Those who have thoughtfully considered Raleigh's career have seen reason

to doubt whether he really believed the stories which he was so anxious

to impress upon others. They have thought it more likely that his real

object was to emulate the fame of Cortez and Pizarro; to dispossess

Spain of some portion of her conquests in South America, and transfer

them to his own country. This latter object was admissible at the time

of his first expedition, because Spain and England were then at war; but

was not so on the second, as the two nations were then at peace. But

Raleigh had reason to think, that, if he could succeed in his object,

there was no danger of his being called to very strict account

respecting his measures.

He arrived off the coast of Guiana on the 12th of November, 1617; having

had a long and disastrous voyage. One ship had left him, and returned

home; another had foundered; forty-two of his men had died; many were

suffering from sickness, and himself among the number. But he found the

Indians friendly, and not forgetful of his former visit. He writes to

his wife, "To tell you that I might be here king of the country were a

vanity; but my name hath still lived among them here. They feed me with

fresh meat, and all that the country yields. All offer to obey me."

Being too feeble from sickness to go himself, he sent forward an

expedition, under Capt. Keymis, to enter the Orinoco, and take

possession of the mines. Five companies of fifty men each, in five

shallops, composed the expedition; Raleigh, with the remainder of his

vessels, repairing to Trinidad to await the result.

Since Raleigh's former expedition, the Spaniards had made a settlement

upon the main land, and founded a town to which they gave the name of

St. Thomas. The governor resided there, and there were in all about

five hundred inhabitants. On the 12th of January, the English flotilla

reached a part of the river twelve leagues from St. Thomas; and an

Indian fisherman carried the alarm to that place. The governor,

Palameque, mustered immediately the little force which he had at hand.

This consisted of fifty-seven men only. Messengers were sent to summon

those men who were at their farms, and two horsemen were sent out to

watch the invaders' movements.

At eleven in the forenoon, the vessels anchored about a league from the

town. The men landed, and the scouts hastened back with the

intelligence. A Spanish officer, with ten men, was placed in ambush near

the city. As soon as he was informed of the direction which the English

were taking, he cut a match-cord in pieces, which he lighted at dark,

and placed at intervals, where they might deceive the invaders by

presenting the appearance of a greater force. The first discharge was

from two pieces of cannon against the boats. The Spaniard, with his

little band, then opened his fire upon the troops, and kept it up from

the bushes as he retired before them. This skirmishing continued about

an hour and a half, till he had fallen back to the place where the

governor and his people were drawn up, at the entrance of the city, to

make a stand. It was now nine at night. Raleigh says, in his account of

the action, that some of the English, at the first charge, began to

pause and recoil shamefully; whereupon his son, not tarrying for any

musketeers, ran up at the head of a company of pikemen, and received a

shot wound. Pressing then upon a Spanish captain with his sword, the

Spaniard, taking the small end of his musket in his hand, struck him on

the head with the stock, and felled him. His last words were, "Lord,

have mercy upon me, and prosper the enterprise!" and his death was

instantly avenged by his sergeant, who thrust the Spaniard through with

his halberd. In the heat of the fight, and in the confusion which the

darkness occasioned, the Spanish commander was separated from his

people, and slain. The Spaniards, however, had the advantage of knowing

the ground; and, betaking themselves to the houses, they fired from them

on the English, and killed many, till the assailants set fire to the

houses; thus depriving themselves of that booty which was their main

object. The English were now masters of the place; the remainder of the

defendants, with the women and children, under the command of Grados,

the officer who had deported himself so well in the first ambush,

effecting their escape across the river. Grados stationed them at a

place about ten miles distant from the town, where a few slight huts

were erected for the women and children.

The captors searched in vain for gold in the city; but they had an idea

that there was a rich gold-mine a short distance up the river.

Accordingly, two launches, with twenty or thirty men in each, were

despatched up the Orinoco. They came to the mouth of the creek, which

led to the place where Grados had hutted the women and children; and the

largest of the launches was about to enter, when Grados, who had posted

nine of the invalids in ambush there, with about as many Indian bowmen,

fired upon them so unexpectedly, and with such good aim, that only one

of the crew is said to have escaped unhurt. The other launch also

suffered some loss. Three days after, three launches were sent to take

vengeance for this defeat; but Grados had removed his charge some two

leagues into the country, and these vessels went up the river about a

hundred leagues, treating with the Indians, to whom they made presents

and larger promises, and after eighteen or twenty days returned, having

effected nothing of importance.

The English had now been four weeks in the city, annoyed by the

Spaniards and Indians, and losing many of their men, cut off in their

foraging excursions by ambushes. After the unsuccessful attempt to

discover the mine, no further effort was made for that purpose; Keymis

alleging in his excuse, that "the Spaniards, being gone off in a whole

body, lay in the woods between the mine and us, and it was impossible,

except they had been beaten out of the country, to pass up the woods and

craggy hills without the loss of the commanders, without whom the rest

would easily be cut to pieces." The English, accordingly, retreated from

the city, setting fire to the few houses that remained, and promising

the Indians, as they went, that they would return next year, and

complete the destruction of the Spaniards.

Raleigh was by no means satisfied with Keymis's excuses for his failure

to discover the mine, and reproached him with so much severity, that

Keymis, after the interview, retired to his cabin, and shot himself

through the heart.

When Raleigh arrived in England, he found that the tidings of his attack

on the Spaniards, and the utter failure of his expedition, had reached

there before him. The Spanish ambassador was clamorous for punishment

on what he called a piratical proceeding; and the king and the nation,

who might have pardoned a successful adventurer, had no indulgence to

extend to one so much the reverse. Finding a proclamation had been

issued for his arrest, Raleigh endeavored to escape to France, but was

taken in the attempt, and committed close prisoner to the Tower. He was

made a victim to court intrigue. The weak king, James, was then

negotiating a Spanish match for his son, and, to gratify the King of

Spain and his court, sacrificed one of the noblest of his subjects.

Without being put on trial for his late transactions, Raleigh's old

sentence, which had been suspended sixteen years, was revived against

him; and on the 29th of October, 1618, four months after his arrival, he

was beheaded on the scaffold.

The fate of Raleigh caused a great sensation at the time, and has not

yet ceased to excite emotion. The poet Thomson, in his "Summer," finely

alludes to the various circumstances of his history, which we have

briefly recorded:--

"But who can speak

The numerous worthies of the 'Maiden reign'?

In Raleigh mark their every glory mixed,--

Raleigh, the scourge of Spain, whose breast with all

The sage, the patriot, and the hero, burned.

Nor sunk his vigor when a coward reign

The warrior fettered, and at last resigned

To glut the vengeance of a vanquished foe:

Then, active still and unrestrained, his mind

Explored the vast extent of ages past,

And with his prison-hours enriched the world;

Yet found no times in all the long research

So glorious or so base as those he proved

In which he conquered and in which he bled."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS.

After so many abortive attempts to reach the Golden Empire, the ardor of

research greatly abated. No expeditions, composed of considerable

numbers, have since embarked in the enterprise; but from time to time,

for the century succeeding Raleigh's last attempt, private expeditions

were undertaken and encouraged by provincial governors; and several

hundred persons perished miserably in those fruitless endeavors.

The adventure we are now about to record was of an entirely different

character in respect to its objects and the means employed; but it

occupied the same field of action, and called into exercise the same

qualities of courage and endurance.

In 1735, the French Academy of Science made arrangements for sending out

two commissions of learned men to different and distant parts of the

world to make measurements, with a view to determining the dimensions

and figure of the earth. The great astronomer, Sir Isaac Newton, had

deduced from theory, and ventured to maintain, that the earth was not a

perfect globe, but a spheroid; that is, a globe flattened at the poles.

For a long time after Newton's splendid discoveries in astronomy, a

degree of national jealousy prevented the French philosophers from

accepting his conclusions; and they were not displeased to find, when

they could, facts opposed to them. Now, there were some supposed facts

which were incompatible with this idea of Newton's, that the earth was

flattened at the poles. The point was capable of being demonstrated by

measurements, with instruments, on the surface; for, if his theory was

true, a degree of latitude would be longer in the northern parts of the

globe than in the regions about the equator.

We must not allow our story to become a scientific essay; and yet we

should like to give our readers, if we could, some idea of the principle

on which this process, which is called the measurement of an arc of the

meridian, was expected to show the magnitude and form of the earth. We

all know that geographical latitude means the position of places north

or south of the equator, and is determined by reference to the north or

pole star. A person south of the equator would not see the pole-star at

all. One at the equator, looking at the pole-star, would see it, if no

intervening object prevented, in the horizon. Advancing northward, he

would see it apparently rise, and advance toward him. As he proceeded,

it would continue to rise. When he had traversed half the distance to

the pole, he would see the pole-star about as we see it in Boston; that

is, nearly midway between the horizon and the zenith: and, when he had

reached the pole, he would see the pole-star directly over his head.

Dividing the quarter circle which the star has moved through into ninety

parts, we say, when the star has ascended one-ninetieth part, that the

observer has travelled over one degree of latitude. When the observer

has reached Boston, he has passed over somewhat more than forty-two

degrees, and, when he has reached the north-pole, ninety degrees, of

latitude. Thus we measure our latitude over the earth's surface by

reference to a circle in the heavens; and, because the portions into

which we divide that circle are equal, we infer that the portions of the

earth's surface which correspond to them are equal. This would be true

if the earth were a perfect globe: but if the earth be a spheroid, as

Newton's theory requires it to be, it would _not_ be true; for that

portion of the earth's surface which is flattened will have less

curvature than that which is not so, and less still than that portion

which is protuberant. The degrees of least curvature will be longest,

and those of greatest curvature shortest; that is, one would have to

travel farther on the flattened part of the earth to see any difference

in the position of the north-star than in those parts where the

curvature is greater. So a degree of latitude near the pole, if

determined by the position of the north-star, would be found, by actual

measurement, to be longer than one similarly determined at the equator.

It was to ascertain whether the fact was so that the two scientific

expeditions were sent out.

The party which was sent to the northern regions travelled over snow and

ice, swamps and morasses, to the arctic circle, and fixed their station

at Tornea, in Lapland. The frozen surface of the river afforded them a

convenient level for fixing what is called by surveyors the base line.

The cold was so intense, that the glass froze to the mouth when they

drank, and the metallic measuring rod to the hand. In spite, however, of

perils and discomforts, they persevered in their task, and brought back

careful measurements of a degree in latitude 66 deg. north, to be compared

with those made by the other party at the equator, whose movements we

propose more particularly to follow.

Before we take leave of the northern commissioners, however, we will

mention another method they took of demonstrating the same fact. If the

earth be depressed at the poles, it must follow that bodies will weigh

heavier there, because they are nearer the centre of the earth. But how

could they test this fact, when all weights would be increased

alike,--the pound of feathers and the pound of lead? The question was

settled by observing the oscillation of a pendulum. The observers near

the pole found that the pendulum vibrated faster than usual, because,

being nearer the centre of the earth, the attracting power was

increased. To balance this, they had to lengthen the pendulum; and the

extent to which they had to do this measured the difference between the

earth's diameter at the poles, and that in the latitude from which they

came.

The commissioners who were sent to the equatorial regions were Messrs.

Bouguer, La Condamine, and Godin, the last of whom was accompanied by

his wife. Two Spanish officers, Messrs. Juan and De Ulloa, joined the

commission. The party arrived at Quito in June, 1736, about two hundred

years after Gonzalo Pizarro started from the same place in his search

for Eldorado. In the interval, the country had become nominally

Christian. The city was the seat of a bishopric, an audience royal, and

other courts of justice; contained many churches and convents, and two

colleges. But the population was almost entirely composed of Indians,

who lived in a manner but very little different from that of their

ancestors at the time of the conquest. Cuenca was the place next in

importance to the capital; and there, or in its neighborhood, the chief

labors of the commission were transacted. They were conducted under

difficulties as great as those of their colleagues in the frozen regions

of the north, but of a different sort. The inhabitants of the country

were jealous of the French commissioners, and supposed them to be either

heretics or sorcerers, and to have come in search of gold-mines. Even

persons connected with the administration employed themselves in

stirring up the minds of the people, till at last, in a riotous

assemblage at a bullfight, the surgeon of the French commissioners was

killed. After tedious and troublesome legal proceedings, the

perpetrators were let off with a nominal punishment. Notwithstanding

every difficulty, the commissioners completed their work in a

satisfactory manner, spending in all eight years in the task, including

the voyages out and home.

The commissioners who had made the northern measurements reported the

length of the degree at 66 deg. north latitude to be 57.422 toises; Messrs.

Bouguer and La Condamine, the equatorial degree, 56.753 toises; showing

a difference of 669 toises, or 4,389-3/4 feet. The difference, as

corrected by later measurements, is stated by recent authorities at

3,662 English feet; by which amount the polar degree exceeds the

equatorial. Thus Newton's theory was confirmed.

His scientific labors having been finished, La Condamine conceived the

idea of returning home by way of the Amazon River; though difficulties

attended the project, which we who live in a land of mighty rivers,

traversed by steamboats, can hardly imagine. The only means of

navigating the upper waters of the river was by rafts or canoes; the

latter capable of containing but one or two persons, besides a crew of

seven or eight boatmen. The only persons who were in the habit of

passing up and down the river were the Jesuit missionaries, who made

their periodical visits to their stations along its banks. A young

Spanish gentleman, Don Pedro Maldonado, who at first eagerly caught at

the idea of accompanying the French philosopher on his homeward route by

way of the river, was almost discouraged by the dissuasives urged by his

family and friends, and seemed inclined to withdraw from the enterprise;

so dangerous was the untried route esteemed. It was, however, at length

resolved that they should hazard the adventure; and a place of

rendezvous was appointed at a village on the river. On the 4th of July,

1743, La Condamine commenced his descent of one of the streams which

flow into the great river of the Amazons. The stream was too precipitous

in its descent to be navigated by boats of any kind, and the only method

used was by rafts. These are made of a light kind of wood, or rather

cane, similar to the bamboo, the single pieces of which are fastened

together by rushes, in such a manner, that they yield to every shock of

moderate violence, and consequently are not subject to be separated even

by the strongest. On such a conveyance, the French philosopher glided

down the stream of the Chuchunga, occasionally stopping on its banks for

a day or two at a time to allow the waters to abate, and admit of

passing a dangerous rapid more safely; and sometimes getting fast on the

shallows, and requiring to be drawn off by ropes by the Indian boatmen.

It was not till the 19th of July that he entered the main river at

Laguna, where he found his friend Maldonado, who had been waiting for

him some weeks.

On the 23d of July, 1743, they embarked in two canoes of forty-two and

forty-four feet long, each formed out of one single trunk of a tree, and

each provided with a crew of eight rowers. They continued their course

night and day, in hopes to reach, before their departure, the

brigantines of the missionaries, in which they used to send once a year,

to Para, the cacao which they collected in their missions, and for which

they got, in return, supplies of European articles of necessity.

On the 25th of July, La Condamine and his companion passed the village

of a tribe of Indians lately brought under subjection, and in all the

wildness of savage life: on the 27th, they reached another more advanced

in civilization, yet not so far as to have abandoned their savage

practices of artificially flattening their heads, and elongating their

ears. The 1st of August, they landed at a missionary station, where they

found numerous Indians assembled, and some tribes so entirely barbarous

as to be destitute of clothing for either sex. "There are in the

interior," the narration goes on to say, "some tribes which devour the

prisoners taken in war; but there are none such on the banks of the

river."

After leaving this station, they sailed day and night, equal to seven or

eight days' journey, without seeing any habitation. On the 5th of

August, they arrived at the first of the Portuguese missionary stations,

where they procured larger and more commodious boats than those in which

they had advanced hitherto. Here they began to see the first signs of

the benefits of access to European sources of supply, by means of the

vessel which went every year from Para to Lisbon. They tarried six days

at the last of the missionary stations, and again made a change of boats

and of Indian crews. On the 28th August, being yet six hundred miles

from the sea, they perceived the ebb and flow of the tide.

On the 19th September, they arrived at Para, which La Condamine

describes as a great and beautiful city, built of stone, and enjoying a

commerce with Lisbon, which made it flourishing and increasing. He

observes, "It is, perhaps, the only European settlement where silver

does not pass for money; the whole currency being cocoa." He adds in a

note, "Specie currency has been since introduced."

The Portuguese authorities received the philosophers with all the

civilities and hospitalities due to persons honored with the special

protection and countenance of two great nations,--France and Spain. The

cannon were fired; and the soldiers of the garrison, with the governor

of the province at their head, turned out to receive them. The governor

had received orders from the home government to pay all their expenses,

and to furnish them every thing requisite for their comfort and

assistance in their researches. La Condamine remained three months at

Para; and then, declining the urgent request of the governor to embark

in a Portuguese vessel for home by way of Lisbon, he embarked in a boat

rowed by twenty-two Indians, under the command of a Portuguese officer,

to coast along the shores of the continent to the French colony of

Cayenne.

The city of Para from whence he embarked is not situated upon the Amazon

River, but upon what is called the River of Para, which branches off

from the Amazon near its mouth, and discharges itself into the sea at a

distance of more than a hundred miles east of the Amazon. The

intervening land is an island called Marajo, along the coast of which

La Condamine and his party steered till they came to the place where the

Amazon River discharges into the sea that vast bulk of waters which has

been swelled by the contributions of numerous tributaries throughout a

course of more than three thousand miles in length. It here meets the

current which runs along the north-eastern coast of Brazil, and gives

rise to that phenomenon which is called by the Indians Pororoca. The

river and the current, having both great rapidity, and meeting nearly at

right angles, come into contact with great violence, and raise a

mountain of water to the height of one hundred and eighty feet. The

shock is so dreadful, that it makes all the neighboring islands tremble;

and fishermen and navigators fly from it in the utmost terror. The river

and the ocean appear to contend for the empire of the waves: but they

seem to come to a compromise; for the sea-current continues its way

along the coast of Guiana to the Island of Trinidad, while the current

of the river is still observable in the ocean at a distance of five

hundred miles from the shore.

La Condamine passed this place of meeting in safety by waiting for a

favorable course of tides, crossing the Amazon at its mouth, steering

north; and after many delays, caused by the timidity and bad seamanship

of his Indian crew, arrived at last safe at Cayenne on the 26th

February, 1744, having been eight months on his voyage, two of which

were spent in his passage from Para, a passage which he avers a French

officer and crew, two years after him, accomplished in six days. La

Condamine was received with all possible distinction at Cayenne, and in

due time found passage home to France, where he arrived 25th February,

1745.

CHAPTER IX.

MADAME GODIN'S VOYAGE DOWN THE AMAZON.

One of the French commissioners, M. Godin, had taken with him on his

scientific errand to Peru his wife; a lady for whom we bespeak the kind

interest of our readers, for her name deserves honorable mention among

the early navigators of the Amazon. The labors of the commission

occupied several years; and when, in the year 1742, those labors were

happily brought to a conclusion, M. Godin was prevented, by

circumstances relating to himself individually, from accompanying his

colleagues in their return to France. His detention was protracted from

year to year, till at last, in 1749, he repaired alone to the Island of

Cayenne to prepare every thing necessary for the homeward voyage of

himself and his wife.

From Cayenne he wrote to Paris to the minister of marine, and requested

that his government would procure for him the favorable interposition of

the court of Portugal to supply him with the means of ascending the

River Amazon to bring away his wife from Peru, and descend the stream

with her to the Island of Cayenne. Thirteen years had rolled by since

their arrival in the country, when at last Madame Godin saw her earnest

wish to return home likely to be gratified. All that time, she had lived

apart from her husband; she in Peru, he in the French colony of Cayenne.

At last, M. Godin had the pleasure to see the arrival of a galoot (a

small vessel having from sixteen to twenty oars on a side, and well

adapted for rapid progress), which had been fitted out by the order of

the King of Portugal, and despatched to Cayenne for the purpose of

taking him on his long-wished-for journey. He immediately embarked; but,

before he could reach the mouth of the Amazon River, he was attacked by

so severe an illness, that he saw himself compelled to stop at Oyapoc, a

station between Cayenne and the mouth of the river, and there to remain,

and to send one Tristan, whom he thought his friend, in lieu of himself,

up the river to seek Madame Godin, and escort her to him. He intrusted

to him also, besides the needful money, various articles of merchandise

to dispose of to the best advantage. The instructions which he gave him

were as follows:--

The galiot had orders to convey him to Loreto about half-way up the

Amazon River, the first Spanish settlement. From there he was to go to

Laguna, another Spanish town about twelve miles farther up, and to give

Mr. Godin's letter, addressed to his wife, in charge to a certain

ecclesiastic of that place, to be forwarded to the place of her

residence. He himself was to wait at Laguna the arrival of Madame Godin.

The galiot sailed, and arrived safe at Loreto. But the faithless

Tristan, instead of going himself to Laguna, or sending the letter

there, contented himself with delivering the packet to a Spanish Jesuit,

who was going to quite another region on some occasional purpose.

Tristan himself, in the mean while, went round among the Portuguese

settlements to sell his commodities. The result was, that M. Godin's

letter, passing from hand to hand, failed to reach the place of its

destination.

Meanwhile, by what means we know not, a blind rumor of the purpose and

object of the Portuguese vessel lying at Loreto reached Peru, and came

at last, but without any distinctness, to the ears of Madame Godin. She

learned through this rumor that a letter from her husband was on the way

to her; but all her efforts to get possession of it were fruitless. At

last, she resolved to send a faithful negro servant, in company with an

Indian, to the Amazon, to procure, if possible, more certain tidings.

This faithful servant made his way boldly through all hinderances and

difficulties which beset his journey, reached Loreto, talked with

Tristan, and brought back intelligence that he, with the Portuguese

vessel and all its equipments, were for her accommodation, and waited

her orders.

Now, then, Madame Godin determined to undertake this most perilous and

difficult journey. She was staying at the time at Riobamba, about one

hundred and twenty miles south of Quito, where she had a house of her

own with garden and grounds. These, with all other things that she could

not take with her, she sold on the best terms she could. Her father, M.

Grandmaison, and her two brothers, who had been living with her in Peru,

were ready to accompany her. The former set out beforehand to a place

the other side of the Cordilleras to make arrangements for his

daughter's journey on her way to the ship.

Madame Godin received about this time a visit from a certain Mr. R., who

gave himself out for a French physician, and asked permission to

accompany her. He promised, moreover, to watch over her health, and to

do all in his power to lighten the fatigues and discomforts of the

arduous journey. She replied, that she had no authority over the vessel

which was to carry her, and therefore could not answer for it that he

could have a place in it. Mr. R., thereupon, applied to the brothers of

Madame Godin; and they, thinking it very desirable that she should have

a physician with her, persuaded their sister to consent to take him in

her company.

So, then, she started from Riobamba, which had been her home till this

time, the 1st of October, 1749, in company of the above-named persons,

her black man, and three Indian women. Thirty Indians, to carry her

baggage, completed her company. Had the luckless lady known what

calamities, sufferings, and disappointments awaited her, she would have

trembled at the prospect, and doubted of the possibility of living

through it all, and reaching the wished-for goal of her journey.

The party went first across the mountains to Canelos, an Indian village,

where they thought to embark on a little stream which discharges itself

into the Amazon. The way thither was so wild and unbroken, that it was

not even passable for mules, and must be travelled entirely on foot.

M. Grandmaison, who had set out a whole month earlier, had stopped at

Canelos no longer than was necessary to make needful preparations for

his daughter and her attendants. Then he had immediately pushed on

toward the vessel, to still keep in advance, and arrange matters for her

convenience at the next station to which she would arrive. Hardly had he

left Canelos, when the small-pox, a disease which in those regions is

particularly fatal, broke out, and in one week swept off one-half of the

inhabitants, and so alarmed the rest, that they deserted the place, and

plunged into the wilderness. Consequently, when Madame Godin reached the

place with her party, she found, to her dismay, only two Indians

remaining, whom the fury of the plague had spared; and, moreover, not

the slightest preparation either for her reception, or her furtherance

on her journey. This was the first considerable mishap which befell her,

and which might have served to forewarn her of the greater sufferings

which she was to encounter.

A second followed shortly after. The thirty Indians who thus far had

carried the baggage, and had received their pay in advance, suddenly

absconded, whether from fear of the epidemic, or that they fancied,

having never seen a vessel except at a distance, that they were to be

compelled to go on board one, and be carried away. There stood, then,

the deserted and disappointed company, overwhelmed, and knowing not what

course to take, or how to help themselves. The safest course would have

been to leave all their baggage to its fate, and return back the way

they came; but the longing of Madame Godin for her beloved husband, from

whom she had now been separated so many years, gave her courage to bid

defiance to all the hinderances which lay in her way, and even to

attempt impossibilities.

She set herself, therefore, to persuade the two Indians above mentioned

to construct a boat, and, by means of it, to take her and her company to

Andoas, another place about twelve days' journey distant. They willingly

complied, receiving their pay in advance. The boat was got ready; and

all the party embarked in it under the management of the two Indians.

After they had run safely two days' journey down the stream, they drew

up to the bank to pass the night on shore. Here the treacherous Indians

took the opportunity, while the weary company slept, to run away; and,

when the travellers awoke next morning, they were nowhere to be found.

This was a new and unforeseen calamity, by which their future progress

was rendered greatly more hazardous.

Without a knowledge of the stream or the country, and without a guide,

they again got on board their boat, and pushed on. The first day went by

without any misadventure. The second, they came up with a boat which lay

near the shore, alongside of an Indian hut built of branches of trees.

They found there an Indian, just recovered from the sickness, and

prevailed on him, by presents, to embark with them to take the helm. But

fate envied them this relief: for, the next day, Mr. R.'s hat fell into

the water; and the Indian, in endeavoring to recover it, fell overboard,

and was drowned, not having strength to swim to the shore.

Now was the vessel again without a pilot, and steered by persons, not

one of whom had the least knowledge of the course. Ere long, the vessel

sprung a leak; and the unhappy company found themselves compelled to

land, and build a hut to shelter them.

They were yet five or six days' journey from Andoas, the nearest place

of destination. Mr. R. offered, for himself and another Frenchman his

companion, to go thither, and make arrangements, that, within fourteen

days, a boat from there should arrive and bring them off. His proposal

was approved of. Madame Godin gave him her faithful black man to

accompany him. He himself took good care that nothing of his property

should be left behind.

Fourteen days were now elapsed; but in vain they strained their eyes to

catch sight of the bark which Mr. R. had promised to send to their

relief. They waited twelve days longer, but in vain. Their situation

grew more painful every day.

At last, when all hope in this quarter was lost, they hewed trees, and

fastened them together as well as they could, and made in this way a

raft. When they had finished it, they put on their baggage, and seated

themselves upon it, and suffered it to float down the stream. But even

this frail bark required a steersman acquainted with navigation; but

they had none such. In no long time, it struck against a sunken log, and

broke to pieces. The people and their baggage were cast into the river.

Great, however, as was the danger, no one was lost. Madame Godin sunk

twice to the bottom, but was at last rescued by her brothers.

Wet through and through, exhausted, and half dead with fright, they at

last all gained the shore. But only imagine their lamentable, almost

desperate, condition! All their supplies lost; to make another raft

impossible; even their stock of provisions gone! And where were they

when all these difficulties overwhelmed them? In a horrid wilderness,

so thick grown up with trees and bushes, that one could make a passage

through it no other way than by axe and knife; inhabited only by

fiercest tigers, and by the most formidable of serpents,--the

rattlesnake. Moreover, they were without tools, without weapons! Could

their situation be more deplorable?

CHAPTER X.

MADAME GODIN'S VOYAGE CONTINUED.

The unfortunate travellers had now but the choice of two desperate

expedients,--either to wait where they were the termination of their

wretched existence, or try the almost impossible task of penetrating

along the banks of the river, through the unbroken forest, till they

might reach Andoas. They chose the latter, but first made their way back

to their lately forsaken hut to take what little provisions they had

there left. Having accomplished this, they set out on their most painful

and dangerous journey. They observed, when they followed the shore of

the river, that its windings lengthened their way. To avoid this, they

endeavored, without leaving the course of the river, to keep a straight

course. By this means, they lost themselves in the entangled forest; and

every exertion to find their way was ineffectual. Their clothes were

torn to shreds, and hung dangling from their limbs; their bodies were

sadly wounded by thorns and briers; and, as their scanty provision of

food was almost gone, nothing seemed left to them but to sustain their

wretched existence with wild fruit, seeds and buds of the palm-trees.

At last, they sank under their unremitted labor. Wearied with the

hardships of such travel, torn and bleeding in every part of their

bodies, and distracted with hunger, terror, and apprehensions, they lost

the small remnant of their energy, and could do no more. They sat down,

and had no power to rise again. In three or four days, one after another

died at this stage of their journey. Madame Godin lay for the space of

twenty-four hours by the side of her exhausted and helpless brothers and

companions: she felt herself benumbed, stupefied, senseless, yet at the

same time tormented by burning thirst. At last, Providence, on whom she

relied, gave her courage and strength to rouse herself and seek for a

rescue, which was in store for her, though she knew not where to look

for it.

Around lay the dead bodies of her brothers and her other companions,--a

sight which at another time would have broken her heart. She was almost

naked. The scanty remnants of her clothing were so torn by the thorns as

to be almost useless. She cut the shoes from her dead brothers' feet,

bound the soles under her own, and plunged again into the thicket in

search of something to allay her raging hunger and thirst. Terror at

seeing herself so left alone in such a fearful wilderness, deserted by

all the world, and apprehension of a dreadful death constantly hovering

before her eyes, made such an impression upon her, that her hair turned

gray.

It was not till the second day after she had resumed her wandering that

she found water, and, a little while after, some wild fruit, and a few

eggs of birds. But her throat was so contracted by long fasting, that

she could hardly swallow. These served to keep life in her frame.

Eight long days she wandered in this manner hopelessly, and strove to

sustain her wretched existence. If one should read in a work of fiction

any thing equal to it, he would charge the author with exaggeration, and

violation of probability. But it is history; and, however incredible her

story may sound, it is rigidly conformed to the truth in all its

circumstances, as it was afterwards taken down from the mouth of Madame

Godin herself.

On the eighth day of her hopeless wandering, the hapless lady reached

the banks of the Bobonosa, a stream which flows into the Amazon. At the

break of day, she heard at a little distance a noise, and was alarmed at

it. She would have fled, but at once reflected that nothing worse than

her present circumstances could happen to her. She took courage, and

went towards the place whence the sound proceeded; and here she found

two Indians, who were occupied in shoving their boat into the water.

Madame Godin approached, and was kindly received by them. She told to

them her desire to be conveyed to Andoas; and the good savages consented

to carry her thither in their boat. They did so; and now behold her

arrived at that place which the mean and infamous treachery of Mr. R.

was the only cause of her not having reached long ago. This base fellow

had, with unfeeling cruelty, thrown to the winds his promise to procure

them a boat, and had gone on business of his own to Omaguas, a Spanish

mission station, without in the least troubling himself about his

pledged word, and the rescue of the unfortunates left behind. The honest

negro was more true to duty, though he was born and bred a heathen, and

the other a Christian.

While the civilized and polished Frenchman unfeelingly went away, and

left his benefactress and her companions to languish in the depths of

misery, the sable heathen ceased not his exertions till he had procured

two Indians to go up the river with him, and bring away his deserted

mistress and her companions. But, most unfortunately, he did not reach

the hut where he had left them before they had carried into execution

the unlucky determination to leave the hut, and seek their way through

the wilderness. So he had the pain of failing to find her on his

arrival.

Even then, the faithful creature did not feel as if all was done. He,

with his Indian companions, followed the traces of the party till he

came to the place where the bodies of the perished adventurers lay,

which were already so decayed, that he could not distinguish one from

the other. This pitiable sight led him to conclude that none of the

company could have escaped death. He returned to the hut to take away

some things of Madame Godin's which were left there, and carried them

not only back with him to Andoas, but from thence (another touching

proof of his fidelity) to Omaguas, that he might deposit the articles,

some of which were of considerable value, in the hands of the unworthy

Mr. R., to be by him delivered to the father of his lamented mistress.

And how did this unworthy Mr. R. behave when he was apprised by the

negro of the lamentable death of those whom he had so unscrupulously

given over to destitution? Did he shudder at the magnitude and baseness

of his crime? Oh, no! Like a heartless knave, he added dishonesty to

cruelty, took the things into his keeping, and, to secure himself in the

possession of them, sent the generous negro back to Quito. Joachim--for

that was the name of this honest and noble black man--had unluckily set

out on his journey back before Madame Godin arrived at Andoas. Thus he

was lost to her; and her affliction at the loss of such a tried friend

showed that the greatness of her past misfortunes had not made her

incapable of feeling new distresses.

In Andoas she found a Christian priest, a Spanish missionary; and the

behavior of this unchristian Christian contrasts with the conduct of her

two Indian preservers, as that of the treacherous R. with that of the

generous negro. For instance, when Madame Godin was in embarrassment how

to show her gratitude to the good Indians who had saved her life, she

remembered, that, according to the custom of the country, she wore

around her neck a pair of gold chains, weighing about four ounces. These

were her whole remaining property; but she hesitated not a moment, but

took them off, and gave one to each of her benefactors. They were

delighted beyond measure at such a gift; but the avaricious and

dishonest priest took them away from them before the face of the

generous giver, and gave them instead some yards of coarse cotton cloth,

which they call, in that country, Tukujo. And this man was one of those

who were sent to spread Christianity among the heathen, and one from

whom those same Indians whom he had treated so dishonestly would hear

the lesson, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods"!

Madame Godin felt, at seeing such unchristian and unmanly behavior, such

deep disgust, that, as soon as she was somewhat recruited from the

effects of so many sufferings, she longed for a sight of some boat to

enable her to escape from the companionship of this unjust priest, and

get to Laguna, one of the aforementioned Spanish mission stations. A

kind Indian woman made her a petticoat of cotton cloth, though Madame

Godin had nothing to give her in payment for it. But this petticoat was

to her, afterwards, a sacred thing, that she would not have parted with

for any price. She laid it carefully away with the slippers which she

made of her brothers' shoes, and never could, in after-times, look at

the two without experiencing a rush of sad and tender recollections.

At Laguna she had the good fortune to find a missionary of better

disposition. This one received her with kindness and sympathy, and

exerted himself every way he could to restore her health, shattered by

so much suffering. He wrote also on her behalf to the Governor of

Omaguas, to beg him to aid in expediting her journey. By this means, the

elegant Mr. R. learned that she was still alive; and as she was not

likely in future to be burdensome to him, while he might, through her

means, get a passage in the Portuguese vessel, he failed not to call

upon her at Laguna. He delivered to her there some few of the things

which Joachim had left in his charge; but to the question, "What had

become of the rest?" he had no other answer to make but "They were

spoilt." The knave forgot, when he said this, that gold bracelets,

snuff-boxes, ear-rings, and pearls, of which this property consisted,

are not apt to spoil.

Madame Godin could not forbear making to him the well-merited reproach

that he was the cause of her late sufferings, and guilty of the mournful

death of her brothers and her other companions. She desired to know,

moreover, why he had sent away her faithful servant, the good Joachim;

and his unworthy reply was, he had apprehensions that he would murder

him. To the question, how he could have such a suspicion against a man

whose tried fidelity and honest disposition were known to him, he knew

not what to answer.

The good missionary explained to Madame Godin, after she was somewhat

recruited from her late sufferings, the frightful length of the way, and

the labors and dangers of her journey yet to come, and tried hard to

induce her to alter her intention, and return to Rio Bambas, her former

residence, instead of setting forth to encounter a new series of

disappointments and perils. He promised, in that case, to convey her

safely and with comfort. But the heroic woman rejected the proposal with

immovable firmness. "God, who had so wonderfully protected her so far,"

she said, "would have her in his keeping for the remainder of her way.

She had but one wish remaining, and that was to be re-united to her

husband; and she knew no danger terrible enough to induce her to give up

this one ruling desire of her heart."

The missionary, therefore, had a boat got ready to carry her to the

Portuguese vessel. The Governor of Omaguas furnished the boat, and

supplied it well with provisions: and, that the commander of the

Portuguese galiot might be informed of her approach, he sent a smaller

boat with provisions, and two soldiers by land, along the banks of the

river, and betook himself to Loreto, where the galiot had been so long

lying; and there he waited till Madame Godin arrived.

She still suffered severely from the consequences of the injuries which

she had sustained during her wanderings in the wilderness. Particularly,

the thumb of one hand, in which she had thrust a thorn, which they had

not been able to get out, was in a bad condition. The bone itself was

become carious, and she found it necessary to have the flesh cut open to

allow fragments of the bone to come out. As for the rest, she

experienced from the commander of the Portuguese vessel all possible

kindness, and reached the mouth of the Amazon River without any further

misadventure.

Mr. Godin, who still continued at Oyapoc (the same place where on

account of sickness he had been obliged to stop), was no sooner informed

of the approach of his wife than he went on board a vessel, and coasted

along the shore till he met the galiot. The joy of again meeting, after

a separation of so many years, and after such calamities undergone, was,

as may well be supposed, on both sides, indescribably great. Their

re-union seemed like a resurrection from the dead, since both of them

had more than once given up all hope of ever seeing the other in this

life.

The happy husband now conveyed his wife to Oyapoc, and thence to

Cayenne; whence they departed on their return to France, in company with

the venerable Mr. De Grandmaison. Madame Godin remained, however,

constantly sad, notwithstanding her present ample cause for joy; and

every endeavor to raise her spirits was fruitless, so deep and

inextinguishable an impression had the terrible sufferings she had

undergone made upon her mind. She spoke unwillingly of all that she had

suffered; and even her husband found out with difficulty, and by little

and little, the circumstances which we have narrated, taken from

accounts under his own hand. He thought he could thereby infer that she

had kept to herself, to spare his feelings, many circumstances of a

distressing nature, which she herself preferred to forget. Her heart,

too, was, by reason of her sufferings, so attuned to pity and

forbearance, that her compassion even extended to the base and wicked

men who had treated her with such injustice. She would therefore add

nothing to induce her husband to invoke the vengeance of the law

against the faithless Tristan, the first cause of all her misfortunes,

who had converted to his own use many thousand dollars' worth of

property which had been intrusted to him. She had even allowed herself

to be persuaded to take on board the boat from Omaguas down, for a

second time, the mean-souled Mr. R.

So true is it that adversity and suffering do fulfil the useful purpose

of rendering the human heart tender, placable, and indulgent.

CHAPTER XI.

HERNDON'S EXPEDITION.

In the month of August, 1850, Lieut. Herndon, of the United-States navy,

being on board the frigate "Vandalia," then lying at anchor in the

harbor of Valparaiso, received information that he was designated by the

Secretary of the Navy to explore the Valley of the Amazon. On the 4th of

April, being then at Lima, he received his orders, and, on the 21st of

May, commenced his land journey to the highest point on the Amazon

navigable for boats, which is about three hundred miles from its source;

in which distance there are twenty-seven rapids, the last of which is

called the Pongo (or falls) de Manseriche. Over these the water rushes

with frightful rapidity; but they are passed, with great peril and

difficulty, by means of rafts. From the Pongo de Manseriche, Lieut.

Herndon states that an unbroken channel of eighteen feet in depth may be

found to the Atlantic Ocean,--a distance of three thousand miles.

The party consisted of Lieut. Herndon, commander; Passed-midshipman

Gibbon; a young master's mate named Richards; a young Peruvian, who had

made the voyage down the Amazon a few years before, who was employed as

interpreter to the Indians; and Mauricio, an Indian servant. They were

mounted on mules; and their baggage of all kinds, including

looking-glasses, beads, and other trinkets for the Indians, and some

supplies of provisions, were carried also on muleback, under the charge

of an _arriero_, or muleteer, who was an Indian. The party were

furnished with a tent, which often came in use for nightly shelter, as

the roadside inns furnished none, and the haciendas, or farm-houses,

which they sometimes availed themselves of, afforded but poor

accommodation. The following picture of the lieutenant's first night's

lodgings, not more than ten miles from Lima, is a specimen: "The house

was built of _adobe_, or sun-dried bricks, and roofed with tiles. It had

but one room, which was the general receptacle for all comers. A mud

projection, of two feet high and three wide, stood out from the walls of

the room all around, and served as a permanent bedplace for numbers.

Others laid their blankets and cloaks, and stretched themselves, on the

floor; so that, with whites, Indians, negroes, trunks, packages,

horse-furniture, game-cocks, and guinea-pigs, we had quite a caravansera

appearance."

The lieutenant found the general answer to his inquiry for provisions

for his party, and of fodder for their animals, was, "No hay" (there is

none). The refusal of the people to sell supplies of these indispensable

articles was a source of continued inconvenience. It arose probably from

their fear to have it known that they had possessions, lest the hand of

authority should be laid upon them, and their property be taken without

payment. The cultivators, it must be remembered, are native Indians,

under the absolute control of their Spanish masters, and have no

recognized rights protected by law. While this state of things

continues, civilization is effectually debarred progress.

The usual day's travel was twelve to fifteen miles. The route ascended

rapidly; and the River Rimac, along whose banks their road lay, was soon

reduced to a mountain torrent, raging in foam over the fragments of the

rocky cliffs which overhung its bed. The road occasionally widened out,

and gave room for a little cultivation.

May 27.--They had now reached a height of ten thousand feet above the

level of the sea. Here the traveller feels that he is lifted above the

impurities of the lower regions of the atmosphere, and is breathing air

free from taint. The stars sparkled with intense brilliancy. The

temperature at night was getting cool, and the travellers found they

required all their blankets. But by day the heat was oppressive until

tempered by the sea-breeze, which set in about eleven o'clock in the

morning.

The productions of the country are Indian corn, alfalfa (a species of

lucern), and potatoes. The potato, in this its native country, is small,

but very fine. They saw here a vegetable of the potato kind called

_oca_. Boiled or roasted, it is very agreeable to the taste, in flavor

resembling green corn.

Here they entered upon the mining region. "The Earth here shows her

giant skeleton bare: mountains, rather than rocks, rear their gray heads

to the skies; and proximity made the scene more striking and sublime."

Lieut. Herndon had brought letters to the superintendent of the mines,

who received the travellers kindly and hospitably. This establishment is

managed by a superintendent and three assistants, and about forty

working hands. The laborers are Indians,--strong, hardy-looking

fellows, though low in stature, and stupid in expression. The manner of

getting the silver from the ore is this: The ore is broken into pieces

of the size of an English walnut, and then ground to a fine powder. The

ground ore is then mixed with salt, at the rate of fifty pounds of salt

to every six hundred of ore, and taken to the ovens to be toasted. After

being toasted, the ore is laid in piles of about six hundred pounds upon

the stone floor. The piles are then moistened with water, and

quicksilver is sprinkled on them through a woollen cloth. The mass is

well mixed by treading with the feet, and working with hoes. A little

calcined iron pyrites, called _magistral_, is also added. The pile is

often examined to see if the amalgamation is going on well. It is left

to stand for eight or nine days until the amalgamation is complete; then

carried to an elevated platform, and thrown into a well, or cavity: a

stream of water is turned on, and four or five men trample and wash it

with their feet. The amalgam sinks to the bottom, and the mud and water

are let off by an aperture in the lower part of the well. The amalgam is

then put into conical bags of coarse linen, which are hung up; and the

weight of the mass presses out a quantity of quicksilver, which oozes

through the linen, and is caught in vessels below. The mass, now dry,

and somewhat harder than putty, is carried to the ovens, where the

remainder of the quicksilver is driven off by heat, and the residue is

_plata pina_, or pure silver. The proportion of pure silver in the

amalgam is about twenty-two per cent. This is an unusually rich mine.

Returning from the mine, the party met a drove of llamas on their way

from the hacienda. This is quite an imposing sight, especially when the

drove is encountered suddenly at a turn of the road. The leader, who is

always selected on account of his superior height, has his head

decorated with tufts of woollen fringe, hung with little bells; and his

great height (often six feet), gallant and graceful carriage, pointed

ear, restless eye, and quivering lip, as he faces you for a moment, make

him as striking an object as one can well conceive. Upon pressing on

him, he bounds aside either up or down the cliff, and is followed by the

herd, scrambling over places that would be impassable for the mule or

the ass. The llama travels not more than nine or ten miles a day, his

load being about one hundred and thirty pounds. He will not carry more,

and will be beaten to death rather than move when he is overloaded or

tired. The males only are worked: they appear gentle and docile, but,

when irritated, have a very savage look, and spit at the object of their

resentment. The guanaco, or alpaca, is another species of this animal,

and the vicunia a third. The guanaco is as large as the llama, and bears

a fleece of long and coarse wool. The vicunia is much smaller, and its

wool is short and fine: so valuable is it, that it brings at the port of

shipment a dollar a pound. Our travellers saw no guanacos, but now and

then, in crossing the mountains, caught a glimpse of the wild and shy

vicunia. They go in herds of ten or fifteen females, accompanied by one

male, who is ever on the alert. On the approach of danger, he gives

warning by a shrill whistle; and his charge make off with the speed of

the wind.

On the 31st of May, the thermometer stood at thirty-six degrees at five,

A.M. This, it must be remembered, was in the torrid zone, in

the same latitude as Congo in Africa, and Sumatra in Asia; yet how

different the climate! This is owing to the elevation, which at this

water-shed of the continent, which separates the rivers of the Atlantic

from those of the Pacific, was about sixteen thousand feet above the

level of the sea. The peaks of the Cordillera presented the appearance

of a hilly country at home on a winter's day; while the lower ranges

were dressed in bright green, with placid little lakes interspersed,

giving an air of quiet beauty to the scene.

The travellers next arrived at Morococha, where they found copper-mining

to be the prevailing occupation. The copper ore is calcined in the open

air, in piles consisting of ore and coal, which burn for a month. The

ore thus calcined is taken to the ovens; and sufficient heat is employed

to melt the copper, which runs off into moulds below. The copper, in

this state, is impure, containing fifty per cent of foreign matter; and

is worth fifteen cents the pound in England, where it is refined. There

is a mine of fine coal near the hacienda, which yields an abundant

supply.

The travellers passed other mining districts, rich in silver and copper.

A large portion of the silver which forms the circulation of the world

is dug from the range of mountains which they were now crossing, and

chiefly from that slope of them which is drained off into the Amazon.

Their descent, after leaving the mining country, was rapid. On June 6,

we find them at the head of a ravine leading down to the Valley of

Tarma. The height of this spot above the level of the sea was 11,270

feet. As they rode down the steep descent, the plants and flowers that

they had left on the other side began to re-appear. First the short

grass and small clover, then barley, lucern, Indian corn, beans,

turnips, shrubs, bushes, trees, flowers, growing larger and gayer in

their colors, till the pretty little city of Tarma, imbosomed among the

hills, and enveloped in its covering of willows and fruit-trees, with

its long lawns of _alfalfa_ (the greenest of grasses) stretching out in

front, broke upon their view. It is a place of seven thousand

inhabitants, beautifully situated in an amphitheatre of mountains, which

are clothed nearly to the top with waving fields of barley. The

lieutenant gives an attractive description of this mountain city, whose

natural productions extend from the apples and peaches of the temperate

zone to the oranges and pine-apples of the tropics; and whose air is so

temperate and pure, that there was but one physician to a district of

twenty thousand people, and he was obliged to depend upon government for

a part of his support.

The party left Tarma on the 16th of June, and resumed their descent of

the mountains. The ride was the wildest they had yet had. The ascents

and descents were nearly precipitous; and the scene was rugged, wild,

and grand beyond description. At certain parts of the road, it is

utterly impossible for two beasts to pass abreast, or for one to turn

and retreat; and the only remedy, when they meet, is to tumble one off

the precipice, or to drag him back by the tail until he reaches a place

where the other can pass. They met with a considerable fright in this

way one day. They were riding in single file along one of those narrow

ascents where the road is cut out of the mountain-side, and the

traveller has a perpendicular wall on one hand, and a sheer precipice of

many hundreds of feet upon the other. Mr. Gibbon was riding ahead. Just

as he was about to turn a sharp bend of the road, the head of a bull

peered round it, on the descent. When the bull came in full view, he

stopped; and the travellers could see the heads of other cattle

clustering over his quarters, and hear the shouts of the cattle-drivers

far behind, urging on their herd. The bull, with lowered crest, and

savage, sullen look, came slowly on, and actually got his head between

the perpendicular rock and the neck of Gibbon's mule. But the sagacious

beast on which he was mounted, pressing her haunches hard against the

wall, gathered her feet close under her, and turned as upon a pivot.

This placed the bull on the outside (there was room to pass, though no

one would have thought it); and he rushed by at the gallop, followed in

single file by the rest of the herd. The lieutenant owns that he and his

friend "felt frightened."

On the 18th of June, they arrived at the first hacienda, where they saw

sugar-cane, yucca, pine-apples, and plantains. Besides these, cotton and

coffee were soon after found in cultivation. The laborers are native

Indians, nominally free, but, by the customs of the country, pretty

closely held in subjection to their employers. Their nominal wages are

half a dollar a day; but this is paid in articles necessary for their

support, which are charged to them at such prices as to keep them always

in debt. As debtors, the law will enforce the master's claim on them;

and it is almost hopeless for them to desert; for, unless they get some

distance off before they are recognized, they will be returned as

debtors to their employers. Freedom, under such circumstances, is little

better than slavery; but it _is_ better, for this reason,--that it only

requires some improvement in the intelligence and habits of the laborers

to convert it into a system of free labor worthy of the name.

The _yucca_ (cassava-root) is a plant of fifteen or twenty feet in

height. It is difficult to distinguish this plant from the _mandioc_,

which is called "wild yucca;" and this, "sweet yucca." This may be eaten

raw; but the other is poisonous until subjected to heat in cooking, and

then is perfectly wholesome. The yucca answers the same purpose in Peru

that the mandioc does in Brazil. It is the general substitute for bread,

and, roasted or boiled, is very pleasant to the taste. The Indians also

make from it an intoxicating drink. Each plant will give from twenty to

twenty-five pounds of the eatable root, which grows in clusters like the

potato, and some tubers of which are as long and thick as a man's arm.

CHAPTER XII.

HERNDON'S EXPEDITION CONTINUED.

On the 4th of July, the travellers arrived at the great mining station

of Cerro Pasco. The weather was so cold, that the lieutenant, not being

quite well, sat by the fire all day, trying to keep himself warm. The

town is a most curious-looking place, entirely honey-combed, and having

the mouths of mines, some of them two or three yards in diameter, gaping

everywhere. From the top of a hill, the best view is obtained of the

whole. Vast pits, called Tajos, surround this hill, from which many

millions of silver have been taken; and the miners are still burrowing,

like so many rabbits, in their bottoms and sides. The hill is penetrated

in every direction; and it would not be surprising if it should cave in,

any day, and bury many in its ruins. The falling-in of mines is of

frequent occurrence: one caved in, some years ago, and buried three

hundred persons. An English company undertook mining here in 1825, and

failed. Vast sums have been spent in constructing tunnels, and employing

steam machinery to drain the mines; and the parties still persevere,

encouraged by discovering, that, the lower they penetrate, the richer

are the ores. The yield of these mines is about two million dollars'

worth a year, which is equal to the yield of all the other mines of Peru

together.

The lieutenant found the leading people here, as well as at Tarma,

enthusiastic on the subject of opening the Amazon to foreign commerce.

It will be a great day for them, they say, when the Americans get near

them with a steamer.

On the 14th of July, they arrived at a spot of marshy ground, from which

trickled in tiny streams the waters, which, uniting with others, swell

till they form the broad River Huallaga, one of the head tributaries of

the Amazon. Their descent was now rapid; and the next day they found

themselves on a sudden among fruit-trees, with a patch of sugar-cane, on

the banks of the stream. The sudden transition from rugged

mountain-peaks, where there was no cultivation, to a tropical

vegetation, was marvellous. Two miles farther on, they came in sight of

a pretty village, almost hidden in the luxuriant vegetation. The whole

valley here becomes very beautiful. The land, which is a rich

river-bottom, is laid off into alternate fields of sugar-cane and

alfalfa. The blended green and yellow of this growth, divided by

willows, interspersed with fruit-trees, and broken into wavy lines by

the serpentine course of the river, presented a scene which filled them

with pleasurable emotions, and indicated that they had exchanged a

semi-barbarous for a civilized society.

The party had had no occasion to complain of want of hospitality in any

part of their route; but here they seemed to have entered upon a country

where that virtue flourished most vigorously, having at its command the

means of gratifying it. The owner of the hacienda of Quicacan, an

English gentleman named Dyer, received the lieutenant and his large

party exactly as if it were a matter of course, and as if they had quite

as much right to occupy his house as they had to enter an inn. The next

day they had an opportunity to compare with the Englishman a fine

specimen of the Peruvian country gentleman. Col. Lucar is thus

described: "He is probably the richest and most influential man in the

province. He seems to have been the father of husbandry in these parts,

and is the very type of the old landed proprietor of Virginia, who has

always lived upon his estates, and attended personally to their

cultivation. Seated at the head of his table, with his hat on to keep

the draught from his head, and which he would insist upon removing

unless I would wear mine; his chair surrounded by two or three little

negro children, whom he fed with bits from his plate; and attending with

patience and kindness to the clamorous wants of a pair of splendid

peacocks, a couple of small parrots of brilliant and variegated plumage,

and a beautiful and delicate monkey,--I thought I had never seen a more

perfect pattern of the patriarch. His kindly and affectionate manner to

his domestics, and to his little grand-children, a pair of sprightly

boys, who came in the evening from the college, was also very pleasing."

The mention of a college in a region in some respects so barbarous may

surprise our readers; but such there is. It has a hundred pupils, an

income of seventy-five thousand dollars yearly, chemical and

philosophical apparatus, and one thousand specimens of European

minerals.

Ijurra, our lieutenant's Peruvian companion, had written to the governor

of the village of Tingo Maria, the head of canoe navigation on the

Huallaga, to send Indians to meet the travellers here, and take their

luggage on to the place of embarkation.

July 30.--The Indians came shouting into the farm-yard, thirteen in

number. They were young, slight, but muscular-looking fellows, and

wanted to shoulder the trunks, and be off at once. The lieutenant,

however, gave them some breakfast; and then the party set forward, and,

after a walk of six miles, reached the river, and embarked in the canoe.

Two Indian laborers, called _peons_, paddled the canoe, and managed it

very well. The peons cooked their dinner of cheese and rice, and made

them a good cup of coffee. They are lively, good-tempered fellows, and,

properly treated, make good and serviceable travelling companions. The

canoe was available only in parts of the river where the stream was free

from rapids. Where these occur, the cargo must be landed, and carried

round. Lieut. Herndon and his party were compelled to walk a good part

of the distance to Tingo Maria, which was thirty-six miles from where

they first took the canoe.

"I saw here," says our traveller, "the _lucernago_, or fire-fly of this

country. It is a species of beetle, carrying two white lights in its

eyes, or rather in the places where the eyes of insects generally are,

and a red light between the scales of the belly; so that it reminded me

somewhat of the ocean steamers. They are sometimes carried to Lima

(enclosed in an apartment cut into a sugar-cane), where the ladies at

balls or theatres put them in their hair for ornament."

At Tingo Maria, their arrival was celebrated with much festivity. The

governor got up a ball for them, where there was more hilarity than

ceremony. The next morning, the governor and his wife accompanied our

friends to the port. The governor made a short address to the canoe-men,

telling them that their passengers were "no common persons; that they

were to have a special care of them; to be very obedient," &c. They then

embarked, and stood off; the boatmen blowing their horns, and the party

on shore waving their hats, and shouting their adieus.

The party had two canoes, about forty feet long by two and a half broad,

each hollowed out of a single log. The rowers stand up to paddle, having

one foot in the bottom of the boat, and the other on the gunwale. There

is a man at the bow of the boat to look out for rocks or sunken trees

ahead; and a steersman, who stands on a little platform at the stern of

the boat, and guides her motions. When the river was smooth, and free

from obstruction, they drifted with the current, the men sitting on the

trunks and boxes, chatting and laughing with each other; but, when they

approached a "bad place," their serious looks, and the firm position in

which each one planted himself at his post, showed that work was to be

done. When the bark had fairly entered the pass, the rapid gestures of

the bow-man, indicating the channel; the graceful position of the

steersman, holding his long paddle; and the desperate exertions of the

rowers, the railroad rush of the canoes, and the wild screaming laugh of

the Indians as the boat shot past the danger,--made a scene so exciting

as to banish the sense of danger.

After this specimen of their travel, let us take a glimpse of their

lodging. "At half-past five, we camped on the beach. The first business

of the boatmen, when the canoe is secured, is to go off to the woods,

and cut stakes and palm-branches to make a house for the 'commander.' By

sticking long poles in the sand, chopping them half-way in two about

five feet above the ground, and bending the upper parts together, they

make in a few minutes the frame of a little shanty, which, thickly

thatched with palm-leaves, will keep off the dew or an ordinary rain.

Some bring the drift-wood that is lying about the beach, and make a

fire. The provisions are cooked and eaten, the bedding laid down upon

the leaves that cover the floor of the shanty, the mosquito nettings

spread; and after a cup of coffee, a glass of grog, and a cigar (if they

are to be had), everybody retires for the night by eight o'clock. The

Indians sleep round the hut, each under his narrow mosquito curtain,

which glisten in the moonlight like so many tombstones."

The Indians have very keen senses, and see and hear things that would

escape more civilized travellers. One morning, they commenced paddling

with great vigor; for they said they heard monkeys ahead. It was not

till after paddling a mile that they reached the place. "When we came up

to them," says the lieutenant, "we found a gang of large red monkeys in

some tall trees by the river-side, making a noise like the grunting of a

herd of hogs. We landed; and, in a few moments, I found myself beating

my way through the thick undergrowth, and hunting monkeys with as much

excitement as I had ever felt in hunting squirrels when a boy." They

found the game hard to kill, and only got three,--the lieutenant, with

his rifle, one; and the Indians, with their blow-guns, two. The Indians

roasted and ate theirs, and Lieut. Herndon tried to eat a piece; but it

was so tough, that his teeth would make no impression upon it.

Aug. 19.--The party arrived at Tarapoto. It is a town of three thousand

five hundred inhabitants, and the district of which it is the capital

numbers six thousand. The principal productions are rice, cotton, and

tobacco; and cotton-cloth, spun and woven by the women, with about as

little aid from machinery as the women in Solomon's time, of whom we are

told, "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the

distaff." The little balls of cotton thread which the women spin in this

way are used as currency (and this in a land of silver-mines), and pass

for twenty-five cents apiece in exchange for other goods, or twelve and

a half cents in money. Most of the trade is done by barter. A cow is

sold for one hundred yards of cotton cloth; a fat hog, for sixty; a

large sheep, twelve; twenty-five pounds of salt fish, for twelve;

twenty-five pounds of coffee, six; a head of plantains, which will weigh

from forty to fifty pounds, for three needles; and so forth. All

transportation of merchandise by land is made upon the backs of Indians,

for want of roads suitable for beasts of burden. The customary weight of

a load is seventy-five pounds: the cost of transportation to Moyobamba,

seventy miles, is six yards of cloth. It is easy to obtain, in the term

of six or eight days, fifty or sixty peons, or Indian laborers, for the

transportation of cargoes, getting the order of the governor, and paying

the above price, and supporting the peons on the way. The town is the

most important in the province of Mainas. The inhabitants are called

civilized, but have no idea of what we call comfort in their domestic

arrangements. The houses are of mud, thatched with palm, and have uneven

earth floors. The furniture consists of a grass hammock, a standing

bedplace, a coarse table, and a stool or two. The governor of this

populous district wore no shoes, and appeared to live pretty much like

the rest of them.

Vessels of five feet draught of water may ascend the river, at the

lowest stage of the water, to within eighteen miles of Tarapoto.

Our travellers accompanied a large fishing-party. They had four or five

canoes, and a large quantity of barbasco; a root which has the property

of stupefying, or intoxicating, the fish. The manner of fishing is to

close up the mouth of an inlet of the river with a network made of

reeds; and then, mashing the barbasco-root to a pulp, throw it into the

water. This turns the water white, and poisons it; so that the fish

soon begin rising to the surface, dead, and are taken into the canoes

with small tridents, or pronged sticks. Almost at the moment of throwing

the barbasco into the water, the smaller fish rise to the surface, and

die in one or two minutes; the larger fish survive longer.

The salt fish, which constitutes an important article of food and also

of barter trade, is brought from down the river in large pieces of about

eight pounds each, cut from the _vaca marina_, or sea-cow, also found in

our Florida streams, and there called _manatee_. It is found in great

numbers in the Amazon and its principal tributaries. It is not, strictly

speaking, a fish, but an animal of the whale kind, which nourishes its

young at the breast. It is not able to leave the water; but, in feeding,

it gets near the shore, and raises its head out. It is most often taken

when feeding.

Our travellers met a canoe of Indians, one man and two women, going up

the river for salt. They bought, with beads, some turtle-eggs, and

proposed to buy a monkey they had; but one of the women clasped the

little beast in her arms, and set up a great outcry, lest the man should

sell it. The man wore a long cotton gown, with a hole in the neck for

the head to come through, and short, wide sleeves. He had on his arm a

bracelet of monkeys' teeth, and the women had nose-rings of white beads.

Their dress was a cotton petticoat, tied round the waist; and all were

filthy.

Sept. 1.--They arrived at Laguna. Here they found two travelling

merchants, a Portuguese and a Brazilian. They had four large boats, of

about eight tons each, and two or three canoes. Their cargo consisted of

iron and iron implements, crockery-ware, wine, brandy, copper kettles,

coarse short swords (a very common implement of the Indians), guns,

ammunition, salt, fish, &c., which they expected to exchange for straw

hats, cotton cloth, sugar, coffee, and money. They were also buying up

all the sarsaparilla they could find, and despatching it back in canoes.

They invited our travellers to breakfast; and the lieutenant says, "I

thought that I never tasted any thing better than the _farinha_, which I

saw now for the first time."

Farinha is a general substitute for bread in all the course of the

Amazon below the Brazilian frontier. It is used by all classes; and the

boatmen seemed always contented with plenty of salt fish and farinha.

The women make it in this way: They soak the root of the _mandioc_ in

water till it is softened a little, when they scrape off the skin, and

grate the root upon a board, which is made into a rude grater by being

smeared with some of the adhesive gums of the forest, and then sprinkled

with pebbles. The white grated pulp is put into a conical-shaped bag

made of the coarse fibres of the palm. The bag is hung up to a peg

driven into a post of the hut; a lever is put through a loop at the

bottom of the bag; the short end of the lever is placed under a chock

nailed to the post below; and the woman hangs her weight on the long

end. This elongates the bag, and brings a heavy pressure upon the mass

within, causing the juice to ooze out through the wicker-work of the

bag. When sufficiently pressed, the mass is put on the floor of a mud

oven; heat is applied, and it is stirred with a stick till it granulates

into very irregular grains, and is sufficiently toasted to drive off all

the poisonous qualities which it has in a crude state. It is then packed

in baskets (lined and covered with palm-leaves) of about sixty-four

pounds' weight, which are generally sold all along the river at from

seventy-five cents to one dollar. The sediment of the juice is tapioca,

and is used to make custards, puddings, starch, &c. It will surprise

some of our readers to be told that the juice extracted in the

preparation of these wholesome and nutritive substances is a powerful

poison, and used by the Indians for poisoning the points of their

arrows.

CHAPTER XIII.

HERNDON'S EXPEDITION CONTINUED.

The Huallaga is navigable, for vessels drawing five feet depth of water,

285 miles; and forty miles farther for canoes. Our travellers had now

arrived at its junction with the Amazon; and their first sight of its

waters is thus described: "The march of the great river in its silent

grandeur was sublime; but in the untamed might of its turbid waters, as

they cut away its banks, tore down the gigantic denizens of the forest,

and built up islands, it was awful. I was reminded of our Mississippi at

its topmost flood; but this stream lacked the charm which the plantation

upon the bank, the city upon the bluff, and the steamboat upon the

waters, lend to its fellow of the North. But its capacities for trade

and commerce are inconceivably great; and to the touch of steam,

settlement, and cultivation, this majestic stream and its magnificent

water-shed would start up in a display of industrial results that would

make the Valley of the Amazon one of the most enchanting regions on the

face of the earth."

Lieut. Herndon speaks of the Valley of the Amazon in language almost as

enthusiastic as that of Sir Walter Raleigh: "From its mountains you may

dig silver, iron, coal, copper, zinc, quicksilver, and tin; from the

sands of its tributaries you may wash gold, diamonds, and precious

stones; from its forests you may gather drugs of virtues the most rare,

spices of aroma the most exquisite, gums and resins of the most varied

and useful properties, dyes of hue the most brilliant, with cabinet and

building woods of the finest polish and the most enduring texture. Its

climate is an everlasting summer, and its harvest perennial."

Sept. 8.--The party encamped at night on an island near the middle of

the river. "The Indians, cooking their big monkeys over a large fire on

the beach, presented a savage and most picturesque scene. They looked

more like devils roasting human beings, than any thing mortal." We ask

ourselves, on reading this, whether some such scene may not have given

rise to the stories of cannibalism which Raleigh and others record.

They arrived at Nauta, a village of a thousand inhabitants, mostly

Indians. The governor of the district received them hospitably. Each

district has its governor, and each town its lieutenant-governor. These

are of European descent. The other authorities of a town are _curacas_,

captains, alcades, and constables. All these are Indians. The office of

curaca is hereditary, and is not generally interfered with by the white

governor. The Indians treat their curaca with great respect, and submit

to corporal punishment at his mandate.

Sarsaparilla is one of the chief articles of produce collected here. It

is a vine of sufficient size to shoot up fifteen or twenty feet from the

root without support. It thus embraces the surrounding trees, and

spreads to a great distance. The main root sends out many tendrils,

generally about the thickness of a straw, and five feet long. These are

gathered, and tied up in bundles of about an _arroba_, or thirty-two

pounds' weight. It is found on the banks of almost every river of the

region; but many of these are not worked, on account of the savages

living on them, who attack the parties that come to gather it. The price

in Nauta is two dollars the arroba, and in Europe from forty to sixty

dollars.

From Nauta, Lieut. Herndon ascended the Ucayali, a branch of the

Amazon, stretching to the north-west in a direction somewhat parallel to

the Huallaga. There is the essential difference between the two rivers,

as avenues for commerce, that the Ucayali is still in the occupation of

savage tribes, unchristianized except where under the immediate

influence of the mission stations planted among them; while the

population of the Huallaga is tolerably advanced in civilization. The

following sentences will give a picture of the Indians of the Ucayali:

"These people cannot count, and I can never get from them any accurate

idea of numbers. They are very little removed above 'the beasts that

perish.' They are filthy, and covered with sores. The houses are very

large, between thirty and forty feet in length, and ten or fifteen in

breadth. They consist of immense roofs of small poles and canes,

thatched with palm, and supported by short stakes, four feet high,

planted in the ground three or four feet apart, and having the spaces,

except between two in front, filled in with cane. They have no idea of a

future state, and worship nothing. But they can make bows and canoes;

and their women weave a coarse cloth from cotton, and dye it. Their

dress is a long cotton gown. They paint the face, and wear ornaments

suspended from the nose and lower lip."

Next let us take a view of the means in operation to elevate these

people to civilization and Christianity. Sarayacu is a missionary

station, governed by four Franciscan friars, who are thus described:

"Father Calvo, meek and humble in personal concerns, yet full of zeal

and spirit for his office, clad in his long serge gown, belted with a

cord, with bare feet and accurate tonsure, habitual stoop, and generally

bearing upon his shoulder a beautiful and saucy bird of the parrot kind,

was my beau-ideal of a missionary monk. Bregati is a young and handsome

Italian, whom Father Calvo sometimes calls St. John. Lorente is a tall,

grave, and cold-looking Catalan. A lay-brother named Maguin, who did the

cooking, and who was unwearied in his attentions to us, made up the

establishment. I was sick here, and think that I shall ever remember

with gratitude the affectionate kindness of these pious and devoted

friars of St. Francis."

The government is paternal. The Indians recognize in the "padre" the

power to appoint and remove curacas, captains, and other officers; to

inflict stripes, and to confine in the stocks. They obey the priests'

orders readily, and seem tractable and docile. The Indian men are

drunken and lazy: the women do most of the work; and their reward is to

be maltreated by their husbands, and, in their drunken frolics, to be

cruelly beaten, and sometimes badly wounded.

Our party returned to the Amazon; and we find occurring in their

narrative names which are familiar to us in the history of our previous

adventurers. They touched at Omaguas, the port where Madame Godin found

kind friends in the good missionary and the governor, and where she

embarked on her way to the galiot at Loreto; and they passed the mouth

of the Napo, which enters the Amazon from the north,--the river down

which Orellana passed in the first adventure. The lieutenant says, "We

spoke two canoes that had come from near Quito by the Napo. There are

few Christianized towns on the Napo; and the rowers of the boats were a

more savage-looking set than I had seen,"--so slow has been the progress

of civilization in three hundred years.

The Amazon seems to be the land of monkeys. Our traveller says, "I

bought a young monkey of an Indian woman to-day. It had coarse gray and

white hair; and that on the top of its head was stiff, like the quills

of the porcupine, and smoothed down in front as if it had been combed. I

offered the little fellow some plantain; but, finding he would not eat,

the woman took him, and put him to her breast, when he sucked away

manfully and with great gusto. She weaned him in a week, so that he

would eat plantain mashed up, and put into his mouth in small bits; but

the little beast died of mortification because I would not let him sleep

with his arms around my neck."

They got from the Indians some of the milk from the cow-tree. This the

Indians drink, when fresh; and, brought in a calabash, it had a foamy

appearance, as if just drawn from the cow. It, however, coagulates very

soon, and becomes as hard and tenacious as glue. It does not appear to

be as important an article of subsistence as one would expect from the

name.

Dec. 2.--They arrived at Loreto, the frontier town of the Peruvian

territory, and which reminds us again of Madame Godin, who there joined

the Portuguese galiot. Loreto is situated on an eminence on the left

bank of the river, which is here three-fourths of a mile wide, and one

hundred feet deep. There are three mercantile houses in Loreto, which do

a business of about ten thousand dollars a year. The houses at Loreto

are better built and better furnished than those of the towns on the

river above. The population of the place is two hundred and fifty, made

up of Brazilians, mulattoes, negroes, and a few Indians.

At the next town, Tabatinga, the lieutenant entered the territory of

Brazil. When his boat, bearing the American flag, was descried at that

place, the Brazilian flag was hoisted; and when the lieutenant landed,

dressed in uniform, he was received by the commandant, also in uniform,

to whom he presented his passport from the Brazilian minister at

Washington. As soon as this document was perused, and the lieutenant's

rank ascertained, a salute of seven guns was fired from the fort; and

the commandant treated him with great civility, and entertained him at

his table, giving him roast beef, which was a great treat.