TIFE-BOAT ^""SERIES >7^S^ i _- _; HICK QNSLOW (LIBRARY j UNIVERSITY Of CALIFORNIA SAW DIEGO ! /? , P,/8<--trvt- THE LIFE - BOAT SERIES. All Handsomely Illustrated. THE LIFE-BOAT. A Tale of the English Coast Heroes. By R. M. BALLANTYNE. THE CRUISE OF THE FROLIC. A Sea Story by WILLIAM H. G. KINGSTON. THE YOUNG MIDDY. Or the Perilous Adventures of a Boy Officer. ANTONY WAYMOUTH. Or the Gentleman Adventurers. By WILLIAM H. G. KINGSTON. DICK ONSLOW. iong the Red Skins. By W C"V1TkT Adventures among the Red Skins. By WILLIAM H. G. KINGSTON. LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, BOSTON. ADVENTURES DICK ONSLOW AMONG THE RED SKINS. A BOOK FOR BOYS. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. EDITED BY WILLIAM H. G. KINGSTON. BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK : CHAKLES T. DILLINGHAM. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. My Wends the Raggf.ts. Our proposed migration. Journey commenced. - Attack of the Indians. A shot through my leg. Horrible anticipations. Hide in a bush. Climb a tree. My thoughts in my concealment. Listen in expectation of an attack. Starving in the midst of plenty. Some cue approaches. I prepare to fire 9-19 CHAPTER II. A friend in need. How two people may live while one will starve. Obed goes in search of adventures, and I awake to find a rattlesnake close to my nose. I am saved. Obed returns, but followed by a gentleman whose room would be more pleasant than his company. Obed cannot fire, and I cannot run, but I save him by sitting still. We anticipate the pleasure of dining on bear's flesh. Obed fetches and carries like a dog, and we fart sumptuously. I take to crutches. We collect stores and make a tent. A Red Skin vis- itor 20-33 CHAPTER III. Th Bed Skin proves to be a friend. He and Obed leave me alone in my glory. I fortify myself for the winter. Visited by wolves. A terrific storm. The wolves my nightly visitors. I kill some and eat them, but find them o'er teuch. An object moving in the distance. Red Skins and ene- mies. I prepare for their reception. I kill one of them. A fearful struggle. I endeavor to obliterate the signs of this visit. My terrible solitude. More wolves and more Indians. I prepare a banquet for them. The suspicions of my guests aroused. The unpleasant termination to our feast 84-52 CHAPTER IV. fbe Indians propose to kill me. I am bound ready for the torture. My guests find the fire-water, and I find the advantage of having abstained from it. A fearful conference. A tomahawk sent at my head. The spirits take effect. I work my limbs free. Shall 1 kill my enemies ? I fly. A run for life. My terrible journey. I sink exhausted. A friendly Indian. A kind reception. I have cause to rejoice that I did not red Jen my hands with blood 63-73 (iii) Contents. CHAPTER V. I bar* cans* to rejoice that I did not avenge myself. My great medicine work I rise in the estimation of my new friends. An Indian encampment. Am offered a wife, but compelled to decline the honor. John Pipetick. Surrounded by enemies. A fierce attack. We fight with desperation, and resolve to die like brave men 73-1/2 CHAPTER VI. Our powder expended. I believe that my last moment has arrived. Unex pected succor. A dangerous predicament. Obed's gallantry. Our ene- mies take to flight. We recommence our journey. Generosity of the eld chief. Offers me two wives instead of one. Obed's narrative. How he escaped from the bear. A fresh alarm. The approach of a stranger. 93-100 CHAPTER VII. The Dacotas are again upon us. We hurry to the rescue. We preserve the life of the stranger. Sam Short, the trapper. His adventures. Escape from the Red Skins. Desperate combat in the canoe. Sam's search for his companion. Discovers one in the hands of the Indians. They dis- cover Sam, and he flies. Finds Blount, and together they go in search of Noggin. Again get sight of Noggin, but he is fastened to a stake. Noggin shows that in spite of his name he is a hero 110-138 CHAPTER VIII. Ooed's story continued. Noggin rescued by the chiefs daughter. Sam and Blount retire, hoping that he may be happy. They continue their wan- derings. Blount's death. Sam proceeds alone. Captured by the Red Skins. They prepare to kill him. Not liking it, he endeavors to escape from it. Escape and pursuit. A ride for life. Hard pressed for food. Obed's adventures. How he escaped from the bear. The faithful Delaware 134-152 CHAPTER IX. Obed's adventures continued. Journey with the Delaware. The prairie on fire. They fly for their lives. A stampedo. A narrow escape on the rock. Long journey. Approach of winter. Their life in a cave. Expected visit from bears. Journey continued. Arrival at the fort. Further ad- ventures with bears and wolves. Save the life of a young chief. Carry him onward till they reach their camp. The young Red Skin's gratitude. End of Obed's narrative. Fresh alarms. Again the enemy ap- proach 153-16? CHAPTER X. the Red Skins attempt to alarm us. Singularly unsuccessful. The enemy at length commence the assault. We bravely defend our camp. Sain dis- covers that they are Pawnees and Dacotas. His device to separate their ferces. discovers Noggin among them dressed as a chief. The enemy re- tire. Sam's expedition to rescue Noggin whirl] T accompany. Our suc- cess. Mr. and Mrs. Noggin. His magnificent appearance as an Indian chief. We push onwards and at length reach the camp of our friends the Baggete . . 170-Jffl Content* CHAPTER XI. tar winter encampment. Our huts. How we spent onr time. A n.'gh t alarm. A visit from a grizzly. My encounter with the same. Short saves me. We start in search of Mrs. Bruin. We enter the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains. Short's battle with the bear. His perilous situation. Still In danger. We go round to assist him. The snow moves, though the bear does not, and we find ourselves on the top of an avalanche. A most un- pleasant mode of locomotion 182-195 CHAPTER XII. We feel as if we were going over the falls of Niagara. Smothered by snow. We appear by degrees. Obed missing. We gave him a warm bath inside the bear. Our dangerous predicament. How to get out of the ravine. - - Sam appears above us. We climb out with no little difficulty. The bear's cave. Having had enough bear hunting we return home. Find a native visitor, who informs us that we may expect soon an attack from an over- whelming force of Red Skins 196-207 CHAPTER XIII. Short and Noggin act as interpreters. We prepare to move onward. The White Dog. We guard against surprise. I go out as a scout. Pursued by Red Skins. Return to the camp. More visitors. We suspect treach- ery. White Dog warns us that they are enemies We prepare for a start while Noggin holds a palaver with the Indians. They are allowed to enter. Their chiefs treacherous attempt to kill Laban, but gets killed himself. We seize the rest. Noggin's regret that we do not kill them. We start on onr journey. White Dog accompanies us. We push on. Our first en- campment. A fresh alarm 208-224 CHAPTER XIV. A mdden alarm. White Dog nearly roasted. Continue our march. My young friends Gog and Magog. Disappearance of Short and Obed. I de- scend to search for them. A magnificent ice cavern. Cross a frozen lake. Indians ahead. Friends. A scene in the Rocky Mountains. Cam]*, and fortify ourselves. Approach of Flintheads. Desperate conflict. An avalanche comes thundering down on us 225-242 CHAPTER XV. I find myself under the snow. My attempts to escape appear to be vain. Struggle on. Am free, but find myself alone among the mountains. Push on. Encounter a grizzly bear. A fight. Will he eat me, or shall I eat him? The pleasantest alternative occurs, and Bruin saves my life. I hurry on in the hopes of overtaking my friends. Take up my lodging for the night in a cavern 243-255 - CHAPTER XVI. k i-ight In a cave. I fortify myself, and go to sleep. Unwelcome visitors. My battle with the wolves. I drive them off, and again go to sleep Con- tinue my journey. Night again tvertakes me. I build a castle for my 1* Contents. resting-place. Voices of Mends sound pleasantly. Escape of my com panions. Fate of surly Magog. Reach the camp. The summit of UM pus. Commence our dawumt. An Irishman's notion of the beet WT go down the mountain 2-Z<1 CHAPTER XVII. Bad fate of the poor Learys. Grief of the mother and sisters. We go in search of the missing ones. Find them at the bottom of the ravine. The burial. Wild scene. Return to camp. Go on a sporting expedition. My bat- tle with the hawks. Very nearly beaten. Short comes to the rescue. Consequences of indulging in a fit of romance on a journey. Go to sleep, and find that my only companion is a huge rattlesnake . . . 272-288 CHAPTER XVIII. A fight with a rattlesnake, and a description of my enemy. Find the camp de, aerted. Feel very hungry. Kill a goose. See some horsemen in the dis- tance. Find a river between me and them. Build a raft and take a longer voyage than I intend. Shoot a fall, and have the pleasant prospect of being carried down a cataract 287-296 CHAPTER XIX. Unexpectedly reach the bank, and land in safety. My clothes are in tatters. After making a long journey find that I have returned to the very spot I left. Encounter a hungry wolf. Suffer from want of water. Meet a lynx, but find no liquid. Go to bed among some nests of rattlesnakes. Slaughter a host of snakes and sip the dew in the morning. More rattle- snakes. My onward journey continued. My cry is still for water. Ob- tain a larger share than I require. I swim down the stream, and on landing am received by a huge grizzly 299-311 CHAPTER XX. I look at the bear and the bear looks at me. I climb up and he tries to catch me, but I dodge him and escape. Proceed on. Find a hollow fallen tree, and make my bed in the interior. Pleasant sleep unpleasantly disturbed. My friend the grizzly again. I escape up a tree, and Bruin occupies my bed. We try each other's patience. I watch for an opportunity of escap- ing, and he watches to catch me 312-321 CHAPTER XXI. [ exhaust Bruin's patience. Manufactures some fishing-lines, and descend from my perch in the tree. Catch a big fish to my great joy, with no little trouble, and cook it. Many a slip between the spit and the lip. My fish is admirably dressed but disappears, though not down my throat. I set tc work again and catch more fish. Continue my journey ; am almost starred. My ammunition exhausted. See some horses. Fall in with some In- dians. They prove to be friends. Accompany me on my journey, and conduct me to the camp of the Raggets. --We reach California, where I ter- minate the adventures which I now give fc the public .... 322-831 ADVENTURES OF DICK ONSLOW. (Tii) CHAPTER I. Jfy friends flie Raggets. Our proposed migration. Journey com- menced. Attack of the Indians. A shot through my leg. Horri- ble anticipations. Hide in a bush. Climb a tree. My thought$ in my concealment. Listen in expectation of an attack. Starving in the midst of plenty. Some one approaches. I prepare to fire. IN few countries can more exciting adventures be met with than in Mexico, and the southern and western portions of North America ; in consequence of the constantly disturbed state of the country, the savage disposition of the Red Indians, and the numbers of wild animals, buffaloes, bears, wolves, panthers, jaguars, not to speak of alligators, rattle- snakes, and a few other creatures of the like nature. My old school-fellow, Dick Onslow, has just come back from those regions ; and among numerous in- cidents by flood and field sufficient to make a timid man's hair stand on end for the rest of his days, he recounted to me the following : After spending some time among those ill-con- ditioned cut-throat fellows, the Mexicans, I returned to the States. Having run over all the settled parts, of which I got .a tolerable birdseyo view, ' 10 Dick Onslow and the Red Skins ; I took it into my head that I should like to se* something of real backwoodman's life. Soon get ting beyond railways, I pushed right through the State of Missouri till I took up my abode on the ?ery outskirts of civilization, in a log-house, with a rough honest settler, Laban Ragget by name. He had a wife and several daughters and small chil- dren, and five tall sons, Simri, Joab, Othni, Elihu, and Obed, besides two sisters of his wife's and a brother of his own, Edom Ragget by name. I never met a finer set of people, both men and women. It was a pleasure to see the lads walk up to a forest, and a wonder to watch how the tall trees went down like corn stalks before the blows of their gleaming axes. They had no idea I was a gentleman by birth. They thought I was the son of a blacksmith, and they liked me the better for it. Some months passed away, I had learned to use my axe as well as any of them, and a fine large clearing had been made, when the newspapers, of which we occasionally had one, told us all about the wonderful gold-diggings in California. At last we talked of little else as we sat round the big fire in the stone chimney during the evenings of winter. Neighbors dropped in and talked over the matter also. There was no doubt money was to be made, and quickly too, by men -with strong arms and iroi. constitutions. We all agreed that if any men were An Adventure in the Far West. 11 fit for the work, we were. I was the weakest of the party, do ye see. (Dick stands five feet ten in his shoes, and is as broad-shouldered as a drayman.) Just then, an oldish man with only two stout sous and a small family drove into the forest with a light waggon and a strong team of horses, to look about him, as he said, for a location. He came to our house, and Laban and he had a long talk. " Well, stranger," said Laban, " I guess you couldn't do better than take my farm, and give me your team and 300 dollars ; I've a mind to go fur- ther westward." The offer was too good to be refused. The bar- gain was struck, and in two days, several other set- tlers having got rid of their farms, a large party of us were on our way to cross the Rocky Mountains for California. The women, children, and stuff were in Laban's two waggons. Other settlers had their waggons also. The older men rode ; I, with the younger, walked with our rifles at our backs, and our axes and knives in our belts. I had, be- sides, a trusty revolver, which had often stood me in good stead. We were not over-delicate when we started, and we soon got accustomed to the hard life we had to lead, till camping-out became a real pleasure rather than an inconvenience. We had skin tents for the older men, and plenty of provisions, and as we kept along the banks of the rivers we had abundance of 12 Dick Otislow and the Red Skins: grass and water for the horses. At last we had to leave the forks of the Missouri river, and to follow a track across the desolate Nehraska country, over which the wild Pawnees, Dacotas, Omahas, and many other tribes of red men rove in considerable numbers. We little feared them, however, and thought much more of the herds of wild buffaloes we expected soon to have the pleasure both of shooting and eating. We had encamped one night close to a wood near Little Bear creek, which runs into the Nebraska river. The following morning broke with wet and foggy weather. It would have been pleasant to have remained in camp, but the season was advanc- ing, and it was necessary to push on. All the other families had packed up and were on the move, Laban's, for a wonder, was the last. The women and children' were already seated in the lighter waggon, and Obed Ragget and I were lifting the last load into the other, and looking round to see that nothing was left behind, when our ears were saluted with the wildest and most unearthly shrieks and shouts, and a shower of arrows came whistling about our ears. " Shove on ! shove on ! " we shouted to Simri and Joab, who were at the horses' heads, " Never mind the tent." They lashed the horses with their whips. The animals plunged forward with terror and pain, for all of them were more or less wounded. We were sweeping round close An Adventure in the Far West. IS to the edge of the wood, and for a moment lost sight of the rest of the party. Then, in another instant, I saw them again surrounded by Indian warriors, with plumes and feathers, uplifted hatch- ets, and red paint, looking very terrible. The women were standing up in the waggon with axes in their hands defending themselves bravely. A savage had seized one of the children and was. drag- ging it off, when Mrs. Ragget struck with all her might at the Red Skin's arm, and cut it clean through ; the savage drew back howling with pain and rage. Old Laban in the mean time, with his brother and two others, kept in front, firing away as fast as they could load while they ran on : for they saw if once the Red Skins could get hold of the horses' heads, they would be completely in their power. All this time several of the things were tumbling out of the waggon, but we could not stop to pick them up. Why the rest of the party, who wore ahead, did not come back to our assistance, I could not tell. I thought that they also were prob- ably attacked. We four ran on for some way, keeping the Indians at a respectable distance, for they are cowardly rascals notwithstanding all the praise bestowed on them if courageouslj op- posed. I was loading my rifle, and then taking aim at four mounted Indians who appeared on the right with rifles in their hands. They fired, but missed me, as I meantime was dodging them behind the 3 1 4 Dick Onslow and the Red Skins . waggon. During this, I did not see where 01)ed was. I hit one of them, and either Simri or Joab, who fired at the same time, hit another. The other twc wheeled round, and with some companions, hovered about us at some little distance. Just then, not hearing Obed's voice, I looked round. He was nowhere to be seen. I was shouting to his brothers to stop and go back with me to look for him, when half-a-dozen more Indians, joining the others, gal- loped up at the same moment to attack the head- most waggon. Simri and Joab, lashing their horses, rushed on to the assistance of their family. The savages fired. I was springing on when I fel* myself brought to the ground, grasping my rifle, which was loaded. A shot had gone right through both my legs. I tried with desperate struggles to get up, but could not lift myself from the ground. All the horror of my condition crowded into my mind. To be killed and scalped was the best fate I could expect. Just as I was about to give way to despair, I thought I would make an attempt to save my life. From my companions I could expect no help, for even if they succeeded in preserving their own lives they would scarcely be in a condition to come back and rescue me. Poor Obed I felt pretty sure must have been killed. A amaH stream with some busies growing on its banks was near at hand. I dragged myself toward it, and found a pretty close place of concealment behind one of the bush- An Adventure in tht. Far West. 15 es. Thence I could look out. The waggons were still driving along furiously across the prairie with the Indians hovering about them on either side, evidently waiting for a favorable moment to renew the attack. Thus the whole party, friends and foes, vanished from my sight in the fog. To stay where I was would only lead to my certain destruction, for when the Indians returned, as I knew they would, to carry oft' my scalp, the trail to my hiding- place would at once be discovered. I felt, too, that if I allowed my wounds to grow stiff", I might not be able to move at all. Suffering intense agony, therefore, I dragged myself down into the stream. It was barely deep enough to allow me to swim had I had strength for the purpose, and crawl I thought I could not. So I threw myself on my back, and holding my rifle, my powder-flask, and revolver above my breast, floated down till I reached the wood we had just passed. The branches of the trees hung over the stream. I seized one which I judged would bear my weight, and lifting myself up by immense exertion, of which, had it not been for the cooling effects of the water, I should not have been capable, I crawled along the bough. I had carefully avoided as much as possible disturt>- iug the leaves, lest the Red Skins should discover my retreat. I worked my way up, holding IE? rifle in my teeth, to the fork of the branch, and \hen up to where several of the higher boughe 16 Dick Onslow and the Rt,l Skins: branched off and formed a nest where I could remain without fear of falling off. I was completely concealed by the thickness of the leaves from being seen by any one passing below, and I trusted, from the precautions I had taken, that the Indians would not discover my trail. Still, such cunning rogues are they, that it is almost impossible to deceive them. My great hope was that they might not find out that I had fallen, and so would not come to look for me. As I lay in my nest, I listened atten- tively, and thought that I could still hear distant shots, as if my friends had at all events not given in. Still it might only have been fancy. My wounds, when I had time to think about them, were very painful. bound them up as well as I could the water had washed away the blood and tended to stop inflammation. The sun rose high in the heavens. Not a sound was heard except the wild cry of the eagle or i