CHAPTER XXXI TONTY’S HEROIC VENTURE

Couture had added the fatal sequel to the story of the Abbé and Joutel. Tonty heard it with mingled¹ despair and rage. He thought of La Salle lying dead and unburied among the weeds beside a river hundreds of leagues in the wilderness²; and he thought of the five men who had come to his fort and withheld³ the truth from him, the trusted lieutenant⁴ of their master. So La Salle was in good health when he parted from them on the other side of the Cenis villages! He remembered now the strange silence of Father Douay. The friar could not say that La Salle was well when he left him.

But the anger of Tonty rose most strongly against that priestly brother—the Abbé who had prevented Joutel from taking vengeance⁵ upon the murderers, who had accepted Tonty’s hospitality all through the winter while deceiving him, and who had run off with his secret to France after begging supplies under a letter from his dead brother.

But what of the little garrison⁶ on the shore of the Gulf⁷, the forlorn fragment of the colony under Gabriel Barbier at the other Fort St. Louis? Tonty thought of Father Membré and of the hardships they had gone through together. Was it too late to save them? A year had gone by since the Abbé and his party had reached the fort on the Illinois. It was almost two years since they had left Barbier; yet the colony might still be alive. The master was gone and there was no one left to save them but himself.

Perhaps in making ready to lead a rescue party to the fort on the Gulf, Tonty forgot some of his anger atthe Abbé. Moreover, the Indian tribes between the Illinois and the sea had given the Abbé assurances that they would rally to an attack upon the Spaniards of the Southwest. Possibly he could do more than save the colony: it might be that he could fulfill⁸ the long cherished hope of La Salle by gathering⁹ a force of French and Indians and invading the territory of the hated Spaniards.

Twice Tonty had gone to the Gulf—once with La Salle and once in search of him. Now all that remained for him to do was to rescue the survivors¹⁰ whom La Salle’s death had left almost without hope. He sent Couture back on the trail by which the Abbé and his party had come, to get what information he could; but Couture’s canoe was wrecked¹¹ a hundred leagues from the fort and he returned without news.

Then Tonty bought an Indian dugout and taking with him four or five Frenchmen, a Shawnee, and two Indian slaves, was on his way early in December. On the 17th, a village of Illinois Indians at the mouth of the river saw him go by; and a month later, near the mouth of the Arkansas, the Kappa tribe welcomed him with great joy and danced the calumet before him. He could not stop long at the Arkansas towns, but pushed on down the river to the country of the Taensas and the Natchez.

With a band of Taensas he left the Mississippi and struck off toward the west. After traveling some days across country they came upon the village of the Nachitoches, where they distributed presents and concluded peace with the Indians. Taking guides at this point they went up the Red River till they reached the village of the Cadadoquis, which lay upon the route by which the Abbé and Joutel and their companions had struggled out of the wilderness. Here the Indians told Tonty that Hiens and his party were farther on at a village known as Nabedache. These Nabedaches were the same Indians whom Joutel and the Abbé called the Cenis. At last Tonty was nearing the object of his expedition; a few more days and he would join the fragment of the party of La Salle and push on to the Gulf.

But what was this murmuring? The Frenchmen flatly refused to go farther; only one of them would stay with their leader. Tonty would push on nevertheless. With his one white man, the Shawnee, the two slaves, and five Cadadoquis as guides, he took up his march again early in April. The Frenchman strayed from the party and it was two long days before he found them again. Meanwhile, in crossing a river he had lost most of their powder—a serious misfortune.

Before the end of the month Tonty and his party reached the Nabedache village where two years before the Abbé and his companions had left Hiens and his crew among the Indians. The Indians told various stories of the Frenchmen for whom Tonty was searching. Some said that Hiens and his party had gone off with their chiefs to fight the Spaniards; while others told him that three had been killed by another tribe and the rest had gone away in search of arrowheads. Tonty himself came to the firm conclusion that the Cenis had killed the survivors.

He was now many leagues beyond the Red River and within a few days’ journey of the scene of La Salle’s murder. Eighty leagues more would take him to the fort on the Bay of St. Louis. Tonty begged for guides, but the Cenis would give him none. Hiens and his men were not to be found. He looked at his remaining supply of gunpowder¹², so necessary for providing food as well as defense¹³. It was almost gone. Even Tonty could go no farther. With heavy heart he gave the Indians some hatchets¹⁴ and glass beads¹⁵ in exchange for Spanish horses and turned back toward the Mississippi.

It was the 10th of May when they reached the Cadadoquis village on the Red River, and here they stopped for a week to rest their horses. Then with an Indian guide they started once more for the Coroa village. In all the ten years Tonty had spent in the wilds he never had suffered such hardships—not even during his bitter experiences in the winter of 1680, when with Father Membré and his young French companions he had struggled out of the clutches of the Iroquois in the valley of the Illinois and fought his way against cold and starvation to the friendly Pottawattomie village on Green Bay.

While leading one of the horses by the bridle¹⁶ across a swamp the guide imagined himself pursued by an alligator¹⁷ and tried to climb a tree. In his haste he entangled¹⁸ the bridle of Tonty’s horse, which was drowned. Fearful of punishment the guide made off to his people, leaving the party to find their way alone.

With Tonty in the lead they crossed, by one means or another, eight or ten swollen¹⁹ streams. Everywhere the country seemed drowned, for the spring freshets were on. They gave up their horses and carried their own baggage, wading²⁰ day after day in water often up to their knees. They had to sleep and light their fires and cook their food on the trunks of fallen trees placed together. Only once did they find anything like dry land in the endless leagues of flooded country.

Their food gave out and they ate their dogs. There was nothing left and no wild animals were to be found in all the wet dreariness²¹. One, two, three days passed with nothing to eat—only the water everywhere. On the evening of the third day, the 14th of July, they came at length to the Coroa village, where the chiefs feasted them for as many days as they had fasted. Here they found two of the men who had deserted²²; and toward the end of the month they all went on together to the towns at the mouth of the Arkansas River. The months of hardship had sapped even Tonty’s endurance, and now for nearly two weeks he lay sick with a fever among these kindly²³ Indians.

It was late in September, 1689, when Tonty finally reached the towering rock at Fort St. Louis and climbed to its friendly summit to rest. In the weary ten months’ expedition he had neither found the bones of his friend, nor reached his fort on the Gulf, nor led an invading force into the land of the Spaniard. But he had done all that lay in his power to rescue his leader’s last garrison.

The Abbé had left his own brother unburied in the wilds, had deliberately²⁴ for more than a year delayed any effort to rescue the survivors at the fort, and had gone off to France on funds obtained by fraud and deceit. But Tonty, almost alone, had braved every peril²⁵ and hardship for nearly a year in a last courageous²⁶ but unsuccessful effort to save the pitiful remnant of his friend’s ill-fated colony on the Bay of St. Louis.

1 mingled   

混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系]

参考例句：

• The sounds of laughter and singing mingled in the evening air. 笑声和歌声交织在夜空中。
• The man and the woman mingled as everyone started to relax. 当大家开始放松的时候，这一男一女就开始交往了。

2 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

3 withheld   

withhold过去式及过去分词

参考例句：

• I withheld payment until they had fulfilled the contract. 他们履行合同后，我才付款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There was no school play because the principal withheld his consent. 由于校长没同意，学校里没有举行比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

5 vengeance   

n.报复，报仇，复仇

参考例句：

• He swore vengeance against the men who murdered his father.他发誓要向那些杀害他父亲的人报仇。
• For years he brooded vengeance.多年来他一直在盘算报仇。

6 garrison   

n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防

参考例句：

• The troops came to the relief of the besieged garrison.军队来援救被围的守备军。
• The German was moving to stiffen up the garrison in Sicily.德军正在加强西西里守军之力量。

7 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

8 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。

9 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

10 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

11 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

12 gunpowder   

n.火药

参考例句：

• Gunpowder was introduced into Europe during the first half of the 14th century.在14世纪上半叶，火药传入欧洲。
• This statement has a strong smell of gunpowder.这是一篇充满火药味的声明。

13 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

14 hatchets   

n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战

参考例句：

• Hatchets, knives, bayonets, swords, all brought to be sharpened, were all red with it. 他们带来磨利的战斧、短刀、刺刀、战刀也全都有殷红的血。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets. 圣所中一切雕刻的、们现在用斧子锤子打坏了。 来自互联网

15 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

16 bridle   

n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒

参考例句：

• He learned to bridle his temper.他学会了控制脾气。
• I told my wife to put a bridle on her tongue.我告诉妻子说话要谨慎。

17 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

18 entangled   

adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The bird had become entangled in the wire netting. 那只小鸟被铁丝网缠住了。
• Some military observers fear the US could get entangled in another war. 一些军事观察家担心美国会卷入另一场战争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

20 wading   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The man tucked up his trousers for wading. 那人卷起裤子，准备涉水。
• The children were wading in the sea. 孩子们在海水中走着。

21 dreariness   

沉寂，可怕，凄凉

参考例句：

• The park wore an aspect of utter dreariness and ruin. 园地上好久没人收拾，一片荒凉。
• There in the melancholy, in the dreariness, Bertha found a bitter fascination. 在这里，在阴郁、倦怠之中，伯莎发现了一种刺痛人心的魅力。

22 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

23 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

24 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

25 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

26 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。