never day dawned fairer than that following the tornado. our arksmen, thankful to have escaped the fate of their fellow-voyagers, put off early, and at noon were passing island no. 10.
here, by marion royce’s orders, the men took their rifles and lay concealed below the rail of the ark, merrick and charlie hoyt alone standing exposed at the sweeps. after this fashion they passed down the narrow reach on the left, keeping a sharp eye to both shores.
no enemies were sighted, however, and at four in the afternoon the infant town of new madrid came into view, on its pretty
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plain along the right bank, which as yet the river had not gnawed away. the place was one of the feeble efforts of the spaniards to establish colonies in the mississippi valley.
for, although at the date of our story, the spanish were in possession of new orleans and the lower course of the river, this control was nominal and temporary, the outcome of treaty between france and spain, rather than real or permanent. the two nations which, for the century prior to 1803, had so long and so bitterly contended for the mastery of this peerless region, were france and england; and, for a period of time as great as that which has elapsed since the war of the revolution, the whole mississippi valley was virtually french territory. the louisiana purchase marked the close of an era, the end of a century of french sovereignty; this event transferred the control of by far the most important
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portion of what is now the united states, from the french to the anglo-american people.
at new madrid not less than a hundred river craft of every variety were tied up, either for purposes of trade or repair; “keels” and barges from pittsburgh, the full-rigged brig from marietta, four arks from vincennes, flatboats from far up the wabash, with a great number of skiffs, and pirogues from the various military posts. so diverse and heterogeneous a gathering of boatmen could hardly meet and mingle without friction; and, in strict point of fact, the first thing our arksmen saw, on veering to the bank, was a “rough-and-tumble” between the marietta brig’s crew and some boatmen from up the wabash.
the latter had a flatboat loaded with sugar, and live turkeys, not less than three hundred of which fine birds were confined
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in huge wooden cages on the roof of their craft. the brig’s crew, victorious in the scuffle, levied heavily on the flatboatmen’s turkeys.
at last, the little garrison at the post attempted to restore order, but with indifferent success; the brig’s crew threatened to sack the town if molested, and appeared able to make good the menace. such was new madrid in 1803.
marion royce’s only object in landing here was to procure two strong sweeps for the ark. having accomplished this in the course of an hour or two, he resumed his voyage and continued for two hours longer before tying up in the eddy at the foot of an island for the night.
here, both the arksmen and their live stock were badly tortured by large, ravenous mosquitoes. moreover, they sorely missed their poultry, this and the milk from their two cows being important items of the food supply.
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they were also rendered apprehensive from a bold visit by a canoe containing four indians, supposed to be choctaws, that came alongside the ark and held up a bearskin as if to sell it. but marion was of the opinion that their real motive was to learn if an attack on them would be likely to prove successful. three men watched, by turns, all night.
as they were putting off at daybreak, three lumber-laden arks from pittsburgh appeared and made a landing near them for repairs, one of them having run on a snag during the night. that day they made about sixty miles, passing island no. 31 at four in the afternoon; and then crossing over to avoid flour island, tied up for the night at the foot of a high bluff of yellow clay, crowned by forest.
a huge tree which had fallen down the bank afforded opportunity to make fast, although the current was here very swift
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and strong, making in against the bank so forcefully that the ark was pressed hard against the great branches of the tree-top, which lay partly in the water.
flour island, so called from a disaster to flour-laden boats which had recently occurred there, lay over opposite them; and there appeared to be an indian camp near the lower end of it, judging from the fires, and an uproar of savage outcries that was borne to their ears. no such swift, dangerous currents had been encountered anywhere since the voyage began as these which set in through the “races” between the islands and bluffs. the ark, being deep-laden, they were not a little apprehensive for her safety.
just as they were making fast, too, another lumber-laden barge came drifting past, close into shore, and struck them with such force as to stave in the bulwarks aft and break two stanchions that supported the roof.
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as the two boats hung in contact for a moment, there was a singular accession to the crew of the ark. a large pet bear, terrified, perhaps, by the crash, and seeing, as he thought, a way of escaping ashore, broke his chain and leaped across from the lumber barge to the roof of the ark just as the two boats swung clear of each other.
with a muttered malediction from her captain, who seemed in a bad temper, the lumber boat drifted away on the swift current. the bear, meanwhile, was making for the shore, but when he attempted to clamber down the other side of the roof, his chain caught in a crack between the planks and brought him up short at the bulwarks of the main deck below.
thus, the pet of the lumbermen was transferred from one craft to the other, and all in a space of less than five seconds of time!
in the gathering dusk the arksmen
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stood staring after the barge which had given them so rude a salute. captain royce then hailed them:
“hallo, the barge!”
“hallo, the ark!” was the gruff response from the receding craft.
“you’ve left something!” marion shouted, laughing.
“and good riddance!” was the uncivil response.
meanwhile the wolf-dog, tige, who considered himself guardian of the ark, set upon the bear, tooth and nail, but came off badly from the encounter. the crew gathered round, and after looking the newcomer over by lantern-light, secured him more comfortably and fed him. he was a fine black bear, about a year and a half old.
after supper, and as the evening passed, marion royce, according to his custom when repairs were needed, set to work to
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replace the broken stanchion posts, and called moses ayer to hold the lantern for him. lewis hoyt was on the roof out forward, doing lookout duty and watching the fires on flour island; but the rest of the crew had turned in.
presently lewis came back aft. “i think there’s a buffalo up the bluff,” he said.
moses laughed. captain royce, busy with his adz, paid little attention; buffalo were still to be found on the prairies along the river.
lewis stood near them for a few moments, then went forward again. the ark chafed against the tree branches with harsh, creaking sounds; frogs were croaking, and from the island, at intervals, came a singular noise, as of some large horn blown with great effort. this was followed by the reports of guns and loud yells; but whether the savages over there were
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celebrating some festival, or fighting, was not clear.
captain royce went on with his work. before long, however, lewis joined them again. “there’s something up the bluff,” he insisted.
“how d’ye know?” said moses. “you can’t see it, can you?”
“but i can hear it,” replied lewis, nervously. “a stone or something rolled down just now.”
“stones and earth often roll down when the water is high,” remarked captain royce.
“but i tell you there’s something up there!” repeated lewis.
“oh, lew’s scared,” said moses.
“no more scared than you!” retorted lewis. “if it’s a buffalo, i’m going to shoot it.”
“don’t you go to firing, lewis,” marion said. “let the buffalo go. and you had
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better get up on the roof again,” he continued. “i want you to keep a sharp eye up-stream for boats or floating trees. don’t come down here again till i send a man to take your place.”
thus admonished, lewis climbed on the roof once more and remained there for an hour or so, when moses, his task of holding the lantern being over, went up to see if anything new had happened.
of late the two boys had wrangled somewhat; ever since moses had shot the “gobbler” he affected a certain superiority over lewis, although he was not as old as the latter by a year. lewis resented this.
“i know what you came up here for,” lewis said, shortly. “you think you will have that bear!”
“well, what if i do?” exclaimed moses. “you claimed tige.”
“tige is only a dog,” replied lewis. “he will not fetch anything, but we can
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swap that bear for a silver-mounted rifle at new orleans.”
“and i shall have it!” insisted moses. “you were all so fast to claim tige. now, i claim the bear.”
“you never want to play fair in anything!” exclaimed lewis.
“and you are always whining when anybody gets even with you!” moses retorted.
what further plain truths the boys might have told each other is not certain; but, at this juncture, both were startled by a pebble that came bouncing down the bluff and hopped clear across to the roof of the ark, thence off into the river.
“now, what do you think did that?” whispered lewis, gripping his rifle and peering sharply into the night mists that enveloped both river and bluffs.
“oh, ’twas just a little slide of loose earth that came down, and the stone happened to hop across here,” said moses.
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“but that’s just the way it did twice before,” whispered lewis. “i tell you, mose, there’s something up there. i believe i can see something, too, up there against the sky, ’mongst the tree trunks,” he added. “i’ve a good notion to fire at it.”
“mack told you not to,” said moses.
“well, then, you go get tige and put him up here, and get the lantern,” rejoined lewis, after they had listened a while. “let’s tie the lantern to the end of one of these long, new setting-poles, and hoist it up high. maybe we can see then what’s up there.”
this idea pleased moses. he swung down from the roof, put tige up, and getting the lantern, proceeded to light the candle, after the tedious method of those days. passing his arm through the big wooden ring, he was about to climb up to the roof when a deep rumble was heard, like low, heavy thunder.
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the ark started violently, then seemed to receive a tremendous impulse, as if pushed off by a giant hand from the bank. it careened far over. every timber cracked. the live stock lurched and leaped back, tugging at their halters. then the heavy craft appeared to rise, like a ship on a great wave at sea. momentarily, too, a sharp crash was heard, accompanied by a shock as from a sudden blow. the whole forward end of the roof broke down, and distressed squeals rose from the horses.
moses ayer, who was on the rail in the act of climbing up, was pitched headlong into the river. as he rose he felt the side of the ark come hard against him, and a loose plank from the roof slid down close beside his head. he caught hold of it and held on, floating with the current.
captain royce and shadwell lincoln, who were still awake in the gun-room, sprang forth at the first rumble, but were
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thrown down by the violent lurch that followed it. shouts of terror were heard from those who had been asleep.
no one knew what had happened; but, hearing the crash forward, captain royce made his way there as fast as he could, and tried to learn the extent of the damage. the ark was rocking heavily, and immediately her young captain perceived that they had broken adrift and were floating down-stream. shouting to hoyt and lincoln, he bade them man the after-sweep with all speed and try to keep clear of the bank; for the craft was going broadside to the current.
it was not till the men tried to work the sweep that they discovered a long tree trunk lying afoul of them forward—across the broken roof. apparently, it had fallen on them from up the bluff; yet they did not appear to be leaking.
distressed cries of “hallo, the ark!”
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were now heard astern; and the captain at once began calling the crew by name, to see if any one were missing. all answered except moses and lewis. it was then remembered that lewis had been on lookout duty upon the roof.
“that’s mose back there in the water!” wistar royce exclaimed. “i know by the voice.”
“get out the skiff!” exclaimed the captain, and all haste was made to do so; for, by captain royce’s orders, the skiff was now hauled aboard every night.
wistar, meanwhile, was answering moses’ shouts, calling out to him to keep afloat, if he could, till they got to him. claiborne and lincoln immediately put out, rowing back against the stream, and found the boy floating with both arms clasped about the plank. he was wet and cold, but otherwise uninjured.
“but where is lewis? do you know
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anything about lewis?” were marion royce’s first questions when they had moses aboard.
moses could tell them little, however, except that lewis had been on the roof, and that he thought he had heard him shout, “you red scamp, you!” when the landslide occurred, for such they now concluded had been the cause of the accident. the side of the bluff, and with it a number of trees, had slid down into the river.
such subsidences of the banks are of common occurrence in time of flood on the mississippi, owing to the undermining action of the powerful current. tracts, many acres in extent, with the forest growing thereon, are suddenly submerged.
they succeeded in cutting away the tree that fouled them, and then they moored the ark against a willow bank three or four miles below. lewis’ disappearance had filled the young captain with the gravest
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solicitude. it was feared that the tree had struck and crushed him. it was now noticed, too, that tige was not aboard the ark; and moses remembered about hoisting the dog to the roof a few moments before the landslide occurred.
“that tree knocked them both overboard,” said charlie hoyt, with conviction, and all were inclined to agree with him.
captain royce would not go on, however, till careful search had been made, and as soon as day dawned he and wistar, with charlie hoyt and lincoln, took the skiff and pulled back up-stream to the bluff whence they had been so roughly cast adrift.
no trace of the missing boy was here discovered, however; they landed, and climbing up the bank, saw where the entire side of it had collapsed, and a dozen or more large cotton-wood trees had slid down. it was one of the latter that had fallen aboard the ark.
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the search alongshore, both above and below, was continued for an hour or more, and they shouted repeatedly, but obtained no response. the conclusion forced on the minds of all was that the boy had been knocked overboard when the roof broke down, and had been swept away by the rapid current and drowned.
on returning to the ark, captain royce found that three or four hours’ work would have to be done before going on. two horses were so badly crushed that it became necessary to kill them. a third was slightly injured, and was put in slings. to some extent, too, the roof was patched up; but when all was done, the old craft bore visible evidence of rough usage.
it was not till past noon that they got off from the willow bank and resumed the voyage—with heavy hearts.
by four o’clock that afternoon another high bluff came into view down the river—the
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third of that picturesque series known to boatmen as the chickasaw bluffs.
and this was ever afterward memorable to our arksmen. as they drifted down near it shouts were heard from the woods crowning the river-front. the barking of a dog also came to their ears. two men could be seen high up the bluff, and one of them was swinging his arms as if making signals.
“i believe that’s lewis!” moses shouted, in great excitement. “lewis and tige!”
“but that other looks like an indian!” exclaimed wistar.
they scarcely knew what to think of it at first, but as the ark floated past they made sure that it was lewis; and captain royce at once ordered the men at the sweeps to veer inshore. so swift was the current, however, that the ark floated on for a mile or more before a landing could be effected.
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but they had no more than carried a line ashore to some willows, growing on a low point, when tige, barking joyously, burst through the cane thickets, and was followed a moment later by lewis himself. and with him—to the astonishment of the arksmen—was a brawny indian, decked out after the manner of a chickasaw chief, but grinning broadly and holding up his right hand in token of a peaceful intent.
