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Show 226 Tl!F. ULY A!'>"D Til£ TOTE:'lf. nnd, ever and anon, as tlJCy came, they shook a tlJOusand gourds w!Jich they had made to rattle with little pebbles, whicl1 1 with their lmgc drum, wrought of the mammoth gourd, and CO\'Crcd with raw deer skin, made a clamor most astounding to our hapless cars. Thus they hailed our vessel, making it appear as if they intcodcd to have fought us; but when they beheld how famishing we lay before them, with scarcely strength and courage enough to plead for mercy-speaking only through our dry and scalded eyes, and by clasping our lHI.rd and weary hand~ together-then it seemed as if they at once understood and felt for us; and they drew nigl1 with tlJcir canoes, and lowered tl1cir weapons, and darting with litlw sinews upon the sides of our leaning vessel, they held gourds of water to our lips, which cheered us while we swallowed, as with the sense of a fresh existence. "Thus were we rescued from the yawniug deep. The savages took us, with a rough kindness, from the wreck. They carried us in their canoes to the shore ; and several were the survivors, as well women ns men. They gave us food a.nd nourishment, and when we were refreshed and strengthened, they separated us from our comrndcs, slmring us among our captors, each according to his rank, his power, or his favor 'vith his sovereign. Seventeen of our poor Christians were thus scattered nmong the tribes and over the territories of the king of Calos, Some were .kept in his household ; but my hapless brother was not among them. lie 'vas given to a chillf of thll far tribes of tl1e West, who made instant preparatior: to depart with }Jim. WIJcn they would have borne us apart, with a swift. bound and n. common instind, we buried oursch•cs in a mutual embrnce. The chiefs looked on with a laugh thnt made us shudder; while he to whom my brother wa,s given, with a savage growl, thrust his banda TITE ADVENTURE 0~' LE DARBU. 227 int.o the flowing locks of my brotl1er, and hurled him away to the grasp of those who stood iu waiting: for the captive. lie struggled once more to embrace mc1 and long after I could hear his cry' Brother, brother, shall we sec each other never more!' They heeded net his cries or struggles, or mine. They threw !Jim to the ground with violence, bound him hand and foot, with gyves of the forest, and placing him in onu of their great canoes, they sped away ,fith him along: the shores, as they trended to the mighty West, where roll the great waters of the Mechachebe. u Thus wns I separated from my only surviving kinsman i and neither of us could tell the fate which was in waiting for the other. Verily, then did I look to find the worst. I no longer h!ld a hope. Jt is my shame, as a Christian, that, in that dcsolato moment, I ceased to have a. fear. I not only expected death, but I longed fer it. I could have kissed the friendly hand that had driven the heavy stone hatchet of the savage into my brain. Dut, tlJe Dlcssed ).fothcr of God be praised, I thought not, in my despair, to do violence to my own self. That sin was spared mo among: my many sins, in tl1at hour of despondency and ~oe; and all my crime consisted in the criminal indifference wh1ch made me too little heedful to preserve life. But this indifference lasted not long. I wa.s the captive of the king of Calos himself. Nino others were kept by him including me, and among these wa.s the cruel tyrant upon whose head lay the blood of so many of the wretched people .of 1\fexico, Don Juan de 1\Iores y Silva. He was the tyrant no longer. All his strength and courage had d::~parted in lJi.i afflictions; and in the hour of our despair and terror, he was feebler than the meanest among us; feebler of soul th:m the girl whos::l hear~ heal'! with the dread that she cannot name, fearfully, as that of the little bird which you cover with your |
