AN INDIAN FIGHT. 135 of our party, the instant dismounting of the white men, and their rapid advance to the front and a cover, apprised me that a fight was brewing. I was left entirely alone, and several arrows fell near me, while my ears were saluted by the yells of the contending parties, and the warning shout of Chiles, which rang like a clarion. He was stationed behind a "madron," a tree, whose smooth bark and hard wood render it an excellent fence for the farmer, as well as a capital screen for an Indian fighter. I caught a glimpse of naked figures dancing about among the trees, and saw the vaqueros securing the deserted horses, and heard the inspiring music of our riflemen. My Christian friend and interpreter, Santos, was badly frightened, and could not raise a shout; but a deputation of Hopitse-wah Indians who had accompanied us, now interfered in the capacity of heralds, and after a vast amount of bawling, made the hostile party understand who we were. Being assured that we would not injure them, the assailants came in, one of their party being badly wounded by a rifle ball. It appeared that they were from a rancheria towards the western end of the Laguna, on a warlike expedition, to revenge a' trespass on their grounds perpetrated by the "Isleñas" or Islanders, the injury consisting in picking acorns. They mistook our party for an expedition of rancheros, in pursuit of servants; but had they known we were Americans they would not have troubled us,-their dread of the rifle, seldom used by the rancheros, imposing a salutary restraint. The young man who was hurt took his wound very coolly, although it was a severe one, the ball having entered under the shoulder-blade, and made a hole directly through to the left breast, where it came out. I examined the wound and gave directions to keep the hole open at the breast, but as the poor creature said it pained him to cough or to breathe hard, I concluded that the lung was injured, and it is probable that the reaction which ensued carried him off. It was getting late, and having 136 THE FEAR OF DEATH. neither medicines nor surgical instruments, which, indeed, in our hands would have been of no avail, we left the sufferer to his fate. His friends seemed to think it a matter of little consequence, as there was no present pain, and said they would take him to a rancheria where there was a fine tamascal, which, with the Indians, answers all the purposes of "Dr. Brandreth's grandfather's vegetable universal pills,' among some civilized people. Here was another instance of the indifference to death which happily prevails among the Indians. If, with the white man's diseases, they acquired his terror of death also, they would be miserable indeed. But it is an alleviation of their misery, and not a small one either, that their minds are never troubled about death-that grim Apparition who haunts the living in Christian countries up to the day of his final visit. It is one design of Christianity to destroy “the sting of death;" and yet it may be doubted whether the votaries of any other faith look with half so much horror and dread upon dissolution. I have heard it stated from the pulpit, by a very eminent preacher, that the Greeks and Romans had a more awful fear of death than we of the Christian faith; but I can find no proof to sustain the assertion, the argument to be deduced from my limited reading demonstrating decidedly the reverse of that proposition. The cause of this dreadful awe of death, of this constant presence of the ghastly Spectre, in the imaginations of thousands of Christians, is not to be found in the system itself, but in the defective manner of its inculcation by those entrusted with that duty. Children are taught, from their earliest years, to fear nothing so much as death; and the very elaborate manner in which they are taught the great cardinal doctrine of a devil scarcely inferior in power to the Deity; and when turning for relief to the good Creator, are shown an awful Being, with three wrathful features to one of mercy, or even of justice, as understood among men— these are circumstances, which, taken in connection with the OVER THE SIERRA. 137 eternal fires of hell, are little calculated to make the future life attractive. I insist upon it, that if children are to be frightened to death by dreadful pictures of the devil and of hell, as their probable portion forever for trivial offences, they should at least be permitted to find refuge, when they seek it, in a Being all love, benevolence and mercy. I defy any man, however exemplary in his conduct, who has been bred under the influence of a stern relentless theology, and has once "believed and trembled," ever after wholly to divest himself of superstitious and most appalling fears on the subject of death. It is in vain that reason and revelation seek to dispel these dark visions which clouded his childhood-it is in vain, that when in health he discards the whole doctrine of terror, and leans with hope and confidence on the unfailing mercy of heaven-it is in vain that in his calmer moments, he recognizes in death a process as natural as sleep-that he feels how surely the same hand which upholds him here, will shield him hereafter. Let sickness come, and the pale Phantom rises up before him and mingles its hideous features, with the dregs of the bitter cup which he drinks at the thought of leaving unprotected those whom he dearly loves. An undefined terror creeps over him which he cannot dispel→→ an evil spirit is raised which he cannot exorcise unless he have grown a very Pharisee. Better be the thoughtless and indifferent Indian than the terror-stricken Christianbut better far to be the true Christian, trusting implicitly in the love and goodness of a Being who has created us for some beneficent end, and whose mercy literally "endureth forever." Under the lead of our Indian guides, we pursued our journey over a scarcely perceptible Indian trail, directly up the steepest part of a huge mountain. We preferred this rugged route to one easier and longer, as it shortened our journey across the Sierra, and opened to us new scenęs. After scaling precipices accessible to few animals, save a 138 MAGNIFICENT SCENERY. goat or a Californian horse, climbing along the sides of yawning chasms, which seemed to invite us to "step in" sociably, and draggling through dense thickets, abhorred by horses, composed of a thorny, bushy, prickly, crooked undergrowth, called "chemisal "-probably from its propensity to tear the very shirt off your back-we attained the summit of the mountain just at sunset. My first glances were cast to the farther side of the Sierra in the direction of our intended route; and as I gazed upon the wild and rugged descent, forming the foreground of this magnificent picturethe faint blue outline of the gigantic and undulating mountains of the Russian river range towering in the dim distance against the horizon, blending earth with heaven-and the broad valley lying between, enveloped in mist, whose subtle tenuity, mingled and combined with the more subtle prismatic rays of the setting sun, producing atmospheric phenomena of endless variety and ravishing beauty-I thought the scene sufficiently compensated the toils of the day's journey. But if this landscape filled the spectator with rapture, what could be said of the peerless scenery which met the eye on turning to the right, and which burst upon me so suddenly that I could scarcely realize I was standing upon the surface of this much-abused earth. I gazed on this glorious spectacle in speechless astonishment, and had I been an enthusiast, my first impulse would have been to bend the knee in adoration. There, spreading out seemingly from our very feet, but far, far below the elevated point on which we stood, lay the expansive Lake, its broad mirror illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun, and its numberless splendid features borrowing enchantment from the last fond smile of the dying day. I feel that it is not for me to attempt a description of such overwhelming grandeur and beauty, and I gladly avail myself of a life-like picture of the scene, drawn by the hand of the wizard limner of Scotland: THE LAGUNA. And thus an airy point he won, High on the South, huge Benvenue Crags, knolls and mounds, confusedly hurled, Lady of the Lake. 139 Few white men have visited this magnificent Laguna. According to the best authorities, it is between fifty and sixty miles in length, the width varying at different points; and it contains several inhabitable islands, on which are established populous rancherias, with plantations of corn, calabashes and tobacco. In the course of time it will become famous, and perhaps the "tired denizens of the Atlantic cities may yet make summer excursions to its glo rious shores. |