THE INDIAN CITY.
Tcharanguii, the chief of the Jaos, had rejoined his warriors, after
entrusting Inez and Maria de Soto-Mayor to the care of the Sayotkatta
of Garakouaïti. Immediately after he had departed, the young ladies
were imprisoned in the Jouimion Faré, inhabited by the Virgins of the
Sun.
Although prisoners, they were treated with the greatest respect,
according to the orders which Tcharanguii had given, and might perhaps
have endured the weariness of their captivity with patience, had not
a profound anxiety as to the fate reserved for them and an invincible
sadness resulting from their brutal separation from those whom they
loved, and the terrible circumstances under which they had left them,
seized upon them.
It was then that the difference of character in the two sisters was
displayed. Inez, accustomed to the eager attentions of the brilliant
gentlemen who frequented her father's house, and to the enjoyment
of the slothful and luxurious life which is that of all rich Spanish
families, suffered on finding herself deprived of the delights and
caresses by which her childhood had been surrounded, and, being
incapable to resist the grief that devoured her, she fell into a state
of discouragement and torpor, which she made no attempt to combat.
Maria, on the contrary, who found in her present condition but little
change from her novitiate, while deploring the blow that struck her,
endured it with courage and resignation. Her powerful mind accepted the
misfortune as a chastisement for the fervent affection which she had
devoted to Leon; but, confiding in the purity of that love, she had
drawn from it the hope that she would one day emerge from the trial by
the help of the man whom she loved, and who had rendered her aid and
protection.
When the two sisters conversed together about the probabilities of
deliverance, Inez trusted to the power of her father's name and
fortune, while Maria contented herself with confiding in the bravery
and intrepidity of the young smuggler chief who had escorted them up
to the moment when they were carried off by the Indians. Inez did not
understand what relations could exist between this captain and the
future, and cross-questioned Maria; but the latter either did not
answer the question or evaded it.
"In truth, sister," Inez said to her, "you incessantly speak about
Captain Leon. Do you think then, that our father, Don Juan, and Don
Pedro, who loves me and is going to marry me, cannot succeed without
Leon in delivering us from the hands of the wicked Redskins who keep us
prisoners here?"
"Sister Inez," Maria answered her, "I hope for the help of the
smuggler, because he engaged to escort us to Valdivia, where we should
arrive safely; and he is too honourable and brave a man not to set
everything in motion to remedy the fatal event which has prevented him
from keeping his word."
This last sentence was uttered by the maiden with so much conviction
that Inez was surprised at it, and raised her eyes to her sister, who
blushed beneath this searching glance. Inez said no more, but asked
herself what could be the nature of the feeling which thus compelled
her sister to defend a man whom she did not know, and whose relations
with the family were of so low a nature. From that day no further
allusion was made to Leon.
It is a strange fact, but one that is incontestably true, that
priests, no matter to what country or religion they belong, are
continually devoured by the desire of making proselytes. The Sayotkatta
of Garakouaïti had not let the opportunity slip which appeared to
offer itself in the persons of Inez and her sister. Endowed with a
great mind, thoroughly convinced of the excellence of the religious
principles which he professed; and, in addition, an obstinate enemy
of the Spaniards, he conceived the plan of making the young ladies
priestesses of the sun, so soon as they were entrusted to him by
Tcharanguii.
In America there is no lack of such conversions; and though they may
appear monstrous to us, they are perfectly natural in that country. He
therefore prepared his batteries very artfully. The young ladies did
not speak Indian; and he, on his side, did not know a word of Spanish;
but this difficulty, apparently enormous, was speedily got over by
Schymi-Tou.
He was related to a renowned warrior of the name of Meli-Antou (the
four suns), whose wife, reared not far from Valdivia, spoke Spanish
well enough to make herself comprehended. In spite of the law which
interdicted the introduction of strangers into the Jouimion Faré, the
high priest took it on himself to let Mahiaa (My Eyes), Meli-Antou's
wife, visit the young ladies.
We can imagine the satisfaction which the latter must have felt on
receiving the visit of someone who could talk with them, and help
them to overcome the ennui in which they passed their whole time. The
Indian squaw was welcomed as a friend, and her presence as a most
agreeable distraction. But in the second interview they saw for what
an interested object these visits were permitted, and a real tyranny
succeeded the short conversations of the first days.
This was a permanent punishment for the maidens. As Spanish girls,
and attached to the religion of their fathers, they could not at any
price respond to the Sayotkatta's hopes, and still the squaw had not
concealed from them, that in spite of the honeyed words and insinuating
manners of Schymi-Tou, they must expect to suffer the most frightful
torture if they refused to devote themselves to the worship of the Sun.
The prospect was far from being reassuring; hence, while pledging
themselves in their hearts to remain faithful to the Catholic faith,
the young girls experienced a deadly anxiety. Time slipped away, and
the Sayotkatta was beginning to grow impatient at the slowness of the
conversion; and the slight hopes which the maidens had retained of
being able to escape the sacrifice demanded of them gradually abandoned
them.
This painful situation, which was further aggravated by the absence of
any news from outside, eventually produced an illness, whose progress
was so rapid, that the Sayotkatta considered it prudent to suspend the
execution of his ardent wish. Let us leave the unhappy prisoners almost
congratulating themselves on the alteration which had taken place in
their health, and which freed them from the annoyance to which they
were subjected, and take up the thread of the events which happened to
other persons who figure in this history.
A month after the arrival of Maria and Inez within the walls of
Garakouaïti--that is to say, on a fine October evening--two men, whose
features or dress it would have been impossible to distinguish owing to
the obscurity, debouched from the forest which we previously described,
and stopped for a moment with marked indecision upon the extreme verge
of the wood.
Before them rose a mound, whose summit, though of no great elevation,
cut the horizon in a straight line. After exchanging a few whispered
words, the two travellers laid down on their stomach, and crawling on
their hands and feet, advanced through the giant grass, which they
caused to undulate, and which entirely concealed their bodies. On
reaching the top of the mount, they looked down, and were struck with
amazement.
The eminence on which they found themselves was quite perpendicular,
as was the whole of the ridge that extended on their right and left.
A magnificent plain stretched out a hundred feet beneath them, and in
the centre of this plain--that is to say, at a distance of about a
thousand yards--stood an Indian city, haughty and imposing, defended by
a hundred massive towers and its stout walls.
The sight of this vast city produced a lively feeling of pleasure on
the mind of the two men, for one of them turned to his comrade and said
to him with an accent of indescribable satisfaction--
"That must be the city which Diego told me of: it is Garakouaïti! At
last we have arrived."
"And it was not without trouble, captain," the other remarked, who was
no other than Wilhelm; "we may compliment ourselves on it."
"What matter, since we have arrived?"
"Before the city, yes: but inside it, no."
Leon smiled.
"Don't be alarmed, comrade; I shall be inside tomorrow."
"I hope so, captain; but in the meanwhile I do not think it advisable
to spend the night here in contemplating what there is at the base
of this species of precipice, and I think we should not do wrong in
returning to the forest, or seeking the road that leads to the place
that lies before us."
"It is too late to dream of getting any nearer the city today. As for
the road, we shall find it by bearing a little to the right, for the
ground seems to trend in that direction."
"In that case, captain, we must put off the affair till tomorrow."
"Yes; and now let us return to the llama."
And joining action to words, Leon turned back, and exactly following
the track which his body had left in the grass, he soon found
himself--as did Wilhelm, who followed all his movements--once again on
the skirt of the forest.
The silence which reigns at midday beneath these gloomy arches of
foliage and branches had been succeeded by the hoarse sounds of a
savage concert composed of the shrill cries of the nocturnal birds,
which awoke, and prepared to dash at the loritos and hummingbirds
belated far from their nests; of the yells of the pumas, and the
hypocritical and plaintive miaulings of the tigers and panthers,
whose echoes were hurled back in mournful notes by the roofs of the
inaccessible caverns and the yawning pits which served as the lurking
places of these dangerous guests.
Going back along the road which they had traced with the axe, the
smugglers soon afterwards found themselves close to a fire of dead
leaves and branches burning in the centre of a clearing. Some fifteen
yards from them a magnificent llama, carelessly lying at the foot of
a tree, watched them approach, and fixed on them its large eyes as
melancholy and intelligent as those of a stag, though it did not appear
at all astonished or startled by their presence.
"Well, Jemmy, my boy, you were not tired of waiting for us?" Wilhelm
said, as he went up to the animal and patted it on the neck.
Leon threw a few branches on the fire, which was beginning to decay.
"On my honour, captain, I am not curious," the German continued, "but I
should like to know what you intend doing with this llama which we have
dragged after us for the last fortnight? Now that we have reached our
journey's end, do you not think it time to kill and roast it?"
"For Heaven's sake, no, my friend; for if I have spared this llama, it
is simply that it may serve me as a passport to enter the city which we
saw just now."
"How so?"
"I will explain that to you tomorrow, till then let us keep up a good
fire, as the wild beasts seem out of temper tonight, and sleep."
"Done for sleep!" the German answered, phlegmatically.
And without farther ceremony he prepared to obey his captain's orders.
The latter, who felt that the hopes which he had conceived were on the
point of being realized, was, as frequently happens in such cases,
overcome by the fear that he had deceived himself in the supposition he
had formed of the young ladies' captivity in the city of Garakouaïti.
In vain did he recall the details which Diego had furnished him with
about the customs of the Indians, and the art among others which they
had of conveying to, and concealing in, the holy city everything they
took from their enemies; the fear of being mistaken constantly reverted
to his mind.
"Oh, no!" he said to himself, "I cannot have deceived myself; it is
love which guides my footsteps, and I feel here," he continued, as he
laid his hand on his chest, "something which tells me that I am going
to see her again. Oh! see her, and then save her! It would be too great
happiness, and I would give ten years of my life to be sure of success."
Then, following the current of his thoughts, Leon saw himself leading
Maria back to the general, and receiving her hand as a recompense for
the service which he had rendered him. Then, a moment after, he asked
himself whether he could endure life hence-forward were he to fail in
his plans; and, looking at the rifle he held, he vowed that it should
help him not to survive his sorrow.
"Come," he said to himself, suddenly, "this is not the moment for
doubt. Besides, if Maria is not in Garakouaïti, Diego will be there, or
someone who can tell me where to find him; and in that case he must
restore me her whom I love, for he swore that she should be sacred to
him."
After the young man had to some extent regained the courage which had
momentarily failed him, he removed from his brow the anxiety which had
overshadowed it, and asked of sleep the calmness necessary for his
thoughts and forgetfulness of his anxious cares. He therefore lay down
by the side of Wilhelm, whose irregular snores added an additional note
to the melody which the wild denizens of the forest were performing
with a full orchestra.
The first beams of dawn had just begun to tinge the sky with a whitish
reflection, when the smuggler captain opened his eyes and shook his
comrade's arm. The latter turned--turned again--and at last awoke,
suppressing an enormous yawn, which almost cleft his face to the ears--
"Hilloh, skulk!" Leon shouted to him, "make haste and get on your legs;
for we have no time to lose. The red devils are still asleep, but they
will soon spread over the plain, and they must not find us here."
"Let us decamp," Wilhelm replied, who had been quite restored by his
long sleep; "I shall not be sorry to have a peep at an Indian city. It
must be funny."
"My poor Wilhelm, in spite of all the desire I might have to procure
you this satisfaction, I am compelled to beg you to abstain from it,
because I have already told, I must go on alone."
"Der Teufel! But in that case what am I to do while waiting for you?
for I do not suppose that you intend remaining any length of time in
that confounded capital?"
"I will tell you. In the first place, help me to dress."
"Dress?"
"Yes; hang it all! Do you fancy I shall present myself at the city
gates in Spanish costume?"
"What! are you going to disguise yourself?"
"Exactly."
"But as what?"
"As an Indian, you donkey."
"Oh! famous--famous!" Wilhelm exclaimed, bursting into a hearty laugh.
"I'm your man."
"In that case make haste."
"I am ready, captain; I am ready."
The travestissement did not take long to effect; in a few minutes Leon
took from his alforjas a razor, with which he removed his whiskers and
moustache; and during this Wilhelm went to pluck a plant that grew
abundantly in the forest. After extracting the juice, Leon, who had
stripped off all his clothes, dyed his face and body with it.
Then Wilhelm drew on his chest, as well as he could, a tortoise,
accompanied by some fantastic ornaments which had no warlike character
about them, and which he reproduced on the face. He gave his
magnificent black hair a whitish tinge, intended to make him look older
than he really was, knotted it upon his head in the Indian fashion, and
thrust into the knob the feather of an aras, which Leon had picked up
some days previously in the forest, being careful to place it on the
left side, in order to show that it adorned the head of a peaceful man,
since the warriors are accustomed to fix their plumes in the centre
of their top-knot. When these preparations were completed, Leon asked
Wilhelm whether he could present himself among the Indians without
risk?
"You are so like a redskin, captain, that, if I had not helped to
transform you, I should not be able to recognise you, for you are
really frightful."
"In that case, I have nothing to fear."
Leon, feeling once again in his alforjas, brought out his travelling
case, and a small box of medicaments, which he always carried with him,
a precious article to which he and his men had had recourse on many
occasions; joining to these articles his pistols, he made the whole
into a small packet, which he wrapped up in his poncho and fastened on
the back of the llama, whose taming had so greatly excited Wilhelm's
curiosity.
"Now," he said, addressing the German, "pay careful attention to what I
am about to say to you."
"I am listening, captain."
"You will collect my clothes, and as soon as I have left the forest,
start at once for the grotto, where I left Giacomo; our comrades must
have reached it some days back. You have only twenty leagues to go,
and the road is ready traced, since it cost us three weeks' labour; by
travelling day and night, you can arrive soon."
"I will not lose an hour, captain."
"Good: you will tell Harrison where I am, and return here with all the
men who have been enlisted at Valparaíso to reinforce our troops. Do
you thoroughly understand?"
"Yes, captain."
"You will bring the horses with you, for they can pass. When you
have all assembled at this spot, Harrison will place sentries in
the environs day and night, while careful to hide them so that they
cannot be noticed, and so soon as you hear the cry of the eagle of
the Cordilleras, which I shall imitate, you will answer me, so that I
may know your exact position; and if I repeat it twice, you will hold
yourselves in readiness to help, for in that case I shall be attacked.
You will remember all these instructions?"
"Perfectly, captain; and I will repeat them to you word for word."
"Good!" Leon resumed, after Wilhelm had repeated his orders word by
word. "One thing more. It is possible that when I return I may bring
two or three persons with me; do not be troubled by that, nor stir till
you hear the agreed on signal."
"Yes, captain."
"Keep watch before all at night, for I shall probably leave the city
after sunset."
"All right--a good guard shall be kept."
"And if I have not given the signal within a week, it will be because I
am dead; and, in that case, you can be off and choose another chief, as
you cannot hope to see Leon again."
"Oh! captain, do not say that."
"We must foresee everything, my worthy fellow; but I have hopes that,
with the help of Heaven, nothing disagreeable will happen to me. Here
is the day, and it is time to set out; so let us separate. Good-bye, my
excellent Wilhelm, my trust is in you."
"Good-bye, captain, and distrust those scamps of Indians, for they are
as treacherous as they are cowardly."
The two men shook hands, and Leon made his llama get up from the
ground, while Wilhelm, after making a bundle of the clothes which
his captain had bidden him remove, threw it on his shoulder with a
desperate air, opened his enormous compasses of legs, and went off into
the forest with long strides, and a melancholy shake of the head. Leon
looked after him for a moment.
"It is, perhaps, the last friendly face that I shall ever see," he said
to himself, with a sigh.
A moment after he resolutely raised his head.
"The die is cast, and I will go on."
Then, assuming the quiet, careless slouch of an Indian, he went slowly
toward the plain, followed by his llama, though continually looking
searchingly around him.