A PRINCE'S ADVENTURES IN BRAZIL
Prince Adalbert of Prussia, a nephew of Friedrich Wilhelm III, is less
remembered as a traveller than as a frequent visitor to this country,
and one who sought to build up a German navy that should, in time, be
an exact copy of our own. Yet, in his younger days, before he took
seriously to sailoring, he led a restless, wandering life, and, in the
course of about eighteen years, contrived to see almost every country
in the world.
In 1842, when he was a little over thirty, he landed at Parahiba, in
Northern Brazil, with a small suite of Prussian officers, determined
to make a cross-country journey to the Andes and back. Needless to
say, such a march promised no small amount of excitement and danger;
for European settlements were few and far between, and the greater
part of the inhabited regions were in the hands of Caribs and
Guaranis, who, even where they were not savage and bloodthirsty, were
usually so jealous of the intrusion of white men that they would offer
every hindrance to their progress through the country.
The initial difficulty was the not uncommon one of obtaining guides.
Guides by the score--Indian, half-blood, Spanish and Italian--were
ready enough to show the way to Caxias, two hundred and fifty miles
distant; but the Prince happened to have an excellent chart of the
country as far as even three hundred miles beyond that (to the other
side of the Para River). But beyond the river no one had been or
had any intention of going, for fear of the Indians, who were
popularly supposed to number cannibalism among their other little
eccentricities. Passably good horses, however, were not hard to come
by, and the little cavalcade crossed the first five or six hundred
miles of plain and forest without mishap, and without seeing any
other Indians than those who were mildly and agriculturally disposed.
But now they came to what looked like an untouched and absolutely
impenetrable forest, where neither man nor horses could move unless a
path was first cut; and to render this gloomy neighbourhood a little
more uninviting, there appeared to be no dearth of jaguars, wild cats,
and boa-constrictors. Several of the officers separated and, for a
whole day, rode in every direction, exploring every possible curve and
opening that might be the beginning of a road; losing themselves and
each other a score of times. But at sundown, when all met at a
prearranged spot, Count Oriolla--the last to arrive--triumphantly
announced that he had found a winding path that showed signs of rare
but comparatively recent use. He had traced this for a good ten miles,
and it still promised to remain open and to lead "somewhere."
To a band of men who were young, strong, well armed, and romantically
inclined, the prospect offered by this mysterious path was a
delightful one, and by daybreak everyone was waiting and anxious to
continue the journey. Count Oriolla led the way through various palm
clumps and then alongside a wall of forest where every tree seemed
to be linked inextricably to its neighbour by creepers and lianas;
and, after some five miles of this, to a little wedge-like opening
which continued in a sharp backward turn, and which no one but
himself had noticed on the preceding day. For just a few yards this
was so narrow that the horses could only move in single file, but it
very quickly widened to the breadth of an ordinary country lane.
Close examination by the scientist of the party showed that it was a
path chiefly of Nature's making; probably a dried-up watercourse which
had been used by men and cattle at sufficiently frequent intervals
to prevent the saplings, suckers, and undergrowth from becoming a
serious obstruction.
Travelling very much at their ease, the Prince and his companions
followed this road for about fifteen miles before stopping for the
midday meal and siesta. In consequence of the great heat they usually
all rested from twelve till four; but to-day Count Oriolla and Captain
Bromberg preferred to walk on for a mile or two as soon as they had
lunched, in order to see what possibilities the neighbourhood offered
in the way of game, fruit, and water. A few hundred yards from the
camp they came to a veritable cherry orchard on a small scale; a grove
of tall trees laden with small black fruit and having leaves and bark
precisely the same as those of the European cherry. The fruit was the
"jabuticabas," or Brazilian cherry; the two young men tasted some
"windfalls," and these were so promising that the Count urged his more
active companion to climb one of the trunks and shake down a good
supply.
For a sailor this was no difficulty; and Captain Bromberg was soon in
the fork of a tree, rocking the branches vigorously, while the Count
stowed the falling fruit in a small game-bag. Presently the Captain
happened to peer down from his perch, and then, to his bewilderment,
he saw that a third person had appeared on the scene. The Count was
still on his knees, diligently filling the bag; while, unperceived by
him, a tall Indian, armed with a spear, bow, and quiver, stood near
him as motionless as a statue.
Bromberg at once swung himself down and dropped beside his friend, so
suddenly that the Count sprang up in alarm, though the Indian betrayed
no shadow of surprise. The Count, turning his head and finding himself
face to face with a Carib, started back with a cry of astonishment and
fumbled in his pocket for the pistol which he usually carried there;
but the stranger's demeanour was so mild and amiable, that he at once
felt ashamed of himself.
"Why don't you speak to him in Spanish?" said Bromberg; "no doubt he
would understand."
The Count, himself half Spanish, spoke civilly to the Carib, who at
once answered in that tongue, at the same time turning his spear-point
to the ground in token of peace. He pointed to the end of the grove of
fruit trees.
"That is where I live, gentlemen"; and for the first time they
noticed a thin column of smoke rising from a hut or tent a couple of
hundred yards away.
"Is there an Indian village here then?" asked the Count.
"Nearly a mile farther on; I and my parents keep an inn outside it."
The outlook seemed promising, and the Count at once asked as to the
likelihood of their finding suitable guides.
"You want to go by way of Santaren? Yes; any of us will guide you as
far as there, or even to the Madeira River. But we should not choose
to go any farther, for we are ill friends with the Guaranis just now;
nor would you do well to venture far up the Amazon; between Indians,
reptiles, and _tigres_, your lives would never be safe."
The two officers laughed; and the Count, giving their new acquaintance
a drop of brandy from his flask in token of good will, easily
persuaded him to return with them to the spot where they had left
their companions.
The Prince at once asked to be conducted to the village. This
consisted of a very picturesque street of palm-thatched huts, whose
owners looked cleaner, more robust, and more thriving than any Indians
Prince Adalbert had seen. A deputation, consisting of two chiefs and a
native Catholic priest, came to bid the new-comers welcome, and begged
them to accept the hospitality of the village for as long as it might
suit them. They confirmed what the other Indian had said: the way was
safe enough and agreeable enough as far as the confluence of the
Amazon and Madeira, but no farther.
On learning that the white men would pass that night in the village,
everyone was resolved to make the stay an entertaining one. The
visitors were shown the parish church, school, stores, etc., and
eventually led to the older chief's house for an elaborate meal of
fish, turtle-eggs, mushrooms, venison, partridges, and stewed monkey,
with fruit jellies, cakes, and native beer. The hut was neatly
furnished with cane-seated benches or lounges; and--not always to the
guests' greater comfort--a puma, various snakes, a couple of monkeys,
and three parrots, all very tame, wandered about the place at will.
Soon after supper, while Prince Adalbert smoked with the chiefs and
the padre, he unconsciously committed a very serious breach of local
etiquette. Attracted by the great size and artistic workmanship of two
bows that stood against the wall close by him, he leant forward and
took up one to examine it more closely. Immediately a heart-rending
scream rose from the only woman present--the cacique's widowed
mother--who, springing forward, snatched the weapon from the
stranger's hand and replaced it with great care and reverence.
The courtier-instinct of the Prussian officers was naturally
scandalised, the cacique remained perfectly still, though he looked
very uncomfortable, and said something in dialect to his mother that
appeared to be a gentle reproach; while the Indian padre, whose
education had brought him more in touch with white men and their
notions of hospitality, hastened politely to explain and apologise.
The bows, he said, were the last weapons used by the woman's late
husband, and it was the custom of the tribe to regard such things as
extremely sacred; no one but the deceased's widow or eldest son might
so much as touch them or stand within a pace of them. The Prince was,
of course, too much a man of the world to feel any annoyance, and
quickly put his entertainers at their ease again by expressing keen
interest in the customs peculiar to the Caribs; and this led to the
cacique's inviting him to witness a dance which was being arranged in
his honour. He led the way to the public square or _plaza_, which was
now illuminated by a symmetrical arrangement of torches and a huge
bonfire. As soon as all were seated under a canopy, the cacique struck
a gong, and, from every corner of the square, the young men of the
tribe appeared, each armed with a blunted spear and a round wooden
shield; and, at a second beat of the gong, all these began an awkward,
waddling march round and round the fire. This had gone on for some
minutes when, with a roar that was a splendid imitation of a bull's
bellowing, a man sprang up from the ground and, with head down,
pretended to run at full charge through the procession. The march
stopped instantly, every man turned his spear on the disturber, and
then followed a really admirable pantomime of a bull-fight, which
ended in the vanquishing and pretended death of the "bull."
In the morning the Prussians sought to press various gifts on the
hospitable Indians; but they were only received under protest and on
condition of the visitors accepting others in return; moreover, the
cacique appointed five mounted men to act as guides as far as the
river; and these, he said, were on no account to accept any payment
beyond their daily rations.
A march of something like four hundred miles now lay before the
travellers, and this was accomplished, by easy stages, within about a
fortnight. When once the river was in sight the Indians did not, as
the Prince had expected, promptly desert; nevertheless, they reground
their knives and the points of their spears and arrows as though they
anticipated an attack at any moment. But no other Indians were sighted
for a while; the ford of the Madeira marked on the chart was found,
and the explorers crossed the river in comfort and bade good-bye to
the honest fellows who had guided them so far and so faithfully.
Now came a temporary break in the forest land; and for several miles
the road was a mere sand-strip, like a towpath, running between the
Amazon and some low, marshy ground. No one was sorry to escape from
this district to the higher and more wooded lands again, for not only
do such marshes breed all kinds of fever, but they are the chosen
lurking-places of crocodiles, water-serpents, and other abominations.
On the third afternoon of the new march, Count Oriolla noticed, as
they entered upon more forest land, that dark-skinned figures
continually flitted among the trees, as though someone were spying on
or keeping up with the horsemen. He reported this, and the Prince gave
orders for all to draw more together and to have their weapons ready
to hand. At every step, too, the track betrayed more and more signs of
recent use by horses and cattle; and, from the top of the next hill,
a haze like the smoke from dozens of houses was visible.
"What are those?" asked the Prince as he pointed to some dark objects
moving on the surface of the water a long way ahead.
"Canoes, _Hoheit_; and Indians in them," promptly answered the naval
captain, more accustomed than the rest to long-distance gazing.
"Well, well; let us ride on. They probably intend us no harm."
Just then a valet, who was riding a little to the rear, hurried
forward.
"Your Highness may perceive that we are being followed," he said; and
pointed behind him to a group of thirty Indians of some other tribe
than the Caribs, who were moving along on foot at a steady double; and
among the trees closer at hand several more could be seen.
"Better to ignore them for the present," said the Prince. "Evidently
the village is not far away; time enough to stop when we come to it."
"This looks like an ambuscade," muttered Oriolla to the man riding
next him. They had come almost to the end of the little patch of
forest, and, beyond the last belt of trees, the heads and forefeet of
several horses drawn up in line could be seen. The words were hardly
out of his mouth when, howling at the top of their voices, two dozen
men shot out from the cover indicated and rode at full speed towards
the new-comers.
"Pistols out; but let no one fire unless I give the word," shouted
the Prince. "Ha! Here come the others from behind."
The second lot of Indians had increased their pace, and the Prussians
saw themselves about to be hemmed between two little forces of yelling
savages. Within a few yards, both parties of redskins halted and
either brandished their axes or fitted arrows to their bows.
"What do you want?" shouted the Prince in Spanish.
"You are our prisoners; you must come with us to our camp," said a
young Indian, advancing his horse a foot or two. "Give up your arms."
The Prince looked round at his followers. They only numbered thirteen,
all told, five of whom had never been under fire in their lives. Then
he said resolutely:
"Certainly we will come with you; but we shall not give up our arms;
and if any violence is attempted, I warn you that we shall fire on
you."
None of the Indians carried guns, and for that reason the Prince had
more faith in the efficacy of his threat.
"Very well," said the leader of the mounted Indians. "Follow us."
It was but a short distance to the village or camp or _tolderia_; and,
at the entrance to it, the Guaranis (for to that tribe they belonged)
dismounted, and each of the white men found his bridle seized by an
Indian.
"Who is your chief? Where is your cacique?" demanded Prince Adalbert
impatiently.
His captors pointed to a young man who, accompanied by another much
older, had just appeared from the largest of the huts and was coming
towards them. The young chief proved to be a very mild-mannered
person. He said half apologetically that the tribe was poor, and that
strangers were expected to make some offering on coming among them.
"We were prepared to make presents," said the Prince good-humouredly,
"but we object to being asked for them."
The older man--evidently the Ahithophel of the tribe--whispered
something, whereupon the chief said more spiritedly:
"You have been taken prisoners in our forest. You must ransom
yourselves"--Ahithophel whispered again--"by giving up your arms and
your baggage."
Those of the Prussians who understood the cacique's Spanish cocked
their pistols.
"Patience; we must reason with them," said the Prince in his own
language.
He was trying to think of the most potent argument to employ, when a
sudden outcry arose on all hands, and more than half the Indians,
including the chief and his evil genius, turned towards the river as
though in haste to meet someone. The canoes which the travellers had
seen from a distance were drawing up to the wooden landing-stage.
"What's this? What are they all doing?" asked the Prince; as well he
might, for his assailants, so clamorous and threatening only a moment
before, were falling on their knees one after the other, crossing
themselves and shouting jubilantly:
"The padre! The holy padre!"
A pleasant-faced, athletic-looking man, wearing a large _sombrero_ and
a priest's cassock, was standing on the little quay, holding up his
hand to bless the kneeling crowd, and at the same time throwing a
quick glance of curiosity towards the prisoners.
"At least he's a white man," said the Prince, much relieved, as he
signed to Count Oriolla to dismount and go to speak to the new-comer.
In a couple of minutes he saw both men hurrying towards him. The
priest raised his hat and, in excellent German, introduced himself as
a Scots Jesuit whose duty it was to make periodical visits to the
camps that had no church, to administer the sacraments to the devout.
"You must look leniently on them," he said when the position was
explained. "They are just grownup children. I will see that a proper
apology is made. I suspect I can put my hand on the black sheep." He
pointed at Ahithophel, and, speaking in Spanish, ordered him and the
cacique to come forward. Before he had spoken for a couple of minutes,
it was clear enough to the strangers that the good missionary knew the
class of men with whom he had to deal. Led by the cacique, the Indians
were soon sobbing and groaning in chorus; and even the grey-headed
counsellor bewailed his indiscretion when, passing from the moral to
the politic side of the question, the Scotsman hinted at the
possibilities of a German invasion to avenge this insult to royalty;
and ended by forbidding anyone in the village, as a penance, to
receive any present whatever from the travellers.
The power that just one white man of quick brain and strong will
had over all these savages seemed incredible. The Prussians remained
in the village three days, and during that time the Indians strained
every effort to please and entertain them; not an article of
their property was interfered with, and when, on leaving, the
Prince--forgetting the padre's prohibition--offered trifling
presents of knives, jewellery, and silk handkerchiefs, everyone
edged away as though these things were poison.
"They have been _good_ children, Father," pleaded the Prince, and so
earnestly that the Jesuit was obliged to give way; whereupon the
Guaranis accepted the gifts with tears of gratitude, and readily
offered a supply of guides who would ensure the travellers against
molestation by others of their tribe between there and the Andes.
On the last day of their stay it was reported that a tapir had been
seen in the forest a mile or two back; and the Scots cleric, himself a
keen sportsman, undertook to show the Prussians a native hunt at its
best. In this, however, he did not quite succeed, for some of the
younger members of the tribe stole a march on the rest, and the
visitors only saw the "finish." The lads had started earlier in the
morning, had discovered the tapir and driven him through the forest
towards the river; and, as the white men reached the most practicable
path, the ungainly beast charged out of it and made straight towards
the water. But the cacique was too quick for him. Spurring his horse
with the sharp angles of his stirrups, he dashed from the rear of the
Prussians and flung his lasso over the animal's head.
But this was not all. The tapir cared no more for this than a whale
does for a single harpoon and line, and rushed straight on for the
river, apparently dragging the hunter with him. All in a moment,
however, there came a clatter of hoofs, a cloud of dead leaves,
chips, and dust, and four of the beaters dashed out from the forest
path with their lassoes poised, and each bawling like a man possessed.
Two lassoes whistled past the Prince's head and seemed to fall at
exactly the same moment on that of the tapir; these were followed by a
third, which, as the beast had made a half stop, just missed him; then
by a fourth, which fell unerringly.
Even then the power of this strange animal was amazing, and for a
minute it seemed as though he must draw his captors into the river;
but, at a shout from the cacique, the three hunters followed his
example, swung their horses round, and spurred them so terrifically
that they towed the quarry back, foot by foot, till he fell over on
his side with all the breath strangled out of him. Then the cacique,
as the first to get his lasso "home," handed the thong to another
hunter, dismounted, and gave the tapir his quietus with his spear.