CAONABO, Cacique of Maguana, differed so strikingly in his appearance
and manner from his subjects that the boys were struck by it at their
first glance at him. He was not only larger and more muscular, but he
bore himself with a hauteur and dignity that any Old World monarch
might have envied.
He eyed the boys with wonder, it is true, but there was something in
his manner that made Diego mutter to Juan:
“I’m afraid he won’t accept the story of our descent from the skies.”
“And he looks fierce enough for a cannibal,” said Juan.
They afterwards learned that Caonabo was, in fact, a Carib and a
cannibal, who had come to the island from his own home, when he was
a young man, and who had won his place as the most powerful and most
feared of the island caciques by his courage and his sagacity.
He was kind enough to them, though, as Diego had said, he did not act
with any such awe of them as the other caciques had done. He asked
questions, which Diego answered as well as he could, and he examined
curiously their clothing, knives, and bells.
“I think from his looks,” said Diego to Juan, “that he would give more
for the knives than for all the bells in the world.”
And that was undoubtedly true; but he did not say so, and was as
scrupulously honest as the meanest of his subjects had been. Honesty,
indeed, next to hospitality, was the virtue held in highest esteem
among these islanders. Theft was so heinous an offence that it was
punished by death.
It seemed to strike Caonabo as a singular thing that his guests should
care so much for gold; though, indeed, the boys had found it so easy
to possess that it no longer had any charms for them, and if they had
not hoped to rejoin the ship, they would not have taken two steps to
procure a ton of the yellow metal. It seems so true that a thing is
valued only in proportion as it is desired by others.
However, Caonabo had no objection to having the boys procure all the
gold they desired, and he would not permit them to give their bells for
it; though he afterwards accepted the bells which were offered him,
when Diego made him understand that they were a gift.
What Caonabo coveted was one of the knives. He took one in his hand,
and tested the blade on a piece of wood; and when Diego showed him how
it could be used to pierce with, he buried it in a calabash which lay
near him with such an air of its being alive that Diego procured the
knife back, and would not again part with it.
“If we are going to run away,” said Diego, “I would prefer that he
should not have that to try on me.”
Running away, however, seemed every day less feasible. The boys had
been provided with a hut, and Butios had been assigned to them to see
that they lacked no comforts, and every measure had been taken as if it
were the fixed design of Caonabo to keep them with him.
He had sent the cacique, who had first discovered the boys, back to
his own country, and the Butios had gone with him, very much to their
disgust at being obliged to part with their treasure; though the boys
had consoled them by giving each Butio a bell.
Finding their lives to be in no danger whatever, the boys made all
the preparations for flight that they very well could. Diego, on the
plea of seeing where the gold was procured, was taken, in different
directions, from the village to the rivers where the gold lay in grains
and tiny nuggets at the bottom. He was glad to see the gold, but
what he cared most for was the acquaintance he and Juan gained of the
surrounding country. Moreover, he asked questions of different persons
until he had learned that the sea lay about equidistant from them on
either side of the island. And from one old man, who had journeyed
much, he learned that, in a lovely valley to the north of them, on
either side of the Cibao Mountains, a beautiful river ran down to the
sea, and entered it at the foot of the mountain-chain that lay parallel
to the Cibao Mountains.
Then, there was the matter of the gold. It was valueless to them now
that they had it heaped in an ignominious pile in a corner of the hut;
but they knew it would regain its value when it was on the ship, and so
they questioned themselves what to do about it.
After going over the matter a great many times, they determined to make
a belt each, of the skin of a little animal called the coati, in which
to put as many nuggets as they could. No one suspected their object in
fastening the gold to the belts, the generally received opinion being
that it was a sort of religious ceremony.
They had no idea of the value in Spanish coin of the pile of gold they
had collected; but when their belts were finished, they found them to
weigh, each, not less than twenty pounds. They tried them on, and felt
so dubious of the comfort of such heavy belts that they were tempted to
throw off some of the weight; but Juan suggested that they could throw
the gold away at any time, and that it would be very pleasant to go
aboard the _Pinta_ so laden.
That was true enough, and so they left the belts as they had made
them, and hung them in their hut, where afterwards they discovered the
natives looking at them in great awe. And the Butios asked permission
to carry them in procession to show to their Zemes, as they called
their idols.
Many times they thought of attempting escape, but whenever they essayed
it they discovered themselves to be very closely watched, so that they
were obliged to give up, unless they were willing to use violence; and
that they were afraid to do, even if it had been feasible, and they
were not sure that it was. By this time they had been absent nearly
three weeks from the ship, and they were so uneasy that they were
nearly beside themselves, though compelled not to betray it to their
host.
Then, one night, their opportunity came. It came in a singular way,
too. The people were passionately fond of dancing, and knew no
moderation in it. They would often dance as the boys had seen the
cacique do, who had discovered them at the cave, keeping on their feet
until their strength was exhausted, and then dropping, almost fainting,
to the earth.
Sometimes, too, the men would drink a sort of wine made from the maize,
when they had danced until they had dropped, and then they would be
stupid, and would sleep where they had fallen until morning came. But
in these cases there were always some of the Butios who would keep
their senses and watch over the boys.
But on the occasion spoken of it was not wine to which the fallen
dancers resorted, but to the dried leaf of a plant which had been
placed in a hollow dug in earth and there set a-smouldering.
The boys had seen this same leaf used in Cuba, but in a different way.
There the Indians had rolled it into a sort of stick, which they called
a tobacco, one end of which was taken into the mouth and the other end
lighted, so that by sucking at the stick a quantity of the smoke from
the ignited plant would be drawn into the mouth, thereby causing the
person so employed a pleasurable sensation. At least the natives had
declared this to be the case; though, when the boys had tried it, they
had had lively emotions of sickness in their stomachs.
On this island the leaves were placed in the hollow spoken of, and then
ignited and smothered, so that the smoke would rise from it in volumes.
When it had come to this pass the Indians would lie down by it with a
hollow tube of wood shaped like a Y, the two prongs of which were so
arranged as to fit in the nostrils of the smoker. Then the disengaged
end would be thrust into the smoke, which would then be inhaled until
the smoker would fall over in a stupor.
On a certain festival, which came while the boys were there, and
fortunately at a time when the Butios had lost all fear of the boys
escaping, though they had not relaxed their watchfulness, the dancing
was ended by an indulgence in a smoke.
The women took part in the dancing, but not in the smoking, so that
they would have been able to watch the boys if they had thought it
necessary; but they did not, and the Butios were so anxious for the
indulgence that they could not restrain themselves.
At first, when the dancing began, the boys did not realize what it was
to result in, and they had no thoughts of getting away that night,
but stood apart from the dancers, thinking how strange a sight it was
to see all those men and women whirling about by the light of the
flames that seemed themselves to be dancing as they leaped up from the
bonfires.
But after a while they saw how the men would fall down and become
stupid, and Juan pointed out how the Butios were dancing and smoking
with the others. That gave them their first hope of escape, and after
that they watched eagerly to see if the Butios had really forgotten
them.
It was quite late before they could be sure that they might escape
without fear of being noticed; but they knew that it would be late in
the morning before the men would recover their senses, and that they
would be able to go many miles if they made good use of their time.
So they stole back to their hut, put on their gold-belts, and started
off in the direction of the Cibao Mountains, as they had so often
talked of doing. They went with many misgivings; for, not only was
there the fear of the wrath of Caonabo, should they be captured and
taken back, but there was the risk of not finding the ship, and of
being obliged to remain on the island at the mercy of other Indians,
not as friendly, perhaps, as Caonabo.
They had no hesitation because of their fears, however, but sped away
under cover of the friendly darkness, and, thanks to the care with
which they had studied the country all about the village, they were
enabled to take the right way without stopping to consider.
They were in excellent condition, too, and had it not been for the load
each carried at his waist they would have been able to go twenty-five
miles before dawn. As it was, they did not go more than fifteen miles,
and were terribly fatigued then, and glad to lie down and rest.
When they awoke, later in the morning, they found themselves in the
foot-hills of the mountains, with many good places for hiding all about
them. They stole out to procure some fruit, and then returned to their
hiding-place, and watched and slept, each in his turn. Twice they saw
some of Caonabo’s warriors, though not men they recognized, and they
did not seem to be searching for them.
At night they went on again, climbing the mountains and groaning with
the weight of their belts. They were sturdy boys, and the weight was
very well distributed around their waists, but the load of it grew
woefully heavy as they proceeded, and more than once they stopped and
discussed the propriety of throwing some of the gold away. But as the
hope of being once more with those who loved gold came upon them,
the liking in their own hearts increased, and they could not bring
themselves to be rid of any of it.
So they toiled on, and by morning were at the mountain-top, as they
could know because they were able to look down into that valley which
the natives had spoken of as being so beautiful and so fertile. And
beautiful it was, indeed, and afterwards was named the royal plain,
because of its surpassing beauty. Many fruits grew there, and fields
of the maize, of which the natives thought so much, not only because
it was good for food, but as well because it was the source of that
intoxicating liquor with which they stupefied themselves.
There was no fruit on the mountain-top, and the boys ventured down
lower with great caution, until they came to some bananas. Those they
ate, and then, with rising spirits, lay down to sleep. They had come
so far, and the remainder seemed the easiest part. They had seen that
river, called in those times, and in these, too, the Yagui, of which
the old Indian had spoken, and they knew that if they could but find a
canoe along its banks they would be able to make the remainder of the
journey with comparative ease.
Well, not to dwell too long on a journey which was made safely, they
were three days in reaching a part of the river that was suited to
their purpose; for, though navigable where they first came upon it,
it was so narrow that they would have been in constant danger of
detection.
Another night’s journey had to be made after that before they could
find a canoe; but they did at last come upon one, and took it without
qualms of conscience, knowing that the hawk’s bell they hung in a
conspicuous place in payment for it would be deemed a sufficient
recompense.
For three nights they floated down the stream, and mightily frightened
they were by discovering that there were in it those horrible reptiles
known to the natives as caimans--great lizard-like monsters, with huge
jaws armed with shining rows of sharp teeth, and which could stun a man
with a blow of the tail. The admiral had said that the like creatures
were found in Egypt and in other places in Africa, but the boys liked
them none the better for that.
However, they arrived at the mouth of the river at last, just about
day-dawn, and then their anxiety came in a new form. Had the ship gone?
Had it left the island altogether? They crept into the woods and worked
their way to the edge of them, where they could see the beach, and
looked out upon the water. Then their hearts sank, for there was no
sign of any ship.
[Illustration: “FOR THREE NIGHTS THEY FLOATED DOWN THE STREAM.”]
How could they have hoped for it if they had been able to reason
dispassionately upon the subject? It was because they wished to hope
that they had done so, and not because of any reasonableness in it. At
first, in their wretchedness they would neither eat nor talk to each
other, and they could not sleep, though tired and in need of it.
After a while, however, they talked a little, consoled each other,
and even declared that they could exist on the island, if that were
necessary. Then they ate and afterwards fell asleep.
Diego was wakened by Juan before the sun had gone down, and looked up
in wonder to see the excitement on the face of his companion.
“Come and see!” said Juan, dragging him by the arm, and he scrambled to
his feet and followed to the edge of the wood.
Two ships were anchored off in the bay beyond the mouth of the river,
and coming up the river were four boats with casks in them, as if the
crews were going up to obtain fresh water while the tide was out.
“The _Pinta_ and the _Niña_!” murmured Diego. “Holy Virgin, I thank
you!” and he turned to Juan and they wept in each other’s arms, so
great was their joy.