Chapter XIV.
For three days after our parting with H., we kept on our course up the Great Cape river. The current increased as we advanced, and large rocks of quartz and granite began to appear in the channel. The valley of the river also contracted to such a degree as to deserve no better name than that of a gorge. Sometimes we found ourselves, for miles together, shut in between high mountains, whose rugged and verdureless tops rose to mid-heaven, interposing impassable barriers to the vapor-charged clouds which the north-east trade-winds pile up against their eastern declivities, wherethey are precipitated in almost unceasing rains. Night and storm overtook us in one of these gigantic mountain clefts. The thunder rolled along the granite peaks, and the lightning burned adown their riven sides, and were flashed back by the dark waters of the angry river. The dweller in northern latitudes can poorly comprehend any description which may be given of a tropical storm. To say that the thunder is incessant, does not adequately convey to the mind the terror of these prolonged peals which seem to originate in the horizon, roll upward to the zenith, louder and louder, until, silent for a moment, they burst upon the earth in blinding flame, and a concentrated crash, which makes the very mountains reel to their foundations. Not from one direction alone, but from every quarter of the compass, the elements seem to gather to the fierce encounter, and the thunder booms, and the lightning blazes from a hundred rifts in the inky sky. So intense and searing is the electric flame, that for hours after heavy storms I have had spasmodic attacks of blindness, accompanied with intense pain of the eyeballs. I found that my Indian companions were equally affected, and that to avoid evil consequences they always bound their handkerchiefs, dipped in water, over their eyes, while the storm continued. The Indians, I may here mention, have many prejudices on the subject of electricity, as well as in regard to the effect of the rays of the moon. They will not sleep with their faces exposed to its light, nor catch fish on the nights whenit is above the horizon. My companions, at such times, always selected the densest shade for our encampment. They affirmed that the effect of exposure would be the distortion of the features, and the immediate mortification of such wounds and bruises as might be reached by the moonlight. I afterward found that the mahogany-cutters on the north coast never felled their trees at certain periods of the moon, for the reason, as they asserted, that the timber was then not only more liable to check or split, but also more exposed to rot. They have the same notion with the Indians as to the effect of the moonlight on men and animals, and support it by the fact that animals, left to themselves, always seek shelter from the moon, when selecting their nightly resting-places.
We had now ascended the river, five full days from the Cape, having, according to my computation, advanced one hundred and twenty miles. The Poyer was perfectly acquainted with the stream, which he had several times descended with the people of his village, in their semi-annual visits to the coast. In these visits, he told me, they took down liquid amber, a few deer-skins, a little anotto, and sarsaparilla, bringing back iron barbs for their arrows, knives, machetes, and a few articles of ornament.
On the night of the fifth day, we encamped at the mouth of the Tirolas, a considerable stream, which enters the Wanks from the north, and up which we, next morning, took our course. Our advancewas now slow and laborious, owing to the rapidity of the current, and the numerous rocks and fallen trees which obstructed the channel. The river wound among hills, which increased in altitude as we penetrated farther inland, until I discovered that we were approaching the great mountain range, which traverses the country from south-west to north-east, constituting the “divide,” or water-shed, as I afterward found, between the valley of the Cape River and the streams which flow northward into the Bay of Honduras. Hour by hour we came nearer to this great barrier, which presented to us a steep and apparently inaccessible front. I was rather appalled when my Poyer told me that the village of his people lay beyond this range, over which we would be obliged to climb in order to reach it. However, there was now no alternative left but to go ahead, so I gave myself no further concern, although I could not help wondering how we were to clamber up the dizzy steeps which appeared more and more abrupt as we approached them.
It was on the second evening after leaving the great river, that we reached the head of canoe navigation on the Tirolas, at a point where two bright streams, tumbling over their rocky beds, united in a placid pool of clear water, at the very feet of the mountains. It was a spot of surpassing beauty. The pool was, perhaps, a hundred yards broad, and, in places, twenty or thirty feet deep, yet so clear that every pebble at the bottom, and every fishwhich sported in its crystal depths, were distinctly visible to the eye. Upon one side rose huge gray rocks of granite, draped over with vines, and shadowed by large and wide-spreading trees, whose branches, crowded with the wax-like leaves and flowers of innumerable air-plants, cast dark, broad shadows on the water. Upon the other side was a smooth, sandy beach, completely sheltered from the sun by large trees, beneath which were drawn up a number of canoes, carefully protected from the weather by rude sheds of cahoon leaves. Thesecanoes belonged to the Poyer Indians, and are used by them in their voyages to the Cape. A little lower down the stream were clusters of palm-trees, and large patches of bananas and plantains, which seemed to have been carefully nurtured by the Indians in their visits to this picturesque “embarcadero.”
EMBARCADERO ON THE TIROLAS.
EMBARCADERO ON THE TIROLAS.
EMBARCADERO ON THE TIROLAS.
The slant rays of the evening sun fell upon one half of the pool, where the little ripples chased each other sparkling to the shore, while upon the other part, the rocks and forest cast their cool, dark shadows. And as our canoe shot in upon its transparent bosom, I could not help joining in my Poyer boy’s shout of joy. Even “El Moro” fluttered his bright wings, and screamed in sympathetic glee. A few vigorous strokes of the paddles, and our canoe drove up half its length on the sandy shore, the sharp pebbles grating pleasantly beneath its keel. For the present, at least, I had done with lagoons and rivers, and a new excitement awaited me among the giddy steeps and untracked solitudes of the mountains. Farewell now to the cramped canoe, and the eternal succession of low and tangled banks; and ho, for the free limb and the expanding chest of the son of the forest!
With glad alacrity, my companions and myself set to work to form our encampment, on the clean dry sand. Then came Antonio, laden with the golden clusters of the plantain, while the spear of the Poyer darted down in the clear waters of the pool with unfailing skill. The rousing fire, themurmur of the mountain-torrents, and the distant cry of the fierce black tiger, the satisfied sense of having safely accomplished an arduous undertaking, high anticipations of new adventures, and the consciousness of being the first white man who had ever trusted himself in these unknown fastnesses—all these, joined to the contagious joy of my faithful companions, combined to give the keenest edge and zest to that night’s enjoyment. In my darkest hours, its recollection comes over my soul like a beam of sunlight through the rifts of a clouded sky—“a joy forever.” Blessed memory, which enables us to live over again the delights of the past, and gives an eternal solace to the cheerful mind!
That night I made a formal present of the canoe and its appurtenances to my Poyer boy, and we selected such articles as were indispensable to us, leaving the rest to be sent for by the Indians when we should reach the village. My purpose was to commence our march at dawn on the following day. But in the morning I arose with one of my feet so swollen and painful that I could neither put on my boot nor walk, except with great difficulty. The cause was, outwardly, very trifling. During the previous day the water in the Tirolas had been so shallow that it frequently became necessary to get out of the canoe and lighten it, in order to pass the various rapids. I had therefore taken off my boots, and gone into the water with my naked feet. I remember stepping on a rolling stone, slipping off, and bruising my ankle. The hurt was, however, soslight, that I did not give it a second thought. But, from this trifling cause, my foot and ankle were now swollen to nearly double their natural size, and the prosecution of my journey, for the time being, was rendered impossible. Under the tropics, serious consequences often follow from these slight causes. I have known tetanus to result from a little wound, of the size of a pea, made by extracting the bag of aniguaorchigoe, which had burrowed in the foot!
The skill of my companions was at once put in requisition. They made a poultice of ripe plantains baked in the ashes, and mixed with cocoa-nut oil, which was applied hot to the affected parts. This done, our canoe was hauled up, and an extempore roof built over it, to protect me from the weather, in case it should happen to change for the worse. I passed a fretful night, the pain being very great, and the swelling extending higher and higher, until it had reached the knee. The applications had no perceptible effect. Under these circumstances, I determined to send my Poyer to his village for assistance. He represented it as distant five days, but that it could be reached, by forced marches, in four. He objected to leave me, but on the second day, my foot being no better, he obeyed my positive orders, and started, taking with him only a little dried meat, his spear, and his bow.
Antonio now redoubled his attentions, and I certainly stood in need of them. The pain kept me from slumber, and I became irritable and feverish.But no mother could have been more constant, more patient, or more wakeful to every want than that faithful Indian boy. He exhausted his simple remedies, and still the limb became worse, and the unwilling conviction seemed to be forced on his mind, that the case was beyond his reach. When, in the intervals of the pain, he thought me slumbering, I often saw him consult his talisman with undisguised anxiety. He however, always seemed to feel reassured by it, and to become more cheerful.
On the third day a suppuration appeared at the ankle, and the pain and swelling diminished; and on the succeeding morning I probed the wound, and, to my surprise, removed a small splinter of stone, which had been the cause of all my affliction. From that moment my improvement was rapid, and I was soon able to move about without difficulty.
I amused myself much with fishing in the pool, in which there were large numbers of an active kind of fish, varying from ten to sixteen inches in length, of reddish color, and voracious appetites. Toward evening, when the flies settled down near the surface, they rose like the trout, and kept the pool boiling with their swift leaping after their prey. I improved my limited experience in fly-fishing at home, to devise impromptu insects, and astonished Antonio with that, to him, novel device in the piscatory art. These fish, with an occasional wild turkey, the latter generally tough and insipid, constituted about our only food. Ducks, curlews, and snipe, so common in the vicinity of the lagoons,were here unknown, and we listened in vain for the cry of thechachalaca. There were, however, numerous birds of song, and of bright plumage, but not fit for food. I saw some owls; and now and then a large hawk would settle down sullenly on the trees which overhung the pool. Gray-squirrels also occasionally rustled the branches above our heads, but the foliage was so dense that I was only successful in obtaining a single specimen. Once a squadron of monkeys came trooping through the tree-tops to rob the plantain-grove, but a charge of buckshot, which brought two of them to the ground, was effectual in deterring them from a second visit. They were of a small variety, body black, face white, and “whiskered like a pard.” Antonio cooked one of them in the sand, but he looked so much like a singed baby which I once saw taken out of the ruins of a fire in Ann-street, that I could not bring myself to taste him. So my Indian had an undisputed monopoly of the monkey.
But the most exciting incident, connected with our stay on the banks of the Tirolas, was one which I can never recall without going into a fit of laughter—although, at the time, I did not regard it as remarkably amusing. Among the wild animals most common in Central America, is thepeccary, sometimes called “Mexican hog,” but best known by the Spanish name ofSavalino. There is another animal, something similar to thepeccary, supposed to be the common hog run wild, calledJavalinoby the Spaniards, andWareeby the Mosquitos. If notindigenous, the latter certainly have multiplied to an enormous extent, since they swarm all over the more thickly-wooded portions of the country. They closely resemble the wild-boar of Europe, and, although less in size, seem to be equally ferocious. They go in droves, and are not at all particular as to their food, eating ravenously snakes and reptiles of all kinds. They have also a rational relish for fruits, and especially for plantains and bananas, and would prove a real scourge to the plantations, were they always able to break down the stalks supporting the fruit. Unable to do this, they nevertheless pay regular visits to the plantations, in the hope of finding a tree blown down, and of feasting on the fallen clusters.
With these intimations as to their character and habits, the reader will be better qualified to appreciate the incident alluded to. It was a pleasant afternoon, and I had strolled off with my gun, in the direction of the plantain-patch, stopping occasionally to listen to the clear, flute-like notes of some unseen bird, or to watch a brilliant lizard, as it flashed across the gray stones. Thus sauntering carelessly along, my attention was suddenly arrested by a peculiar noise, as if of some animal, or rather of many animals engaged in eating. I stopped, and peered in every direction to discover the cause, when finally my eyes rested upon what I at once took to be a pig of most tempting proportions. He was moving slowly, with his nose to the ground, as if in search of food. Without withdrawing my gaze, I carefullyraised my gun, and fired. It was loaded with buckshot, and although the animal fell, he rose again immediately, and began to make off. Of course I hurried after him, with the view of finishing my work with my knife—but I had not taken ten steps, when it appeared to me as if every stick, stone, and bush had been converted into a pig! Hogs rose on all sides, with bristling backs, and tusks of appalling length. I comprehended my danger in an instant, and had barely time to leap into the forks of a low, scraggy tree, before they were at its foot. I shall never forget the malicious look of their little bead-like eyes, as they raved around my roosting-place, and snapped ineffectually at my heels. Although I felt pretty secure, I discreetly clambered higher, and, fixing myself firmly in my seat, revenged myself by firing a charge of bird-shot in the face of the savagest of my assailants. This insult only excited the brutes the more, and they ground their teeth, and frothed around the tree in a perfect paroxysm of porcine rage.
THE WAREE.
THE WAREE.
THE WAREE.
I next loaded both barrels of my gun with ball, and deliberately shot two others through their heads, killing them on the spot, vainly imagining that thereby I should disperse the herd. But never was man more mistaken. The survivors nosed around their dead companions for a moment, andthen renewed their vicious contemplations of my position. Some squatted themselves upon their hams, as much as to say that they intended to wait for me, and were nowise in a hurry! So I loaded up again, and slaughtered two more of the largest and most spiteful. But, even then, there were no signs of retreat; on the contrary, it seemed to me as if reënforcements sprang out of the ground, and that my besiegers grew every moment more numerous!
How long this might have lasted, I am unprepared to say, had not Antonio, alarmed at my rapid firing, hastened to my rescue. No sooner did my assailants catch sight of his swarthy figure than they made after him with a vehement rush. He avoided them by leaping upon a rock, and then commenced a most extraordinary and murderous contest. Never did a battalion of veteran soldiers charge upon an enemy, with more steadiness than those wild pigs upon the Indian. He was armed with only a lance, but every blow brought down a porker. Half alarmed lest they should finally overmatch him, I cheered his exploits, and kept up a brisk fire by way of a diversion in his favor. I am ashamed to say how many of those pigs we killed; it is, perhaps, enough to add, that it was long after dark before the beasts made up their minds to leave us uneaten. And it was with a decided sensation of relief that we heard them moving off, until their low grunt was lost in the distance.
At one time, the odds were certainly against us,and it seemed not improbable that the artist and his adventures might both come to a pitiful and far from a poetical end. But fortune favored, and my faithful gun now hangs over my table in boar-tusk brackets, triumphal trophies from that bloody field! Instead of being eaten, we ate, wherein consists a difference; but I was ever after wary of thewaree!
True to his promise, on the evening of the tenth day, my Poyer boy bounded into our encampment, with a loud shout of joy. His friends were behind, and he said would reach us in the following afternoon. There were five of them, sober, silent men, who made their encampment apart from us, and whom I vainly endeavored to engage in conversation. They displayed great aptness in packing our various articles in net-work sacks, which they carried on their backs, supported by bands passing around their foreheads. They wore no clothes except thetournou, unless sandals of tapir-hide, and a narrow-brimmed hat, braided of palm-bark, fall within that denomination. Besides his sack, each man carried a peculiar kind ofmachete, short and curved like a pruning-hook; only one or two had bows.
It was with real regret that I left our encampment beside the bright pool, and abandoned my old and now familiar canoe, in the sides of which, like a true Yankee, I had carved my name, and the dates of my adventures. I turned to look back more than once, as we filed away, beneath thetrees, in the trail leading to the mountains. The Indians led the way, while Antonio and myself brought up the rear. “El Moro,” perched upon the tallest pack, shrieked and fluttered his wings, occasionally scrambling down to take a mischievous bite at the ear of his Indian carrier. Whenever he was successful in accomplishing this feat, he became superlatively happy and gleeful. In default of other amusement, he sometimes suspended himself from the netting by a single claw, like a dead bird, with drooping wings and dangling head, and then suddenly scrambled back again to his perch, with triumphant screams. He was a rare rollicking bird, that same Moro!
For the first day our course followed a line nearly parallel with the base of the mountains, through a thick and tangled forest. We crossed innumerable small and rapid streams of the clearest water, sparkling over beds of variously-colored quartz pebbles—for we were now skirting one of the great ranges of primitive rocks, which form the nucleus of the continent. My long confinement in the canoe had contributed to disqualify me for active exertions, and long before night I became much fagged, and would fain have gone into camp. But the Indians traveled so tranquilly under their loads, that I was loth to discover to them my lack of endurance, and so kept on without complaint. In the afternoon our path began to ascend, and we gradually emerged from the thick and tangled woods into a comparatively open forest, which, in turn, gave place togroves of scattered pines and oaks, among which we encamped for the night.
From our elevated position I could overlook the wilderness which we had traversed during the day. It was at that season of the year when theerythrinaputs on its scarlet robe of blossoms, and the ceiba clothes itself in flames, in splendid relief to the prevailing green. It seemed as if Nature held high holiday among these primeval solitudes, and arrayed herself only to wanton in the sense of her own beauty. But while vegetation was thus lavishly luxuriant in the valley, behind us the mountains rose, stern, steep, and bare. Vainly the dark pines, clinging to their sides, sought to vail their flinty frown. Wherever a little shelf of the rocks supported a scanty bed of soil, there the mountain grasses, and the sensitive-plant with its amaranthine flower, took root, like kindly thoughts in the heart of the hard and worldly man. From the gnarled oaks, and even from the unfading pines, hung long festoons of gray moss, which swayed sadly in the wind. And when the night came on, and I lay down beside the fire, beneath their shade, they seemed to murmur in a low and mournful voice to the passing breeze, which, laden with the perfume of the valley, rose with downy wings to bear its tributary incense to the skies.
Morning broke, but dark and gloomily, and although we resumed our march, directing our course diagonally up the face of the mountain, we were obliged to stop before noon, and seek shelter undera mass of projecting rocks, from a cold, drizzly rain, which now began to fall steadily, with every promise of merging in a protracted temporal. The clouds ran low, and drifted around and below us, in heavy, cheerless volumes, shutting from view every object except the pines and stunted oaks, in their gray, monastic robes, now saturated and heavy from the damp. Stowing our few valuables securely under the rocks, we lighted a fire, now acceptable not less for its heat than its companionship. Its cheerful flame, and the sparkle of its embers, revived my drooping spirits, and helped to reconcile me to the imprisonment which the temporal would be sure to entail. I can readily understand how fire commended itself to the primitive man as an emblem of purity and power, and became the symbol of spirit and those invisible essences which pervade the universe. God robed himself in flame on Sinai; in tongues of flame the Spirit descended upon the disciples at Jerusalem; an eternal fire burned upon the altars of the virginal Vesta, and in the Persian Pyrothea; to fire was committed the sacrifice of propitiation, and by its ordeal was innocence and purity made manifest. Among the American Indians it was held in especial reverence. The Delawares and the Iroquois had festivals in its honor, and regarded it as the first parent of the Indian nations. The Cherokees paid their devotions to the “great, beneficent, supreme, holy Spirit of Fire,” whose home was in the heavens, but who dwelt also on earth, in the hearts of “the unpollutedpeople.” And even the rude Indians who huddled with me beneath the protecting rocks in the heart of the wilderness, never commenced their simple meals without first throwing a small portion of their food in the fire, as an offering to the protecting Spirit of Life, of which it is the genial symbol.
The temporal lasted for three days, during which time it rained almost incessantly, and it was withal so cold, that a large and constant fire was necessary to our comfort. At the end of that time the clouds began to lift, and the sun broke through the rifts, and speedily dispersed the watery legions. But the rocks were slippery with the wet, and the earth, wherever it was found among the rocks, was sodden and unstable, rendering our advance alike disagreeable and dangerous. We remained, therefore, until the morning of the fourth day, when we resumed our march.