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.”