The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 313: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

————— _ to be at-an end.) . THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDI’S YOUNG CAPTAIN. 307 a a 2s 2 8 a a a EE ‘And Captain Williams, what did he asked Tom, i eikey CB aT i ys _ “Transportation for life,’’-said Gale. CHAPTER, CY, _ LION “HUNTING — STIRRING 'scENES+ FATTY IN | DANGER—THE TROPHIES=SECRET INFORMATION _ FORWARDED TO CAPTAIN TOM°FORD, | “Duar Tom,—In, my, last letter I told you of various events which have happened to. the Boy Soldier in this far off land. tor PS “ But as military affairs do not occupy us-always, as indeed we haye been employed; on all sorts of _ service, I intend in this, my present letter, to give you an adventure which befell our company lately with wild animals in the dense forests around ‘us, 4 “Wewere informed after our last fight with the _ Frencl | foreeup the river and|‘getin rear of the Mexican army, and that they were about. to throw’ a large thus cnut,usoff,, if possible, ‘from ‘the Oapiabi yslmirt Hrae “ony ig Bad toy bloy ‘‘Now this was to be prevented, and at once ; for if the’ French marshal, managed’ to get, in our rear and cut us off from the chief city, further resistance on the part of our gallant little) army, might,be said tft “Now, as the Boy | Soldiers had, on,all occasions distinguished) themselves, and: could be relied on for bravery and constancy in any, emergency, I re- ceived a note from the Mexican Commander-in- Chief asking me/if .I,would)take | my, company and march, through the wild western, country, until, I came to a certain ford: of the; river, called Aguas _ Callientes, and defend it with all my might, should the French attempt to cross...) ../| | hu “As you may imagine, this task, was; one,of | very great difficulty and danger. | aslia tui, «ZT consented, of course; butichose to consult the wishes of the’ Boy Soldiers under my) command, for Idid not choose to undertake any duty: which did not meet with their entiresapproval... | «Directly I told them of my project, the brave get ?” lads shouted with joy, and wished to. march > instantly. | “Now Aguas Callientes was) more than one hundred miles up the river, and as it’ was the only ford by which the French could possibly cross, I thought it proper to state my true opinion to the Commander-in-Chief that we required several pieces of arfillery to help us) 7), 9/008 Apolo ring etl; _ “This he acknowledged, and let) me have’ two light ung aud a company of cavalry besides, _»* At the thoughts of aseries of wild adyentures in the deep, dense forests, of probable encounters with the Indians, and adventures with wild beasts, the Boys were in raptures, and ‘wished to, begone, at once. - “Having made eyery preparation for the journey, ‘started off on our destination, in high glee, and with loud cheers from those of the Mexican army who were informed of the dan gerous expedition on / . ; which we were sent. 4 -“* You will be all cut to pieces by the French,’ Said one, aie aoe haan “sThe Indians ‘will ‘attack’ you, steal’ all “your horsés, burn the grass for’miles ‘around, and you'll all die of starvation’! 1/0) | alain «Oh, and won't they’ mect with’ panther's,'and other fierce varmint {07 0 Me ee “<That’s just the sort of thing'I should like to — fall in with,’ said our tall American trapper. «¢ And L also,’ said Hugh Tracy, ” wit ““*Can’t we run off with a dozen pretty Indian women?’ said Fatty, ‘what a jolly spree it would be!” “«You had better try it on,’ said the Trapper, shrugging his shoulders—‘you won’t make the attempt a second time, I’m thinking.’ “ However, with our waggons, two cannons, the company of Mexican cavalry (lancers), and our com- pany of Boy Soldiers, we started off up the country in high glee, and well provided with most necessaries that we needed, “The first day we did not journey very far, for the deep sandy soil was difficult to march on, so made very short stages, and in the evening camped in a dense, black, gloomy forest, about half a mile from the rivyer,. ; “We had seen in the distance large herds of game, chiefly.of the antelope kind, wild hogs, buffaloes, and’such like, but as yet none of the beasts of prey, which dozens of people told us swarmed in the.forests near the river. ‘We had seen plenty of jackals, and at night prairie wolves in thousands serenaded us delight- fully, with a chorus of excruciating howls and barks, until we got quite used to them. “ Weiwere hot long allowed, however, to be un- disturbed by wild animals of the most ferocious sort, “We had heard much regarding the gigantic panthers and the American lions, and were longing to see them. “Tn our little band were a number of hangers-on, or ‘camp followers,’ who had taken such a hiking to our English Boy Soldiers that we could not get mic of them, BLS “They camped separate from our soldiers, but, as they lived for,the most part on our food, I deter- mined to make the best use I could of them, and make them earn their bread. “‘T therefore sent them out to scour the woods in all directions in search of game. « They brought inno game, however, but instead they rushed back to camp with staring eyes, tell- ing most wonderful and alarming stories of the many wild and ferocious animals they had encoun- tered, j ‘‘ Whether their stories were ‘true or false I could not say, but was strongly of 'the opinion that they were telling’ me deliberate. lies); for, with, all due deference to them, I must certainly say that the lower order of the Mexicans are the greatest liars under the sun, “ However, our sportsmen were not long doomed to disappointment, The lion, introduced himself in a very uncere- monious manner, yet still in a mode quite becoming his rank and character, and ata moment when least expected, afew nights, after we,had arrived at our destination and were guarding the ford of Aguas Callientes. _ The beautiful. weather; with which we had been favoured during our journey up the country, was succeeded, the same, evening of our arrival at the ‘ford, by cold and wet, “Instead, of that splendid. bluc. sky, starlight and moonlight, which we had hitherto enjoyed, the clouds were thick oyer head, the rain poured in tor- rents, the thunder rolled, and although we tried our very best to make ourselves comfortable, we were unable to keep more than one fire alight, «We were all crouched and buddled together in several small tents, trying to keep each other warm and snatch a few hours’ sleep, _ ‘Our camp guards were appointed for the ni ght, Oo comicloo SoCO