



Produced by Camille Bernard & Marc D'Hooghe at
http://www.freeliterature.org (Images generously made
available by the Internet Archive - scans by Google)





THE TIGER-SLAYER.

A TALE OF THE INDIAN DESERT.

BY

GUSTAVE AIMARD,

AUTHOR OF "THE PRAIRIE FLOWER," ETC.

LONDON

WARD AND LOCK

MDCCCLX.




     CONTENTS

     PREFACE.

           I. LA FERIA DE PLATA
          II. DON SYLVA DE TORRES
         III. THE TWO HUNTERS
          IV. COUNT MAXIM GAETAN DE LHORAILLES
           V. THE DAUPH'YEERS
          VI. BY THE WINDOW
         VII. A DUEL
        VIII. THE DEPARTURE
          IX. A MEETING IN THE DESERT
           X. BEFORE THE ATTACK
          XI. THE MEXICAN MOON
         XII. A WOMAN'S STRATAGEM
        XIII. A NIGHT JOURNEY
         XIV. AN INDIAN TRICK
          XV. SET A CHIEF TO CATCH A CHIEF
         XVI. THE CASA GRANDE OF MOCTECUHZOMA
        XVII. CUCHARES
       XVIII. IN WHICH THE STORY GOES BACK
         XIX. IN THE PRAIRIE
          XX. BOOT AND SADDLE
         XXI. THE CONFESSION
        XXII. THE MAN HUNT
       XXIII. THE APACHES
        XXIV. THE WOOD RANGERS
         XXV. EL AHUEHUELT




PREFACE.


It is hardly necessary to say anything on behalf of the new aspirant for
public favour whom I am now introducing to the reader. He has achieved a
continental reputation, and the French regard him proudly as their
Fenimore Cooper. It will be found, I trust, on perusal, that the
position he has so rapidly assumed in the literature of his country is
justified by the reality of his descriptions, and the truthfulness which
appears in every page. Gustave Aimard has the rare advantage of having
lived for many years as an Indian among the Indians. He is acquainted
with their language, and has gone through all the extraordinary phases
of a nomadic life in the prairie. Had he chosen to write his life, it
would have been one of the most marvellous romances of the age: but he
has preferred to weave into his stories the extraordinary events of
which he has been witness during his chequered life. Believing that his
works only require to be known in order to secure him as favourable a
reception in this country as he has elsewhere, it has afforded me much
satisfaction to have it in my power to place them in this garb. Some
slight modifications have been effected here and there; but in other
respects I have presented a faithful rendering.


                                                     LASCELLES WRAXALL.





CHAPTER I.

LA FERIA DE PLATA.


From the earliest days of the discovery of America, its distant shores
became the refuge and rendezvous of adventurers of every description,
whose daring genius, stifled by the trammels of the old European
civilisation, sought fresh scope for action.

Some asked from the New World liberty of conscience--the right of
praying to God in their own fashion; others, breaking their sword blades
to convert them into daggers, assassinated entire nations to rob their
gold, and enrich themselves with their spoils; others, lastly, men of
indomitable temperament, with lions' hearts contained in bodies of iron,
recognising no bridle, accepting no laws, and confounding liberty with
license, formed, almost unconsciously, that formidable association of
the "Brethren of the Coast," which for a season made Spain tremble for
her possessions, and with which Louis XIV., the Sun King, did not
disdain to treat.

The descendants of these extraordinary men still exist in America; and
whenever any revolutionary crisis heaves up, after a short struggle, the
dregs of the population, they instinctively range themselves round the
grandsons of the great adventurers, in the hope of achieving mighty
things in their turn under the leadership of heroes.

At the period when we were in America chance allowed us to witness one
of the boldest enterprises ever conceived and carried out by these
daring adventurers. This _coup de main_ created such excitement that for
some months it occupied the press, and aroused the curiosity and
sympathy of the whole world.

Reasons, which our readers will doubtless appreciate, have induced us to
alter the names of the persons who played the principal parts in this
strange drama, though we adhere to the utmost exactness as regards the
facts.

About ten years back the discovery of the rich Californian plains
awakened suddenly the adventurous instincts of thousands of young and
intelligent men, who, leaving country and family, rushed, full of
enthusiasm, towards the new Eldorado, where the majority only met with
misery and death, after sufferings and vexations innumerable.

The road from Europe to California is a long one. Many persons stopped
half way; some at Valparaiso; others, again, at Mazatlan or San Blas,
though the majority reached San Francisco.

It is not within the scope of our story to give the details, too well
known at present, of all the deceptions by which the luckless emigrants
were assailed with the first step they took on this land, where they
imagined they needed only to stoop and pick up handfuls of gold.

