now
Kill Them, Put All Danger Aside By Separating at One Blow With An Axe,
The Tail From The Body. They Are Afterwards Cut Up In large Pieces, And
Boiled whole In a Good Quantity Of Water, From The Surface Of Which The
Fat Is Collected with Large Ladles. One Single Man Kills Oftentimes A
Dozen Or More Of Large Alligators In the Evening, Prepares His Fire In
The Woods, Where He Has Erected a Camp For The Purpose, And By Morning
Has The Oil Extracted."
As Soon As The Rider Feels His Horse Sinking, The First Movement, If An
Inexperienced traveller, Is To Throw Himself From The Saddle, And
Endeavour To Wade Or To Swim To The Cane-Brakes, The Roots Of Which Give
To The Ground A Certain Degree Of Stability. In that Case, His Fate Is
Probably Sealed, As He Is In immediate Danger Of The "Cawana." This Is A
Terrible And Hideous Monster, With Which, Strange To Say, The
Naturalists Of Europe Are Not Yet Acquainted, Though It Is Too Well
Known To All The Inhabitants Of The Streams And Lagoons Tributary To The
Red river. It Is An Enormous Turtle Or Tortoise, With The Head And Tail
Of The Alligator, Not Retractile, As Is Usual Among The Different
Species Of This Reptile: The Shell Is One Inch And A Half Thick, And As
Impenetrable As Steel. It Lies In holes In the Bottom Of Muddy Rivers Or
In The Swampy Cane-Brakes, And Measures Often Ten Feet In length And Six
In Breadth Over The Shell, Independent Of The Head And Tail, Which Must
Give Often To This Dreadful Monster The Length Of Twenty Feet. Such An
Unwieldy Mass Is Not, Of Course, Capable Of Any Rapid Motion; But In the
Swamps I Mention They Are Very Numerous, And The Unfortunate Man Or
Beast Going astray, And Leaving For A Moment The Small Patches Of Solid
Ground, Formed by The Thicker Clusters Of The Canes, Must Of A Necessity
Come Within The Reach Of One Of These Powerful Creature'S Jaws, Always
Extended and Ready For Prey.
Cawanas Of A Large Size Have Never Been Taken Alive, Though Often, In
Draining The Lagoons, Shells Have Been Found Measuring Twelve Feet In
Length. The Planters Of Upper Western Louisiana Have Often Fished to
Procure Them For Scientific Acquaintances, But, Although They Take
Hundreds Of The Smaller Ones, They Could Never Succeed to Drag On Shore
Any Of The Large Ones After They Have Been Hooked, As These Monsters
Bury Their Claws, Head, And Tail So Deep In the Mud, That No Power Short
Of Steam Can Make Them Relinquish Their Hold.
Some Officers Of The United states Army And Land Surveyors, Sent On The
Red river By The Government At Washington For A Month, Took Up Their
Residence At Captain Finn'S. One Day, When The Conversation Had Fallen
Upon The Cawana, It Was Resolved that A Trial Should Be Made To
Ascertain The Strength Of The Animal. A Heavy Iron Hand-Pike Was
Transformed by A Blacksmith Into A Large Hook, Which Was Fixed to An
Iron Chain Belonging To The Anchor Of A Small-Boat, And As That
Extraordinary Fishing-Tackle Was Not Of A Sufficient Length, They Added
To It A Hawser, Forty Fathoms In length And Of The Size Of A Woman'S
Wrist. The Hook Was Baited with A Lamb A Few Days Old, And Thrown Into A
Deep Hole Ten Yards From The Shore, Where Captain Finn Knew That One Of
The Monsters Was Located; The Extremity Of The Hawser Was Made Fast To
An Old Cotton-Tree.
Late In the Evening Of The Second Day, And As The Rain Poured down In
Torrents, A Negro Slave Ran To The House To Announce That The Bait Had
Been Taken, And Every One Rushed to The River Side. They Saw That, In
Fact, The Hawser Was In a State Of Tension, But The Weather Being Too
Bad To Do Anything That Evening, They Put It Off Till The Next Morning.
A Stout Horse Was Procured, Who Soon Dragged the Hawser From The Water
Till The Chain Became Visible, But All Further Attempts Of The Animal
Were In vain; After The Most Strenuous Exertion, The Horse Could Not
Conquer The Resistance Or Gain A Single Inch. The Visitors Were Puzzled,
And Finn Then Ordered one Of The Negroes To Bring a Couple Of Powerful
Oxen, Yoked to A Gill, Employed to Drag Out The Stumps Of Old Trees. For
Many Minutes The Oxen Were Lashed and Goaded in vain; Every Yarn Of The
Hawser Was Strained to The Utmost, Till, At Last, The Two Brutes,
Uniting all Their Strength In one Vigorous And Final Pull, It Was
Dragged from The Water, But The Monster Had Escaped. The Hook Had
Straightened, And To Its Barb Were Attached pieces Of Thick Bones And
Cartilages, Which Must Have Belonged to The Palate Of The Monster.
The Unfortunate Traveller Has But Little Chance Of Escaping With Life,
If, From Want Of Experience, He Is Foundered in the Swampy Canebrakes.
When The Horse Sinks And The Rider Leaves The Saddle, The Only Thing He
Can Do Is To Return Back Upon His Track; But Let Him Beware Of These
Solitary Small Patches Of Briars, Generally Three Or Four Yards In
Circumference, Which Are Spread Here And There On The Edges Of The
Canebrakes, For There He Will Meet With Deadly Reptiles And Snakes
Unknown In the Prairies; Such As The Grey-Ringed water Mocassin, The
Brown Viper, The Black Congo With Red head And The Copper Head, All Of
Whom Congregate And It May Be Said Make Their Nests In these Little Dry
Oases, And Their Bite Is Followed by Instantaneous Death.
These Are The Dangers Attending Travellers In the Swamps, But There Are
Many Others To Be Undergone In crossing Lagoons, Rivers, Or Small Lakes.
All The Streams, Tributaries Of The Sabine And Of The Red river Below
The Great Bend (Which Is Twenty Miles North Of The Lost Prairie), Have
Swampy Banks And Muddy Bottoms, And Are Impassable When The Water Is Too
Low To Permit The Horses To Swim. Some Of These Streams Have Ferries,
And Some Lagoons Have Floating Bridges In the Neighbourhood Of The
Plantations; But As It Is A New Country, Where Government Has As Yet
Done Nothing, These Conveniences Are Private Property, And The Owner Of
A Ferry, Not Being Bound By A Contract, Ferries Only When He Chooses And
At The Price He Wishes To Command.
I Will Relate A Circumstance Which Will Enable The Reader To Understand
The Nature Of The Country, And The Difficulties Of Overland Travelling
In Texas. The Great Sulphur Fork Is A Tributary Of The Red river, And It
Is One Of The Most Dangerous. Its Approach Can Only Be Made On Both
Sides Through Belts Of Swampy Canebrakes, Ten Miles In breadth, And So
Difficult To Travel Over, That The Length Of The Two Swamps, Short As It
Is, Cannot Be Passed by A Fresh And Strong Horse In less Than Fourteen
Hours. At Just Half-Way Of This Painful Journey The River Is To Be
Passed, And This Cannot Be Done Without A Ferry, For The Moment You
Leave The Canes, The Shallow Water Begins, And The Bottom Is So Soft,
That Any Object Touching It Must Sink To A Depth Of Several Fathoms.
Till 1834, No White Man Lived in that District, And The Indians Resorted
To It Only During The Shooting Season, Always On Foot And Invariably
Provided with Half-A-Dozen Of Canoes On Each Side Of The Stream For
Their Own Use Or For The Benefit Of Travellers. The Texans Are Not So
Provident Nor So Hospitable.
As The White Population Increased in that Part Of The Country, A Man Of
The Name Of Gibson Erected a Hut On The Southern Bank Of The Stream,
Constructed a Flat-Boat, And Began Ferrying Over At The Rate Of Three
Dollars A Head. As The Immigration Was Very Extensive, Gibson Soon Grew
Independent, And He Entered into A Kind Of Partnership With The Free
Bands Which Were Already Organized. One Day, About Noon, A Land
Speculator Presented himself On The Other Side Of The River, And Called
For The Ferry. At That Moment The Sky Was Covered with Dark And Heavy
Clouds, And Flashes Of Lightning Succeeded each Other In every
Direction; In fact, Everything Proved that The Evening Would Not Pass
Without One Of Those Dreadful Storms So Common In that Country During
The Months Of April And May. Gibson Soon Appeared in his Boat, But
Instead Of Casting It Loose, He Entered into A Conversation.
"Where Do You Come From, Eh?"
"From The Settlements," Answered the Stranger.
"You'Ve A Ticklish, Muddish Kind Of River To Pass."
"Aye," Replied the Other, Who Was Fully Aware Of It.
"And A Blackish, Thunderish, Damned storm Behind You, I Say."
The Traveller Knew That Too, And As He Believed that The Conversation
Could As Well Be Carried on While Crossing Over, He Added:
"Make Haste, I Pray, My Good Man; I Am In a Hurry, And I Should Not Like
To Pass The Night Here In these Canes For A Hundred dollars."
"Nor I, For A Thousand," Answered gibson. "Well, Stranger, What Will You
Give Me To Ferry You Over?"
"The Usual Fare, I Suppose--Two Or Three Dollars."
"Why, That May Do For A Poor Man In fine Weather, And Having Plenty Of
Time To Spare, But I Be Blessed if I Take You For Ten Times That Money
Now That You Are In so Great A Hurry And Have Such A Storm Behind."
The Traveller Knew At Once He Had To Deal With A Blackguard, But As He
Was Himself An Arkansas Man Of The Genuine Breed, He Resolved to Give
Him A "Roland For An Oliver."
"It Is A Shameful Imposition," He Cried; "How Much Do You Want After
All?"
"Why, Not A Cent Less Than Fifty Dollars."
The Stranger Turned his Horse Round, As If He Would Go Back; But, After
A Few Moments, He Returned again.
"Oh," He Cried, "You Are A Rogue, And Take The Opportunity Of My Being
In So Great A Hurry. I'Ll Give You What You Want, But Mind I Never Will
Pass This Road Again, And Shall Undoubtedly Publish Your Conduct In the
Arkansas Newspapers."
Gibson Chuckled with Delight; He Had Humbugged a Stranger, And Did Not
Care A Fig For All The Newspapers In the World; So He Answered, "Welcome
To Do What You Please;" And, Untying The Boat, He Soon Crossed the
Stream. Before Allowing The Stranger To Enter The Ferry, Gibson Demanded
The Money, Which Was Given To Him Under The Shape Of Five Ten-Dollar
Notes, Which He Secured in his Pocket, And Then Rowed with All
His Might.
On Arriving On The Other Side, The Stranger Led his Horse Out Of The
Boat, And While Gibson Was Stooping Down To Fix The Chain, He Gave Him A
Kick On The Temple, Which Sent Him Reeling and Senseless In his Boat;
Then Taking Back His Own Money, He Sprung Upon His Saddle, And Passing
Before The Cabin, He Gently Advised gibson'S Wife To "Go And See, For
Her Husband Had Hurt Himself A Little In rowing."
These Extortions Are So Very Frequent, And Now So Well Known, That The
Poorer Classes Of Emigrants Never Apply For The Ferries, But Attempt The
Passage Just As They Can, And When We Call To Mind That The Hundreds
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