

E-text prepared by Camille Bernard & Marc D'Hooghe
(http://www.freeliterature.org)



THE BORDER RIFLES.

A Tale of the Texan War

by

GUSTAVE AIMARD,

Author of "Trapper's Daughter," "Indian Scout," etc.







London:
Ward and Lock,
158, Fleet Street.
MDCCCLXI.




PREFACE


In the series commencing with the present volume GUSTAVE AIMARD has
entirely changed the character of his stories. He has selected a
magnificent episode of American history, the liberation of Texas from
the intolerable yoke of the Mexicans, and describes scenes _quorum pars
magna fuit_. At the present moment, when all are watching with bated
breath the results of the internecine war commencing between North and
South, I believe that the volumes our author devotes to this subject
will be read with special interest, for they impart much valuable
information about the character of the combatants who will, to a great
extent, form the nucleus of the confederated army. The North looks down
on them with contempt, and calls them "Border ruffians;" but when the
moment arrives, I entertain no doubt but that they will command respect
by the brilliancy of their deeds.

Surprising though the events may be which are narrated in the present
volume, they are surpassed by those that continue the series. The next
volume, shortly to appear under the title of "The Freebooters,"
describes the progress of the insurrection till it attained the
proportions of a revolution, while the third and last volume will be
devoted to the establishment of order in that magnificent State of
Texas, which has cast in its lot with the Secessionists, and will
indubitably hold out to the very last, confident in the prowess of its
sons, whose fathers Aimard has so admirably depicted in the present and
the succeeding volumes of the new series.

L.W.




CONTENTS.


   I. THE RUNAWAY                     XVI. A POLITICAL SKETCH
  II. QUONIAM                        XVII. THE PANTHER-KILLER
 III. BLACK AND WHITE               XVIII. LANZI
  IV. THE MANADA                      XIX. THE CHASE
   V. BLACK-DEER                       XX. THE CONFESSION
  VI. THE CLAIM                       XXI. THE JAGUAR
 VII. MONKEY-FACE                    XXII. BLUE-FOX
VIII. THE DECLARATION OF WAR        XXIII. THE WHITE SCALPER
  IX. THE SNAKE PAWNEES              XXIV. AFTER THE FIGHT
   X. THE BATTLE                      XXV. AN EXPLANATION
  XI. THE VENTA DEL POTRERO          XXVI. THE EXPRESS
 XII. LOVE AND JEALOUSY             XXVII. THE GUIDE
XIII. CARMELA                      XXVIII. JOHN DAVIS
 XIV. THE CONDUCTA DE PLATA          XXIX. THE BARGAIN
  XV. THE HALT                        XXX. THE AMBUSCADE



CHAPTER I.

THE RUNAWAY.


The immense virgin forests which once covered the soil of North America
are more and more disappearing before the busy axes of the squatters and
pioneers, whose insatiable activity removes the desert frontier further
and further to the west.

Flourishing towns, well tilled and carefully-sown fields, now occupy
regions where, scarce ten years ago, rose impenetrable forests, whose
dense foliage hardly allowed the sunbeams to penetrate, and whose
unexplored depths sheltered animals of every description, and served as
a retreat for hordes of nomadic Indians, who, in their martial ardour,
frequently caused these majestic domes of verdure to re-echo with their
war-yell.

Now that the forests have fallen, their gloomy denizens, gradually
repulsed by the civilization that incessantly pursues them, have fled
step by step before it, and have sought far away other and safer
retreats, to which they have borne the bones of their fathers with them,
lest they might be dug up and desecrated by the inexorable ploughshare
of the white men, as it traces its long and productive furrow over their
old hunting-grounds.

Is this constant disafforesting and clearing of the American continent a
misfortune? Certainly not: on the contrary, the progress which marches
with a giant's step, and tends, before a century, to transform the soil
of the New World, possesses all our sympathy; still we cannot refrain
from a feeling of pained commiseration for that unfortunate race which
is brutally placed beyond the pale of the law, and pitilessly tracked in
all directions; which is daily diminishing, and is fatally condemned
soon to disappear from that earth whose immense territory it covered
less than four centuries ago with innumerable tribes.

Perhaps if the people chosen by God to effect the changes to which we
allude had understood their mission, they might have converted a work of
blood and carnage into one of peace and paternity, and arming themselves
with the divine precepts of the Gospel, instead of seizing rifles,
torches, and scalping-knives, they might, in a given time, have produced
a fusion of the white and red races, and have attained a result more
profitable to progress, civilization, and before all, to that great
fraternity of nations which no one is permitted to despise, and for
which those who forget its divine and sacred precepts will have a
terrible account some day to render.

Men cannot become with impunity the murderers of an entire race, and
constantly wade in blood; for that blood must at some time cry for
vengeance, and the day of justice break, when the sword will be cast in
the balance between conquerors and conquered.

At the period when our narrative commences, that is to say, about the
close of 181