The Opelousas courier., 1895-09-14


or heard of the ~red-coated, heavily
armed stranger who had thus uncere
mon!ously invaded their country. Th
scarlet uniforS7s, thee shining bras
cannons, mysterious weapons and lon
train OF wagons excited their fear an
suspicion. Individ1Y;s warriors woul
sometimes ride in wide circles aroun,
the force, but none could be induce.
to stay for a %palaver; nor would an,
ever approach within half a mile; and
knowing every intricate cpass as the!
did, not n could be captured.
After many days of fruitless search
the commanding officer decided to fir,
signals of distress in the hope Of at
tracing some wandering white me,
who might be able to put him On thu
right track. So, beginning one morn
ing, were discharged during
the daylight hours, and at night til,
heavef.s were lighted up by rocket!
and btazing fireballs. All the indians
for miles around were frightened hal
to death by the booming Of the grea.
guns and the streams of fire shot int
the air by the mysterious visitors, t.
whom they now attributed supernat
ural powers: but in so far as bringing
in a guide was concerned the signal:
were wasted. Therefore, nothing more
was attempted in this line till afte,
another week of useless marching
Then. when n night encamped or
a hill, and, as we afterward found.
only a few miles from Whoop Up, the
pyrotechnic display was resumed, and
its effect upon the dismayed whisky
traders, then in the fort, can be told
in the language of one of the ruffians,
known as "Four-ace Pete" who told
me the story some years afterward:
THAR was" said he, only nineteen OF
us Ill the fort when the %Injuns fust told
us of you fellers bein' on Bow river,
erbout a hundred miles away; fur old
Tom Higgins-that's the boss-war Off
to Benton with the rest OF the gang, an
he'd took all the horses along to bring
back a big lot Of yaller jacket Indian
whisky. But we knowed tibet you
greenies warn't no kind of hustlere on
the prairies, an SO we warn't in no
hurry to skip out. Anyhow, we
couldn't have quit till Tom come in
with the stock; but we reckoned he'd
be back time enough: so we got all our
pelts bundled up an everything ready
fur a quick move when he did come.
Thar war twenty fve-gallon kegs
of whisky left, an at another time they
would have bought a power of pelts,
but o we was in a hurry to trade the
stuff off, an was willin' to let it go
cheap. Oh, Lordv! But tibet war most
surprisin' Ticker! Why, sir. it war SO
tarnel full of aquay FORTS an other
lively ingredients that when you
dropped a nail into a keg Of it she'd
izz as good as a Sedlitts powder an
eat the iron up like it was a stick of
when a Injun took a drink Of that
air yaller jacket you could hear it
all the way down his throat, an
it "a SO captivatin' in reachin' the
spot that most any redskin
traded his grandmother fur a
pint of it. But jist when we wanted
them SO bad thar warn't nary Injuns
GROUND, 'cept some old played-out
what hadn't nothin' but ther
carkisses to trade.
Fur awhile we thought we'd have
bust up them kegs or drink the
ourselves; an as none on us was
anyways anxious to commit suicide, we
SIGH fools as to do that.
"Waal, when you redcoats was mean
aerin' round the plains an accidentally
neare to the fort. things begun
to look mighty blue fur us. But one
lay thar cokae a camp Of Crees from
Cypress Hills an sot up their tepees
purity close to the fort-they was Little
Pines band, the meanest lot of reds on
plains. Every dirty buck of 'em
var jist dyin' fur whisky, but they
lidn't have no furs to trade. an the old
thief wouldn't let them swop off Their
tellin' us, cool as could be, that
+ we dickered fur 'em he'd take 'em all |
way ag'in!
"The cayuses bein' a considerable
lot of critters than their own
RS, an us a-wantin' of them SO bad, !
his talk of old Piney's made us hop
lin mad, an we'd have laid him out
old if the lniuns hadn't been too many
or us to tackle. So we jist let 'em
lang GROUND, s~ufferin' awful fur a
OF whisky, but nary a drop
would we give 'em. an a thousand OF
ich varmints dassent have stormed the
ort. We was willin' to give one key
+ whisky fur two ponies, though un-
ornery circumstances half a gallon
t ticker like that would buy a well
roke cayuse; but that old rip Piney
too wide-erwake, an wouldn't let
single critter go. If we'd got forty
r fifty ponies, we could have skipped
ut with all ourSmost valooable belong
as, an left you i%nnocents to amoose
erselves in the empty fort.
Things run on in this way fur most
week, when n night. as we was
tin round playin' cards, all Of a
hidden the Crees started up the awful
racket you ever heard. Joe John
IN he jumped on eend an; run out to the
ate to see what the rulnpus was, an
hen he came back you'd orter saw
lie pious look of him. Boys seq he,
al sollum-like, boys, you'd best be-
IN fur to pray. The worlds Dustin
p, sure! Over thar on the hill, bout
70 miles off, the grounds spittin' fire,
le stars is fyfn' round loose. an Their
sides is BLOWN up: the Injuns is try
! to hide themselves, an thar's tarna-
to nayt It's the wust. ono1omara.