ON THE SIERRA.
The traveller who, proceeding south, leaves one fine morning the city
of Santiago, that magnificent capital of Chili which is destined
ere long (if it be not destroyed by an earthquake, as has already
happened twice), to become the finest city of South America,
experiences--according as he belongs to one of the two classes of
travellers called by Sterne positive or enthusiastic travellers--a
sudden disillusion or a complete charm at the sight of the landscape
spread out before him.
In fact, for a radius of fifty or sixty leagues round the capital,
the country offers, with but few differences, the same appearance as
we meet with when we traverse the smiling plains of Beauce, or the
delicious province of Touraine, so poetically named the garden of
France.
On either side of wide and well-kept roads, lined with lofty trees,
whose tufted crests meet and form a natural arch, which affords a
shelter against the heat of the day, extend for an enormous distance
vast fields covered with crops of wheat, barley, rice, and alfalfa, and
orchards filled with apple, pear, and peach trees, and all the other
fruit trees which grow prolifically in these superb countries. On the
horizon, upon hills exposed to the rising sun, countless patches of
that vine which Chili alone has succeeded in cultivating, and which
produces a wine highly esteemed by connoisseurs, rejoice the eye which
contemplates to satiety these enormous masses of gilded grapes destined
to supply the whole of South America with wine.
In the distance are seen on the prairies horses, mules, vicunas,
viscachas, and llamas, which raise their head on the passage of the
caravans, and regard the travellers with their large eyes full of
gentleness and intelligence. An infinite number of small streams wind
with capricious turns through this country, which they fertilize, and
their limpid and silvery track is covered with formidable bands of
majestic, black-headed swans.
But, after a journey of four days, when you leave the province of
Santiago to enter that of Colchagua, the country assumes a more
abrupt appearance. You can already begin to feel the rising of the
ground which gradually reaches, with undulation upon undulation,
the Cordilleras of the Andes. The soil, ruder to the eye and more
rebellious to cultivation, although it has not yet completely acquired
those sublime, savage beauties which, a few leagues further on, will
cause the blessings of civilization to be forgotten, holds a mid place
between that nature of which man has made a conquest, which he changes
and modifies according to his caprices, and that invincible nature
against which all his efforts are impotent, and which victoriously
retains the independence of its diversified, wild, and imposing scenery.
It was the sixth day after that fixed for the journey projected by
General Don Juan, and on the road that runs from Currio to Talca,
that at about midday, a large party of travellers composed of fifteen
men, both masters and peons, and three ladies whose features it was
impossible to distinguish, as they were careful to conceal them so
thoroughly under their rebozos, was advancing with difficulty, trying
in vain to shelter themselves against the burning sunbeams which fell
vertically.
No shadow allowed the men or beasts to breathe for a moment; there was
not a single tree whose foliage might offer a little refreshment. Ahead
of the horsemen a dozen mules, trotting one after the other, and each
loaded with two heavy bales, followed with a firm step the bell of the
yegua madrina, which alone had the privilege of marching at liberty,
and with no burthen, at the head of the caravan.
All our travellers, armed to the teeth, rode in groups behind the
mules, and were mounted on those capital Chilian horses which have
no equals for speed, and of which we might almost say that they are
indefatigable.
The heat was stifling, and with the exception of the _area mula!_
uttered from time to time by the muleteers, in order to stimulate the
vigour of the poor brutes, no one said a word. Nothing was audible save
the sharp footfall of the animals echoing on the stones, and the clang
of the heavy spurs which each rider had on his heels.
The road wound round a vast quebrada along the brink of which it ran,
growing narrower every moment, which soon compelled the travellers to
ride one by one, having on their right a precipice of more than twelve
hundred yards in depth, down which the slightest slip on the part of
their steeds might hurl them, and on their left a wall of granite
rising perpendicularly to an incalculable height. Still this precarious
situation, far from causing a feeling of terror among the persons of
whom we are speaking, seemed, on the contrary, to give them a sensation
of undefinable comfort.
This resulted from the fact that on this gorge the sun did not reach
them, and they were able to refresh their lungs by inhaling a little
fresh air, which it had been impossible for them to do during the last
three hours. Hence, without troubling themselves about the spot which
they had reached, any more than if they had been in a forest glade,
they threw off the folds in which they had wrapped themselves, in order
to avoid the heat, and prepared to enjoy for a few minutes the truce
which the sun had granted them. Gaiety had returned, the muleteers were
beginning to strike up those interminable complaints with which, if we
may be allowed to use the expression, they seem to keep the mules in
step, and the masters lit their paper cigarettes. They rode on thus
for about half an hour, and then, after having followed the thousand
windings of the mountains, the caravan came out upon an immense plain
covered with a tall close grass, of a dark green hue, in which the
horses disappeared up to the chest, and on which clumps of trees grew
at intervals. The mountains opened on the right and left like a fan,
and displayed on the horizon their denuded and desolate crests.
"Baya Pius, gentlemen," one of the horsemen said, as he spurred his
horse and wiped his forehead; "we shall halt within two hours."
"I hope so, captain; for I frankly confess to you that I am exhausted
with fatigue."
"Stay, Don Juan," the first of the two men continued, as he stretched
out his hand in the direction they were following; "do you perceive a
little to the left that larch tree wood stretching out at the foot of
the mound, down which a torrent rushes?"
"Yes, yes, I see it, Señor Leon," the general, whom our readers have
doubtless recognized, answered the captain of the smugglers.
"Well, general, that is where we shall camp tonight."
"Heaven be praised!" a sweet maiden voice exclaimed, mingling in the
conversation; "but are you not mistaken, Señor Captain, in saying that
we shall not reach that spot before two hours?"
Leon eagerly turned his head, and replied, while accompanying his words
with a look in which the love he felt was seen--
"I have been about the mountains too long, Doña Maria, to be mistaken
as to a thing so simple for us sons of the Sierra as a calculation of
distance; but if you feel too fatigued, señorita, speak, and we will
camp here."
"Oh, no," the maiden quickly replied, "on the contrary, let us go
on; for the great heat has now passed, and the rising breeze is so
agreeable, that I feel as if I could canter thus all night."
Leon bent to his saddle-bow, and after courteously saluting Doña Maria
and the ladies with her, he hurried on and joined Diego, who was
marching ahead, with his eye on the watch and a frown on his brow, in
the attitude of a man who seems afraid he shall not find the traces
which he is in search of. He had rejoined the caravan two days before,
and as yet not a syllable had been exchanged between him and Leon:
still the latter had noticed in the half-breed's countenance, since his
arrival, an air of satisfaction, which proved that he had succeeded in
his plans.
And yet, though Doña Maria was riding a few yards from him, had Diego
brought the two young people together according to his promises?
Evidently not; since at the hour when the Vaquero left Leon, the young
lady arrived under the safeguard of one of her father's servants. Hence
the half-breed's satisfaction must be attributed to some other motive.
While Leon was striving to divine it--while curiously examining his
friend's slightest gesture, let us relate, in a few words, what had
taken place between the captain and the Soto-Mayor family during the
six days which had elapsed since his visit to the Convent of the
Purísima Concepción. Returning at full speed, Leon reached the Rio
Claro during the night, and after two or three hours' repose among the
smugglers, he started at the head of his men for the general's country
house, where the persons whom he had engaged to escort as far as
Valdivia were awaiting him.
At the moment when Leon entered the drawing room to announce that the
mules and the horses were ready to start, a loud exclamation burst
from a young lady whom the captain's eyes had been greedily seeking
ever since his entrance into the house. It was Maria, who recognised
her saviour.
Not one of the persons present, who were engaged with the final
preparations for the start, noticed the cry of surprise uttered by the
maiden. Leon at once felt it echo to his heart, and a flash of joy
escaping from his glance illuminated Maria's soul. In the space of a
second they both understood that they were loved.
The journey they were about to undertake appeared to them a more
splendid festival than their imagination could conceive. They had
scarce hoped to see each other again, and they were about to live side
by side for a week. Was not this such perfect happiness that it seemed
a miracle?
An hour later, the young couple were riding along together. Although
the captain was obliged to remain pretty constantly at the head of
the small party which he commanded, he seized the slightest excuse to
get near Maria, who, forgetting everything else in this world, kept
her eyes incessantly fixed on this man, the mere sight of whom caused
her heart to beat. And there was no lack of excuses: at one moment he
must encourage by a shout or a signal the young lady's horse which was
checking its speed; at another he must recommend her to guard herself
against a whirlwind of dust, or remove a stone from her horse's hoof.
And Maria ever thanked him with a smile of indescribable meaning.
As he was obliged, in order not to excite suspicion, to pay similar
attention to the Señora Soto-Mayor and her other daughter, the
smuggler's manner delighted the general, who applauded himself with all
his heart for having laid his hand on such a polite and attentive man.
During the first night's bivouac, Leon managed for a few moments to
leave the rest of the party and approach Maria, who was admiring the
magnificent spectacle which the moonlight offered, by casting its
opaline rays over the lofty trees which surrounded the spot where they
had halted.
"Señorita," he said to her, in a voice trembling with emotion, "do you
not fear lest the fresh night breeze may injure your health?"
"Thanks, Señor Leon," the maiden replied; "I am about to return to
camp, but the night is so long that I cannot weary of admiring this
superb landscape. I am so happy in contemplating all that I see around
me."
"Then you do not regret your abode in the convent, señorita?"
"Regret it! when I feel as if God had wished to inundate my heart with
all the joy which it can feel! Oh, Caballero, you do not think so. But
why do you say it to me?"
"Forgive me," Leon continued, noticing the expression of sorrow which
had suddenly overclouded the maiden's features; "the fact is, that my
thoughts ever revert to the moment when I saw you, pale and dumb with
terror, leave the ranks of the nuns of the Purísima Concepción."
"Oh, speak not so; and since Heaven has permitted that I should leave
those convent walls to see you again, do not remind me that I must soon
return to them, to remain there till death liberates me from them."
"What!" Leon exclaimed, "see you again and then lose you! Oh; forgive
me, señorita; forgive my speaking to you thus; but I am mad, and
sorrow renders me distracted."
"What do you say?"
"Nothing! nothing! señorita: forget what I may have said to you, but
believe that if I were called on to sacrifice my life to save you any
pain, however slight in its nature, I would do so at a moment," said
Leon.
Maria replied, raising her eyes to heaven, "God is my witness that the
words which you have just uttered will never pass from my mind: but as
I told you, I am happy now, and when the convent gate has again closed
on me, I shall have neither pain nor sorrow to endure, for I shall die."
A dull cry burst from Leon's breast; he looked at the maiden, who was
smiling calmly and tranquilly.
"And now," she said to Leon, "I will join my sister again, for I fancy
I am beginning to be chilled."
And hurriedly proceeding to the tent, under which the principal members
of her family were assembled, she left Leon to his thoughts. From this
moment, Leon abandoned himself with delight to the irresistible charm
of the love which he felt for Maria. This man, with the nerves of
steel, who had witnessed the most terrible scenes without turning pale,
who with a smile on his lips had braved the greatest dangers, found
himself without the strength to combat the strange feeling which had
unconsciously settled in his heart. Hitherto squandering his youth's
energy in wild saturnalia, Leon felt for the first time in his life
that he loved, and he did not question the future, reserved for a
passion whose issue could not be favourable.
Still, and although illusion was almost impossible, the young man, with
that want of logic of love which seems to grow in proportion to the
insurmountable obstacles opposed to it, yielded to the torrent which
bore him away, confiding to chance, which may at any moment effect a
miracle.
In addition to the numberless obstacles which Leon might expect to
find on the road, Diego's plans of vengeance alarmed him more than all
the rest. He knew that the half-breed's will did not recoil before any
excess; that if he had resolved to avenge himself on the Soto-Mayor
family, no power would be strong enough to prevent him. Hence a shudder
passed through Leon's veins when he was rejoined by Diego, and the
latter, on perceiving Leon, had said to him--
"The girl you love is near you without any interference on my part; all
the better, brother, it is your duty to watch over her henceforth, and
I will take charge of the others."
Leon was about to open his mouth to reply, but a look from the
half-breed caused the words to expire on his lips. The reader now knows
why the captain, after saluting the ladies, started to place himself at
the head of the band and watch Diego.
The sun was on the point of disappearing upon the horizon when the
party reached the wood which Leon had indicated to Don Juan as the spot
where they would pass the night. All halted, and the preparations for
camping were made.
In Chili, and generally throughout South America, you do not find on
the roads that infinite number of inns and hostelries which encumber
ours, and where travellers are so pitilessly plundered. In these
countries, which are almost deserted, owing to the tyrannical rule of
the Spaniards and the philanthropy of the English, this is how people
behave in order to obtain rest after a long day's journey.
The travellers choose the spot which appears to them most suitable,
generally on the banks of a river, the mules are unloaded, and they are
left for the night to their own instincts, which never deceive them,
and enable them to find pasture. The bales are placed upon one another
in a circle of sixty or eighty feet; in the middle of this enclosure a
large fire is lit and carefully kept up in order to keep wild beasts at
bay, and each man placing his weapons by his side arranges himself to
pass the night as comfortably as he can.
Our travellers installed themselves in the way we have described, with
this distinction, that as General Soto-Mayor had a tent among his
baggage, the peons put it up in the centre of the camp, and as it was
divided into two parts, it formed sleeping rooms for Don Juan, his
wife, and his daughters. After a supper of jerked beef and ham, the
muleteers, wearied with their day's journey, took a glance around to
see that all was in order, and then lay down, with the exception of one
who remained up as sentry.
Diego, Leon, and the Soto-Mayor family were sitting round the fire and
talking of the distance they still had to go before reaching their
destination. In these countries there is no twilight, and the supper
was hardly over before it became pitch dark.
"Miguel!" the general said to a peon standing close behind him, "give
me the bota."
The peon fetched a large goatskin, which might contain some fifteen
quarts, and was full of rum.
"Gentlemen!" the general continued, addressing the smugglers, "be kind
enough to taste this rum; it is a present made me by General Saint
Martin, in memory of the battle of Maypa, in which I was wounded while
charging a Spanish square."
The bota passed from hand to hand, while the ladies, seated on
carpets, were sipping water and smoking their cigarettes.
"It is excellent," said Leon, after swallowing a mouthful; "it is real
Jamaica."
"I am delighted that it pleases you," Don Juan continued, kindly; "for
in that case, you will not refuse to accept this bota, which will
remind you of our journey when we have separated."
"Oh!" Leon exclaimed, casting a fiery look at Maria, whose cheeks
turned purple, "I shall remember it, believe me, and I thank you
sincerely for this present."
"Say no more about it, pray, my dear captain; and tell me whether you
think we are still far from Talca."
"By starting early tomorrow we shall be by ten in the forenoon at the
mountain of Amehisto, and two hours later at Talca."
"So soon?" Maria murmured.
Leon looked at the maiden, and there was a silence; the general
calculated the distance that separated Talca from Valdivia, the ladies
smoked, and Diego was deep in thought. Suddenly the sound of galloping
horses could be heard, the sound soon grew louder, and the sentry
shouted, "Who goes there?"
In a second everybody was up, the men leaped to their weapons, and the
ladies, by Leon's orders, went into the tent to lie down on the ground
and remain perfectly motionless. No one had answered the sentry's
challenge.
"Who goes there?" he repeated, as he cocked his piece.
"Amigos!" a powerful voice answered, which re-echoed in the silence of
the night.
Every heart beat anxiously; a dozen horsemen could be noticed moving
in the darkness about thirty yards off; but the gloom was so dense that
it was impossible to recognise them, or know with whom they had to deal.
"Say what you want or I fire," the sentry shouted for the third time,
as he levelled his piece.
"Down with your arms, friends," the same voice, still perfectly calm,
repeated; "I am Don Pedro Sallazar."
"Yes! yes!" the general exclaimed, joyfully, as he threw down his gun,
"I recognise him: let Don Pedro enter, my friends."
Four men hastily removed some bales to make a passage for the officer
who entered the camp, while his escort remained outside. The general
stepped forward to meet the newcomer.
"How is it you are here?" he asked him. "I fancied you were at
Santiago."
"You will soon learn," Pedro replied, "for I have important
communications to make to you. But first permit me to give some
instructions to the men who accompany me."
Then turning to his soldiers, he said, "Cabo Lopez, take care that no
one leaves the camp, and post yourself here, and try to be on good
terms with the worthy persons here present."
"Yes, general," the corporal answered, with a bow.
"What? general!" Don Juan asked, with surprise. "Are you really a
general, my dear Don Pedro?"
"I will explain all that to you," Don Pedro replied, with a smile;
"in the meanwhile, however, lead me to your tent, for what I have to
communicate to you does not require any witnesses."
"Certainly; and make haste, that I may present you to these ladies,
who will be agreeably surprised at seeing you."
Don Pedro bowed, and followed the general, who led him into the tent
where the ladies had taken refuge in apprehension of an attack. During
this time the smugglers did the honours of the camp to the soldiers
with all the courtesy they were capable of displaying under such
circumstances. At the end of a quarter of an hour they fraternized in
the most cordial way, thanks to the aguardiente of Pisco, with which
the lanceros were abundantly provided.