Читать книгу The Manatitlans or, A record of recent scientific explorations in the Andean La Plata, S. A - R. Elton Smile - Страница 9

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While Mr. Welson was engaged in listening to the rehearsal of the proposed plans of Correliana for the speedy rescue of her people, a falcon in the act of stooping from its poise attracted the quick eyes of Mr. Dow, who raised his rifle, but before he could secure his aim the Heraclean maid uttered an exclamation of alarm which arrested his destructive purpose. In explanation and apology for her impetuous words and act, the falcon settled from his waft upon her shoulder with a flutter of glad recognition, coaxingly pecking at her ear with side glances for accustomed caresses. In a few moments the fair perch became so abstracted with varying emotions hovering between sorrow and gladness, that her pet was fain to stoop to her wrist for the mechanical recognition of the right hand; yet, as if unmindful of neglect, it plumed itself in the pride of feathery vanity, seemingly confident notwithstanding the reserved affection of its mistress.

At length, as if suddenly made aware of her preoccupation from the silence that prevailed, she asked the privilege of retiring to the cabin for a few minutes for the recovery of her composure. During her absence Cleorita said that she had been similarly affected on several previous occasions from falcon visits. Nearly an hour passed before Correliana reappeared, then, with the pleading animation of anxiety, she requested M. Hollydorf to urge all warrantable haste in preparation for the overland journey from that point, if they proposed to rescue her people, as they were in extremity from the increased virulence of the pestilence aggravated by famine, of which the besieging savages were preparing to take speedy advantage. Naturally supposing that the bird was the carrier medium of communication, all their energies were exerted for the accomplishment of her affectionate solicitation.

Mr. Dow, with Jack’s and Bill’s assistance, drilled the Kyronese in the art of loading and discharging the howitzer, with effective aim, also in the use of rifles and pistols. During the day hampers were filled with prepared munitions and rations, and the party selected for the expedition. Having assisted, with wonderful tact, during the process of packing, just before night-fall Correliana dispatched the falcon in homeward flight, with encouraging promises of speedy relief. When with the approach of darkness, and fatigue, the labors of the day were suspended, she pronounced herself anxious that we should become acquainted with the history of her people, that we might judge of their worth before venturing the hazard of our promised aid. With an assurance of unwavering determination to adventure their lives for the rescue of her kindred by all, she commenced her narration.

“The transmitted written history of our people, derived from our ancestors of old Heraclea, has not been esteemed reliable by the later renewed generations of our present City of the Falls, inasmuch as the historians, of the middle period, were invariably inclined to ascribe the partial prejudices of degeneration as evidences of progression in their assumptive decisions of right and wrong. With self exaltation they did not hesitate to extol the most arbitrary and licentious acts of persons in power, which in accommodation for the selfish retention of favor were constantly subject to reversion. These sources of selfish contradiction, serve to impeach the veracity of the whole, so that from the adventitious impressions of truth we have been obliged to make conjectural deductions to subserve our desire for the preservation of a probable outline record of the causeful events that led to ancestral translation from the Pontine to the Iberian Heraclea. However, in my prompted relation I shall endeavor to give a simple rendering agreeable to the expressed judgment of our advisors, without attempting to force your concurrence with reasoning similitudes. Your knowledge pertaining to coincident history will certainly attest to the correctness of the alleged source from which our remote ancestors were derived.

“Our original stock, in translation, might well be represented in the variations of caste by the contingent elements with which I am at present surrounded; for the place from which our ancestors embarked was a central point for the fermenting commixture of the peoples and septs of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Our patrician historian states that the original stock were all derived from noble Roman families who were emigrating, with collateral provincial branches, from the Euxine Heraclea, in a Macedonian ship, to an Iberian city of the same name, situated a short distance inland from the ocean opening of the straits of Gades. After touching at the African port of Rusander Gaditarius for supplies necessary for support during the interval of planting and harvest, they set sail for their port of destination.

“When in sight of the landmarks of Heraclea, while offering sacrifice to the gods of their worship, for the prosperous termination of their voyage, a sudden tempest arose which forced their vessel out into the broad Atlantic. For days the storm raged, while before it their bark was driven heedless of mortal control, every moment threatening destruction. At length, after hopeless despair had held them bound in shadowy darkness through a lapse of time unmarked by the full distinctions of day and night, the sun rose clear over a limitless expanse of waters. Still they feared to offer thankful oblations, for they were drifting they knew not whither. In the listless inactivity of despair they had allowed the waters of heaven to accumulate in their vessel mixed with the briny wash of the ocean. As the sun rose in the firmament to its meridian, the heat parched their mouths with thirst, then they recognized the providence of heaven for the supply of water tempered with salt to make it unpalatable for excess.

“‘Again hope began to dawn, which was strengthened on the following night by a flight of fish seemingly attracted by the altar fire, which had continued to burn through the fearful tossings of the vessel when impelled by the merciless tempest urged by the god of the ocean. Revived, with the second sun, the sailors spread the vessel’s sails to a favoring waft of the ocean wind, showing their recognition and resignation to the decrees its providence had ordained. There was no lack of food, for the supply obtained at Rusador for anticipated wants between seedtime and harvest, more than sufficed for prospective requirements, unless the ocean proved boundless. Of luxuries there was also a bountiful supply; dates, dried figs, grapes, and Chian wine. Strange as it may appear, with the revival of our hopes, a large portion of the wine was sacrificed to furnish vessels for treasuring the water preserved by the ship. But with the rising of the eleventh visible sun all the supply of water having been exhausted,—for there were many mouths and great thirst,—despair, which dried up the moisture, began its reign of terror, from the moans of mothers who freely offered their tears to still the wailing cries of their children.

“‘In this condition, when all coveted death to relieve the tortures of thirst, there came on the sixteenth of its rise upon our forlorn hopes at sundown, a waft that made all murmur thanks in their weakness. This was followed with genial showers which brought a reviving consciousness of an overruling presence inspiring a love of life and the blessings of kindred affection. When the clouds, to whose timely benefactions we were beholden for our preservation, were dispersed by the rising sun, our eyes and hearts were gladdened with the sight of land, which called forth tears with whispered rejoicings, and wan smiles of congratulation bestowed with embraces, and hand pressures in thankful praise that we had been once more permitted to see the element from which we had been so long divorced by cruel fate.

“‘Borne onward by a gentle wind from the ocean, we entered a broad estuary whose banks, or shores, were bordered with a forest verdure of trees exceeding in magnitude our previous conceptions. Far off in the interior, as the sun declined, were seen mountains whose summits were clothed in fleecy mists while beneath the varied descent appeared dressed in rainbow tints of moving light and shadow. The banks of the mighty river, or arm of the ocean, became more distinct in the approaching twilight, until darkness with its pall withheld them from view. Again another day dawned; refreshed with the dews of the night we bethought ourselves how we might bring the vessel to land where we could obtain water to quench our thirst, when lo, with the first feeble dip of the oars the trickle of the water inward discovered to a child its freshness. The faint struggles of the oarsmen strengthened with the fear of again being carried out into the ocean, for the current was forcing the vessel backward, were at length rewarded with the stranding of its keel beneath the steep bank of an inlet.

“‘In vain our eyes, from the mast, searched the shore for evidences of man’s habitation; neither smoke from hamlets or signs of cultivation could be traced. Weary and weak, but composed in spirit, from our now secure attachment to land, which, although foreign, seemed afar off fruitful, all sank into a deep and refreshing slumber, lulled by the familiar sound of the cicada’s shrill vibrations, which continued unbroken until the dawn of another day, when we were awakened by the sound of strange voices speaking an unknown tongue. Surprised, but not alarmed, when we discovered that the utterances were from a collection of human beings who were viewing us and our vessel from the bank that overlooked the transtra, our own curiosity was in like manner attracted by the novelty of their appearance. In stature they exceeded in height our own, but were gracefully formed, with expressive features inclined in color to a brownish red. With eyes of vivid blackness they seemed capable of giving intensity to the two extremes of passion—expressed by revengeful anger and dalliant softness. The covering of their bodies was so slight that it failed to afford the shadow of concealment or restraint to their persons.

“‘While we were sleeping they had drawn our vessel into the inlet so far that with slight assistance we could raise ourselves to a footing upon the bank, this with signs they proffered and we accepted. When seated upon the grassy plain, the women with native grace prepared in shell a thick paste compounded of milk and fruits, exceedingly palatable and refreshing. For a drink they pierced the eyes of large nuts from which flowed a milky fluid that found special favor with our women and children. These tokens of kindly regard were presented with timid gentleness and solicitude that won our confidence.

“‘When our appetites were appeased in their craving for the novus res in freedom from the ocean’s savor of salt, signs of mutual curiosity began to flow in pantomimic gesture. First, they questioned from whence we came? We answered by pointing over the ocean. But when they pointed to the sky in its descent to the horizon, we saw that they would ask whether we were descended from the gods. Humoring their implied belief, we answered truly by uprooting a stalk of grass, then holding its seed filled follicles dependent we in addressing the roots to heaven shook the semina from their receptacles to the earth, therewith, to their apprehension, acknowledging our heavenly origin.

“‘Communing among themselves, with a deferential review of our persons they seemingly acknowledged the superiority of our pretensions, while questioning the cause of our forlorn condition when found. At length in their doubt they appealed to an aged man whose appearance augured wisdom, who answered sagely by addressing, for our comprehension and approval, his symbolic exposition of the cause. Selecting two tall spears of grass, overtopping the heads of their kind, he pointed to the eldest parents of our group, then reversing the stalks with the roots upward, he forced the symbols apart by introducing a younger female blade between, adherent to the tendrils of the paternal branch, causing the mother and her seed to fall to the earth. This disruptive demonstration so clearly defined his knowledge of the human passions, in accordance with the experienced injustice of our own race, that a blush of shame suffused, with its evidence of conviction, the faces of some of our elders whose withers of frailty had been touched. Taking these symptoms of assent as evidences of conviction, the oracle, with a self-complacent air, relapsed into silence, his kindred mingling their admiration for his ability in prescientia with reverence for our supposed paternity. Having arrived at the Ultima Thule of their curiosity we endeavored to satisfy ours without lessening the kindly reverence we inspired from our presumed descent from the gods. But learned nothing beyond the impression that the land extended, in the three opposed directions to the ocean, to the horizon, and that their country was the full of a moon nearer the setting sun, to which they invited us warmly to accompany them.

“‘Although still fancying that we were in a remote division of our own land, yet hopeless of regaining our homes, or intelligence of our people, we concluded to avail ourselves of their invitation, for an attempt to return by the ocean augured sure destruction. Nourished with fruits and wild game, which nature furnished and sustained without the aid of human labor, and nursed with the tenderest care we soon regained our strength. Signifying our readiness to accompany them, and desire to take with us our household lares, utensils, harvest, and fruit seeds, they brought, after the lapse of days, diminutive beasts of burden, which seemed united in equal relationship to the camel and goat. When the day of departure came, we bid tearful farewell to our vessel, then with the ready aid of our benefactors buried it from vision that it might escape desecration from wandering tribes.

“‘Many days were occupied in our inland journey before we reached the valley of our destination. When at length, after surmounting many difficulties, it opened to our view we were overjoyed with its beauty and the bounteous prospect it afforded for the fruitful recompense of our mischance in original intention. In the sincerity of our joy we could not withhold our thanksgiving for the divine direction that had conducted us through so many perils to a land, where, as demi-gods, we could live in freedom from the dread of invasion and corrupt oppression of imposed tyrants. Our advent brought peace to our benefactors, who had been forced into wandering exile by the neighboring tribes; who instead of opposing their return solicited the privilege of bestowing their labor as a willing sacrifice in atonement for their injustice in expelling the Betongo tribes from their lands while under the favor of the ruling spirit.

“‘Season after season followed the advent and propagation of our Latin generations in the Betongo valleys, each more bountiful than its predecessor, until years were multiplied into centuries. The reproduction of the exotic grains, fruits, and vegetables yielded tenfold returns in excess of their rates from native soil; and while our people preserved their original prestige as a race of superior beings, dealing with arbitrary justice free from forced oppression, they prospered and were reverenced by the aboriginals for the happiness they conferred by kindly example. During the first century, the castaways and their descendants did not disdain to give instruction to the natives with the exampled labor of their own hands; and through the adoption of their children in allied direction with those of the Latin race, easy communication in language was held.’”

Correliana here remarked, that in the first part she had adhered closely to the rendering of her Latin ancestor, Marcus Adinope, the Prætor of the castaways in their first settlement of the Betongo valleys. “I will now,” she said, “append his apology for practicing duplicity in accepting the homage of the aboriginals as their due in the assumed character of demi-gods.

“‘In the first instance, we felt constrained to accept their proffered reverence paid in fealty to our supposed descent from the gods, not from the feeling that the assumption would offer us the means of practicing arbitrary oppression in safety; but as a necessary composition for an exampled restraint of gentleness in association among ourselves, as a secure hostage for imparting its godlike virtues to our trusting neophytic benefactors. Aided with the harmless reverential impression, we were able the better to control the plebiscite democracy incorporated with our element of self command over the thoughtless impulses of the subservient oarsmen and hinds of our vessel. Our memories were kept on the alert with the monitorial revival of insurrections and massacres, which had their origin from impositions exacted in the conquered Roman provinces by plebeian officials who had paid a price for their promotion. Indeed, the cause of our transmigration had had its birth from that illegitimate source of instability.’

“After the passage of many centuries, another of our family has recorded the result of the democratic majority’s usurpation of the power of equalizing self-command, evidently in re-admonition of his predecessor’s apology:—

“‘How void of self enduring forethought are the uncontrolled instincts of youth, when reckless of experienced premonitions! It is with painful emotions that I am obliged to record that the descendants of the aboriginals who succored our forefathers in their castaway distress, and preferred them to their own hereditaments, with the reverent homage accorded to the gods, are now subject to the cruel exactions of the taskmaster. The hardships to which they are now subjected by the multiplied progeny of the sailor,—who in thoughtless frenzy attributed their thirst upon the ocean to exact equalization in water distribution,—will prove the sure precursor of our common destruction. The frailty of our godhead assumption has been long since exposed, engendering hatred from the enslaved in abhorrence of their own submissive weakness, so that with the opportunity they will destroy every vestige of their humiliation.’

“This prophecy indicates the period when the defense of a walled city was required for sustaining the exactions of the taskmaster. The traditionary scenes enacted by the old Heracleans, as the inhabitants of the first city were styled, would be as painfully oppressive to your kind-hearted generosity as they would be to me as relator. It will be sufficient for me to state, that the ‘City of the Falls’ was built by Indian labor, enforced by the cruelty of the taskmaster, as a place of recreative resort during the heated solstice, for the old Heracleans. When remonstrance failed to abate the oppressive exactions enforced from the accumulating slaves, and stay the wild orgies enacted by the democratic rule of the city’s majority, the kind-hearted stipulated for the cession of the new city for their seceding occupation, subject to their own governmental rule. In less than a decade of years, after the separation, the inhabitants of the old city were surprised, during the celebration of nocturnal orgies, dedicated to mythical patronage, by the uprising of their slaves; and with the exception of a few, who had been forewarned, an hour previous, in time to make good their escape to the City of the Falls, all were massacred, and the old city has continued a tenantless ruin to the present day.

“Unsatisfied with the partial success of their vengeful retribution, the Indians entailed upon their successors the unlimited enforcement of a constant siege, until the inhabitants of the new city were exterminated, a result that without your effective interposition in our behalf would be well nigh accomplished.”