The Queen of the Savannah: A Story of the Mexican War Read online

  CHAPTER III.

  THE RED BUFFALOES.

  The startled Mexicans looked at each other with dumb terror; forseveral minutes after the disappearance of the cacique they remainedthus gloomy and hesitating, fearing a trap, and not daring to put faithin the words of an Indian.

  At length the hacendero, ashamed of showing the terror he felt,haughtily raised his head, and angrily stamped his foot.

  "iViva Dios!" he shouted, "Are we timid women to let ourselves befrightened by the threats of a maniac? I will go on, even if I shouldbe murdered."

  And before anyone dreamed of preventing him, he forced his way withgreat difficulty through the branches, machete in hand, and ready tosell his life dearly. But Running Water had told the truth; the passagewas free far as eye could extend, and the path was entirely deserted.Don Anibal rejoined his comrades.

  "There is nobody," he said, with an accent of regret. "Aid me to throwthese trees over the precipice, and let us continue our journey. Letus make haste though, for, if I am not mistaken, we shall find theresistance which is not offered us here at the village."

  The path was soon cleared, and the trees hurled into the barranca, downwhich they rolled with a sinister noise. They continued their march,and at the end of an hour reached the plateau on which the villagestood. But they found the huts a pile of smoking ashes, while a longline of flame was rapidly running along the side of the hill, anddevouring the crops. The Red Buffaloes had not waited for the arrivalof the king's people; they had themselves destroyed everything.

  The Mexicans only found shapeless ruins; as for the Indians, they haddisappeared, and it was impossible to discover in what direction theyhad fled. The old officer gazed for a moment pensively at this scene ofdesolation, and then walked up to Don Anibal.

  "Senor de Saldibar," he said to him solemnly, "take care!"

  "Take care! I?" he answered haughtily, "Nonsense, Lieutenant, you arejesting."

  "I am not jesting," the soldier answered sadly, "I have known theIndians for a long time. They never forgive an insult. For them toconsent to consummate their ruin, and unresistingly abandon a spotwhich must for so many reasons be dear to them, they must be meditatinga terrible revenge upon you; so, I repeat, take care."

  In spite of his ferocious courage and indomitable pride the hacenderowas struck by the tone in which these words were pronounced by aman whose courage could not be doubted; he felt a shudder pass overhis limbs and his blood run cold in his veins; for a moment remorseentered his heart, and he regretted having driven to desperation thesepeaceable men, who only asked for their share of air and sunshine.

  But stiffening himself almost immediately against this emotion, ofwhich he had not been master, the haughty Spaniard smiled bitterly, andanswered the officer with a look of defiance--

  "What can such wretches effect against me? It is not I who have tofear; but they will have cause to tremble if ever they cross my pathagain; but as we have nothing more to do here, let us be off, for it isgrowing late."

  The officer made no answer; he bowed, remounted his horse and orderedthe bugles to sound. At the base of the hill the band separated; theescort returned to the fort of Agua Verde, and the hacendero, onlyfollowed by his wife and his majordomo, started in the direction of theHacienda del Barrio. The juez de letras and the two alguaciles, who hadnot quite recovered from their terror, preferred to follow the soldiersin spite of the offer Don Anibal made them of receiving them into hishouse.

  The journey was sad, for the hacendero was dissatisfied, though he didnot wish to show it. His plans had succeeded, it is true, but not inthe way he had intended; hence, his vengeance was not complete.

  These people, whom he wanted to drive from their hearths, on whom hewished to inflict chastisement for the insult offered his wife, haddestroyed their village with their own hands, and they robbed him thusfar of the pleasure of doing it.

  Dona Emilia was sorrowful and thoughtful; this hatred, accumulatedon her husband's head, which would doubtless fall on her, though shewas innocent, terrified her. She did not dare express her feelingsaloud, but she gave full scope to her thoughts, and with the exquisitesensibility, and prophetic intuition which loving women possess, sheforesaw a future big with misfortune and gloomy catastrophes.

  The majordomo appeared as careless and indifferent on the return aswhen he went to the village. Still, anyone who could have examinedhim carefully, and seen the wicked flash of his eye when he took aside-glance at his master, would have suspected that this man wasplaying a part, that he had taken a greater share in recent events thanwas supposed, that his indifference was feigned, and that he alone ofthe three travellers had a glad heart, although his countenance wassorrowful.

  Anyone who had had this idea would perhaps not have been completelymistaken, for we must not forget that Senor Sotavento was an Indian,although he appeared a Christian, and almost civilized.

  Nothing occurred to interrupt the monotony of the journey, no annoyingaccident troubled the tranquillity of the travellers, who reached theHacienda del Barrio a little before sunset, at the moment when nightwas beginning to hide the valleys in the transparent shadows of dusk,while the tops of the mountains were still tinged with a pinkish light.

  The hacienda was a substantial building of hewn stone, such as thefirst conquerors liked to erect to prove to the conquered that theywould never abandon the soil of which fortune had rendered themmasters. This house seemed a fortress, so massive was it; and builton the top of a rather lofty hill upon a rock hanging over the abyss,it could only be reached by a narrow, rugged track cut in the rock,on which two horsemen could not ride abreast. This track wound roundthe side of the hill and led to the great gate of the hacienda, whichwas defended by a drawbridge, usually down, but which it would havebeen an easy task to raise. The walls, which were thirty feet highand of proportionate thickness, were surmounted by those _almenas_or battlements which were a sign of nobility, and which the oldChristians, that is to say, the true Castilians, never failed to placeabove their houses; for the hacenderos must not be confounded with ourfarmers, for that would be a great error.

  The hacenderos of New Spain are great landowners, whose possessionsare often more extensive than one of our counties. In the time of theSpaniards, they led the life of feudal lords in the midst of theirvassals, acting as they pleased, and only accountable to the Viceroy,who, residing in Mexico, or a great distance off, had something elseto do than look after the way in which these feudatories managed theirestates. The latter cultivated their land, worked their mines, fattenedtheir flocks, and reared their horses, without anyone dreaming ofasking any account of them as to the means they employed to augmenttheir fortunes, or the manner in which they treated the Indians whofell to their share upon the grand division of the Mexican populationamong the conquistadors.

  On this subject we will hazard a parenthesis. Since Mexico hasproclaimed her independence, slavery is abolished _de jure_ in thecountry, but still exists _de facto_. In this way: The rich landownerswhom the philanthropic law utterly ruined, instead of crying out andcomplaining as certain slaveholders do in North America, hit on aclever and successful plan.

  The hacenderos assembled their slaves and informed them that slaverywas abolished, and that consequently they were free, and could gowherever they thought proper. The poor devils were, at the firstmoment, stunned by the news, and did not at all know what would becomeof them. In fact, while they were slaves, they lived without havingthe trouble of thinking. They worked, it is true, but they were fairlyfed, clothed after a fashion, and taken care of when ill. Now they werefree, they would have to seek the food, clothing, and medicine whichthey had hitherto ready to hand without the trouble of looking for it.The question was a delicate one, for they had nothing at all.

  The hacenderos appeared to take pity on their hapless fate; they weremoved with compassion, and told them that, as they would require peonsto do the Work the slaves had hitherto done, they would engage them atthe rate of three reals a day, but they wo
uld have to feed and clothethemselves. "Moreover," the hacenderos added, "to facilitate yourgetting a start in life, which is rather difficult, we will advance youall you require, and stop it out of your wages. In this way you will befree, and you can leave us whenever you think proper, after paying offthe advances we have made you."

  The ex-slaves accepted with transports of joy and became peons. Thenit came about that they could never pay off the advances, and as theystill wanted food and clothing, the debt increased like the memorablesnowball, and the peons were forced to give up all thoughts of leavingtheir masters, as they had no other than personal security to offer.The result is, that at the present day they are greater slaves thanever.

  The only persons who gained by the transaction were the hacenderos.The reason is very simple: it has been calculated that the cost ofmaintaining a slave is six reals a day, and the peons cost them three.Hence there is a clear profit of one half; moreover, the masterssupply the food and clothing, and heaven alone knows what price theycharge the peons.

  This is the way in which the Indians, who were slaves in theSpanish possessions, have become free, thanks to the declaration ofIndependence. Is this progress? I do not think so. But to resume ourstory.

  Days, weeks elapsed, and not a word was heard of the Indians; theyseemed to have disappeared for ever. By autumn the recollection of theexpedition faded away, and then it was utterly forgotten, and nothingwas said about the Red Buffaloes or their threat of vengeance, whichwas regarded as braggadocio.

  A year passed away, and we reach the second half of 1808. The politicalhorizon was beginning to grow overcast; in spite of the care theSpanish government took to isolate the colonies, and prevent Europeannewspapers entering them, the arrival of French troops in Spain wasvaguely discussed; minds fermented and attempts at revolt were made inseveral provinces. Don Anibal, who at this time was at Leona Vicario,whither he had taken his wife a few months before for her confinement,resolved to leave the town and return to his hacienda.

  He was the more eager to carry out this resolution because the Indiansof the Presidio de Rio Grande, only a few leagues from his estate,had risen in revolt, and after burning the fort and massacring thegarrison, had spread over the country like a torrent which had burstits dykes, and were plundering and destroying everything they cameacross. An atrocious fact was stated in connection with the capture ofthe Rio Grande Fort, which heightened the hacendero's apprehensions, byleading him to suppose that his old enemies, the Red Buffaloes, wereconnected with this sudden insurrection.

  Count Don Rodrigo de Melgosa, commander of the Presidio, and brother ofthe governor of the Intendancy, was detested by the Indians, whom hetreated with the utmost rigour, and it was rumoured that he had severaltimes been guilty of unjustifiable acts of cruelty and barbarity. When,after a desperate resistance, the Indians stormed the fort, they killedColonel de Melgosa by pouring molten gold into his mouth, saying that,"Since he was so fond of gold they were determined to make him eat it,"and the unhappy man died under horrible sufferings.

  Then the Indians cut off his head, wrapped it up in a zarape, andsent this horrible trophy of their victory to the colonel's wife, whohappened to be staying with her father-in-law at Mondovo. At the sightof this scalped and fearfully mutilated head, the unhappy woman all butwent mad.

  It was in vain that the governor--whose only son, quite a lad at time,was at the time in the fort with the colonel, and had disappeared,carried off by the Indians, or, as was more probable, had beensacrificed to their implacable vengeance--tried by all the means in hispower to discover the man who had undertaken to deliver this horriblemessage; all his researches were fruitless, and the unhappy father, aprey to impotent despair, remained in the most perfect ignorance as tothe fate of his child.

  Strange to say, the murderers had designed on the victim's forehead abuffalo with their scalping knives. Don Anibal knew that the buffalowas the totem, or emblem of the Indian tribe which he had so brutallyexpelled from his domain a year previously, hence his anxiety wasgreat, for it was evident to him that the Red Buffaloes were theauthors of the death of the unfortunate Colonel de Melgosa, and of therape of his nephew.

  He completed his preparations in all haste, said good-bye to DonaEmilia, whom, in spite of her entreaties, he would not consent to takewith him, and started. Nine days later he reached his hacienda, wherebad news was awaiting him; all was in disorder. This was substantiallywhat he learned:

  Most of his cattle had been carried off, as well as his manadas ofhorses; several peons had been killed in trying to prevent the robberyof his animals; his fields had been fired and his vines uprooted,indeed the destruction was immense; and in order that the hacenderomight be thoroughly aware who the culprits were, a long pole wasfound planted in the middle of a field, from which was suspended ahalf-tanned elk skin, on which a buffalo was drawn. This time therecould be no mistake; it was really the totem of the hacendero'senemies, for the buffalo was red.

  The hacendero burst into a frightful passion, and swore to takeexemplary vengeance for this insult. He immediately wrote lettersto several neighbouring hacenderos exposed like himself to thedepredations of the marauders, and sent off couriers in all directions.The hacenderos, who were as desirous as he was to be freed from thesedemons, whose audacity, heightened by impunity, no longer knew anylimits, and threatened, if they were left alone, to ruin the entireprovince, did not hesitate about joining Don Anibal de Saldibar, and averitable manhunt was organized against the redskins.

  The Count de Melgosa, burning to avenge his brother's death, and,moreover, hoping to recover his son, placed two squadrons of dragoonsat the service of the confederates, whose numbers were thusconsiderably augmented, and Don Anibal, who took the command in chiefby general acclamation, found himself at the head of a real army.

  The hostilities commenced immediately. The confederates divided intothree bodies and set out in search of the Indians. The preparations forthe expedition had been made with such secrecy, that the redskins, whowere far from suspecting what was going on, were surprised only a fewleagues from the Hacienda del Barrio, in a valley on the banks of theRio del Norte, where they had established their camp.

  Although suddenly attacked by an enemy superior in strength, theredskins did not the less try to defend themselves, and bravelyopposed the white men. The combat was terrible, and lasted a wholeday; the Indians fought with that energy of desperation which doublesthe strength and equalizes chances; they knew they had no quarter toexpect, and hence preferred death to falling alive into the hands oftheir implacable foes. The massacre was terrible, and nearly all theredskins succumbed; some, but they were a small number, succeededin escaping by leaping into the Rio del Norte. The Mexicans took noprisoners; men, women, and children were pitilessly sacrificed.

  After the battle, Sotavento, who had truly done his duty by hismaster's side, brought him a boy of about five or six years of age,who was crying bitterly, and who had been delivered to him during themassacre by a Canadian wood ranger. He declared that he had not thecourage to kill the child, the more so because his pale skin might leadto the supposition that he was the son of a European. The hacenderoshook his head angrily at the sight of the boy; still, not daring toprove himself more cruel than his majordomo, he consented to the poorlittle wretch being spared, and even carried his clemency so far as toallow him to be taken to the hacienda.

  This battle ended the campaign. The confederates separated, satisfiedwith having exterminated their enemies and taken such a prompt revengefor their outrages. The redskins, at least for a lengthened period,would be unable to take their revenge, and the lesson had been perfect.