Adventures Among the Red Indians Part 29

"Neither of us is very heavy; you can ride behind me. If you hold by my waistband you will be perfectly safe."

It was a method of locomotion new to the explorer; but now that the morning was growing warm and he was away from the shade of the forest, it would be decidedly preferable to walking; and he meekly mounted behind this good Samaritan.

At starting, the cattle became obstinate for a while; but superior force and intelligence prevailed; the horses were not the deplorable scarecrows of the Argentine, but stout, well-fed animals, that understood the business of catching and driving refractory bulls as well as their masters; and they closed in on the _niata_, hustling them with knees and shoulders, till they were glad enough to walk in sober fashion. All the same, the journey to the Indian town was not to be entirely void of adventure. Outside the village was a stream some forty feet wide, deep, but easily fordable in some places; and this would have to be crossed.

"We always swim our horses across," said Hinchcliff's companion; "but if we have cattle with us, it is safer to go a little out of our way to this ford. Why, good Lord! only last year one of our men was killed--cut nearly in halves, if the senor will believe me--through a bull hanging back on the bank after his horse had started to swim. The horse took fright, and backed so that the man got the la.s.so drawn round him and--Bah!"

Cattle and horses plunged into the water and all landed safely on the other side without more ado, except the horse that carried the two men. Whether it was that he was less used to the water, or was merely restive at the unaccustomed weight, it was impossible to say; but, when he was about a fifth of the way across, he stopped and began to kick; and the Englishman, with the gruesome story of the man who was sawn through by a la.s.so still in his mind, felt that he was in no enviable position.

"Sit tight, Senor," shouted the Indian, putting the bridle into his hand and jumping down so suddenly, that Hinchcliff had barely time to clutch at the saddle and steady himself.

"Keep his head straight; don't let him jib." Then water began to splash liberally in the face of the disobedient horse, which immediately plunged forward, stopping whenever the splashing ceased.

The Englishman could not refrain from throwing an inquiring glance over his shoulder, and then he was very much tempted to burst out laughing; for the Indian, up to his shoulders in water, was grasping the animal's tail with one hand, and beating the water into his face with the other. And so, with much patience, horse and rider and helmsman landed on the other bank.

The town, its inhabitants and their actions, were very much what Hinchcliff had seen in Brazil and the Argentine; very orderly and simple and not too cleanly. The people refused to take any money for their hospitality, and it was only with difficulty that he persuaded the chief, on bidding him good-bye the next day, to accept a small sum to hold in trust for any one of his subjects who might happen to be in want. The truth is, that where they have not been demoralised by white people, savage tribes are usually simple enough in their habits; none of them is ever in want, and poverty, as understood in civilised countries, is almost unknown. A man works (or, more properly speaking, makes his wife work) not for a fixed sum, but for the necessaries of life merely; and the Indian tribes, whether of North or South, have little of the insatiable cupidity of the Asiatic or the negro.

After a night in the village, Hinchcliff set out to find his way back to the river by a different route, avoiding the woods and endeavouring to follow a faintly-marked horse-track over the gra.s.sy hills. This procedure nearly led him into a difficulty far more serious than that of losing his way in a luxuriant forest, for he missed his road and got on to one where there was no sign of a stream, and where the pools had nothing but dry mud to offer him, so that he went all the afternoon and night without tasting a drop of water. He woke before daybreak, almost delirious, and set off at the best pace he could contrive for some low-lying land, which he had failed to notice overnight.

All at once a strongly built Indian started up from the ground fifty yards in front of him, and, after one look at him, began to flee down the hill.

"Stop! I want you; I want water," shouted Hinchcliff.

The fleeing figure turned its head as though straining to catch the words, but still ran on. Then the thirsting man grew desperate, and, determined to make the man help him to find water, raised his gun and pretended to take aim at him. Immediately the fugitive stopped.

"Water!" shouted Hinchcliff. "I have lost my way, and am dying of thirst."

The Indian appeared to reflect for a moment, and at last made towards his pursuer, disengaging a large water-gourd from his belt as he walked.

"What made you run away?" panted the Englishman, when he had emptied the gourd at one draught.

"I saw your gun and I was frightened. We do not like firearms, Senor; and here in the lowlands we seldom see white men.--You have lost your way, you say?"

"Yes; I want to reach the river."

"I am going that way and will show you it; it is but a few miles. But first, with your permission, I will finish what I was doing when I caught sight of you."

He sat down, and from a round wooden box, began to cover his fingers liberally with a lard-like substance which he proceeded to rub over his face, shoulders, breast, arms, and waist.

"I have been much indoors, lately; sick," he explained; "and the insects trouble me greatly. They will not sting through this ointment.

Some of our more ignorant people use mud instead; but I--I have lived in towns at times; I am more learned."

The Indian was, in truth, a very intelligent man, and Hinchcliff found him a most interesting companion. He soon discovered a stream where they could drink their fill; he asked questions about the weapons that had frightened him so much, and even so far overcame his fear of firearms as to offer to carry the gun a little way; an offer that was declined with thanks. When the wonderful instrument brought down a fine young ostrich for dinner, the unsophisticated fellow actually put his lips to the barrel. Quick to turn his hand to any open-air work, he plucked and cleaned the bird and collected sticks and dry pampas gra.s.s for the fire; whereupon another surprise awaited him; for Hinchcliff was growing very short of matches, and was in the habit of economising them by using a burning-gla.s.s for lighting his pipe and his fire. And this was the only occasion on which an Indian ever asked him for anything, even indirectly; on receiving a hint that his companion would give the world to possess such a wonderworking implement, he handed it to him readily enough; for, if necessary, he could easily use one of the lenses of his field-gla.s.s for getting a light.

Shortly before sunset, as the two trudged along towards the river, which had long been in sight, the Indian, after a sudden glance behind him, set off at a sharp run, making for a tiny valley that opened between the hills on his left.

"_Now_ what?" shouted the astonished Englishman. As he turned to look back, the sound of approaching horses caught his ear, and he saw an Indian and three Gauchos riding at full speed, followed closely by a man who rode like a European. They wheeled for the valley at once, and reached it long before the fleeing Indian, who turned back shrieking towards Hinchcliff.

"Shoot, Senor; for the love of all the Saints; shoot them dead; they are bad men," he gasped in an agonised voice.

This was rather a large call on a man who came from a country where to shoot people is a capital crime; but the piteous appeal for help in the fugitive's face was irresistible. If an Englishman is averse to taking pot-shots at strangers, he is generally quite as loth to see the weaker side go to the wall. While he was asking himself what was the best thing to do, the foremost Gaucho made a sudden motion with his arm, the noose of a la.s.so dropped over the Indian's head, and he was jerked over on to his back. At sight of the bulging eyes of the half-strangled victim, Hinchcliff pulled out his knife and was about to slash the thong through, when the second Gaucho, springing to the ground, flung himself in the way and presented a pistol.

"We are acting under orders," he said. "Be careful what you do.--All right; loose him and tie his hands, Juan."

"You are sure that's your man?" asked the European stranger, hurrying up. He had spoken in such execrable Spanish, that Hinchcliff said unceremoniously:

"Englishman, aren't you?"

"Yes; I am British vice-consul for this district. Question for question--is this a friend of yours?"

"No; merely a paid guide; but----"

"Then you don't know that he is the cleverest thief and prison-breaker in Uruguay, if what these fellows say is true. I only met them by accident a little higher up; but I know it's a fact that an Indian prisoner broke loose from San Jose gaol the other day."

"There's no mistaking _him_," said the man who was binding the prisoner. "But let the tracker decide." (A "tracker" is an Indian who hires himself out as a sort of blood-hound, to catch horse-thieves, stray cattle, etc.) "He knows him well enough."

No mistake had been made; the simple--but teachable--Indian was the man who was wanted; and a most respectable barrister of the Inner Temple had spent a whole day chatting affably with a notorious criminal, who would a.s.suredly have robbed him of his gun and money had the opportunity arisen.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE EXPLORATION OF THE SALADO VALLEY

When poor Charles Mansfield made his journey up to the unknown Chaco, he pa.s.sed, on his way, a district equally unknown at that time: the valley of the Salado River, which remained unexplored till 1863, when Hutchinson, the African traveller, traced the river to its source.

Thomas Hutchinson, F.R.S., had been appointed British Consul at Rosario in 1862, and, before leaving England, had been instructed by the Foreign Secretary (Earl Russell) to take the first opportunity of exploring the Salado and its basin, and to test the truth of the report that the Indian territory there abounded in wild cotton.

It was not till the following year that he could spare time for a task which might occupy an indefinite period; and then he ascended the Parana by steamer as far as Parana City, rode across to Santa Fe, which is on the Salado River, and there began to make inquiries.

Generally, a man on such an errand finds plenty of people ready to pour cold water on his schemes and to draw his attention to innumerable obstacles; but this time the reverse was the case. Though he could find none of the inhabitants who had ever been more than a few miles higher up than Santa Fe, when he returned to his hotel that evening, the landlord informed him that a gentleman who was now in the smoking-room had just arrived by private steamer from Buenos Ayres, and had been asking the same question as himself: did anyone know anything of the upper part of the Salado?

The stranger was one, Don Ruberta, a young Argentino engineer who had studied in London; he had been making a survey of the Colorado and Rio Negro, and aspired to do the same on the Salado. He proposed starting on the following morning, and at once begged the Consul to accept the hospitality of his little launch; and so it came about that outlying Guaranis, Quitenos, and Chiquitos were enabled to behold a steam vessel--and probably an Englishman--for the first time.

The crew, which consisted of a Portuguese engineer and three Zambos, were as ignorant of the neighbourhood as their employer; but the main charm in river exploration lies in the fact that, so long as rapids, or dilemma-like forks, or mud-banks do not intervene, you have but to follow your nose. On the first day they pa.s.sed sundry Indians in canoes, but these evinced no excitement or curiosity. Don Ruberta had divided his coal into two parts, and meant, if necessary, to steam for as long as the first half held out. At night the vessel stopped from dark till dawn, to avoid mud-banks, and in order that the explorers might miss nothing that could be of importance. By the middle of the second day they came to a _rancheria_, or collection of Gaucho huts, standing about a mile back from the left bank; and, as it looked as if some valuable information might be obtained here, the two men landed and strolled up the hill.

The place was a very large horse-farm, but the Gauchos could tell them little or nothing of what they wanted to know, for their trade was all with Santiago or Cordoba, and they never had occasion to use the river. But one of the employes, a Quiteno Indian who hailed from the Bolivian frontier, said modestly that he could tell the senors all they needed to know about the river.

"Then will you come with me as pilot for a few days?" asked Ruberta.

"I will come--that is, if you are well armed. For there are wild people higher up, who eat man's flesh; they run from guns, but they do not fear arrows unless there are many bowmen. Then, too, there are the river Chiquitos, who may blow poisoned darts at us unless we keep them at a distance."

No objection was raised by the Gauchos, to whom Hutchinson gave a small money present, and the Indian retired to "pack up." The luggage with which he very shortly reappeared was doubtless c.u.mbersome; but then it comprised all that he needed, whether for a journey to the United States, or for setting up housekeeping permanently. Over his shoulders were slung bow, quiver, blanket, lance, and copper pot; in one hand he carried a hatchet, a bundle of la.s.soes, and two bolas; in the other, some spare thongs, a well-seasoned paddle, a pair of stirrups, each as big and wellnigh as heavy as the skidpan of a waggon-wheel, the sharpened angles of which did duty for spurs; while at his belt hung a knife and a deer-skin pouch, the latter containing flint and steel, palmetto-leaves, tobacco, and a little bag of dried _mate_. Happy Quiteno; he was ready for any emergency; whether fighting, boat-building, horse-catching, or beast-slaying! Of the launch he had not much opinion; if it did not sink with all that weight of machinery, it would catch fire at any moment; nothing would persuade him to sleep in the tiny forecastle with the Zambos, and he pa.s.sed the night wrapped in his blanket on deck.

The _rancheria_, he said, was the last civilised spot they would pa.s.s, for Tuc.u.man was many days' journey away from the water; so was Salta; and, after that, the river became only a stream, running through the territory of the Aymaras. The cotton he knew nothing about, which, from Hutchinson's point of view, was awkward, as it would mean many landings and perhaps many fruitless searches.

The next morning the Consul woke soon after dawn, to find the guide peering through the hatch of the little after-cabin where he and Ruberta slept.

"The man-eaters have come," whispered the Quiteno; "they have been watching us all night, I suppose. If you bring your gun you can kill many of them."