neighborhood of San Francisco, who recounts a little romance of
adventures he met with among this people. Though the story was not told
to me by the man himself, still, as it was repeated by a trustworthy
friend who had derived it from the original source, I may be allowed to
introduce it here.
The young man was on his way to California. When at San Carlos he had
some difference or quarrel with his travelling companions, and, being
afraid of a pistol-ball or a bowie-knife, took the desperate resolution
of swimming to the opposite side of the river, where he soon fell into
the hands of a body of these Indians. He was tied to a tree, and they
then held a council as to the manner--so at least he believed--of
putting him to death. Suddenly, however, as it has happened before in
similar cases, a young girl, the daughter of the chief, hurried forth,
clasped her arms round the neck of my blue-eyed countryman, and gave a
favorable turn to his fate.
Of course, he married the girl, and, as the consort of this Indian
princess, he spent a few months in the forest, till he was ungrateful
enough to forsake his generous bride, and avail himself of an
opportunity to swim back to San Carlos, continuing, after this romantic
episode, his journey to California.
According to his statements, he would have remained with the Indians had
he been able to endure the life in the wilderness, which he found rather
too ill-provided with accommodations for enjoying his honeymoon. During
the rainy season the tribe lived almost exclusively on the trees, and he
speaks in very high terms of the dexterity with which they would leap
from branch to branch, a mode of travelling in which he often found it
too difficult to follow his nimble spouse. At the time of each full moon
the whole tribe met in council, for which the place was designated from
one meeting to the next by the chief, and whatever was done by common
agreement was regulated according to the phases of the moon.
Some years before the period of my first arrival in Nicaragua, the
officer then in command of the fort of San Carlos fitted out an
expedition for the purpose of exploring the country on the Rio Frio,
which is known to be rich in gold. This little corps, having hit upon a
deserted village of the Indians on the bank of the river, and resting in
the shade of some trees in the outskirts of the forest, was suddenly
assailed by a shower of arrows, and, with the exception of the
commanding officer, who was severely wounded, but succeeded in hiding
himself between the reeds till a boat from the fort came to his rescue,
every man of the expeditionary force was killed....
Our passage up the river had taken us nine days, making an average
progress of about twelve miles per day. Three days more were spent in
crossing the lake. With the native boatmen it seems to be a rule to
abstain from using oars even when they are becalmed. Before we left the
_aguas muertas_ a small tree had been cut. This was now erected as a
mast, a sail was spread, and slowly we began to move in the direction of
Granada. Our navigation was of a very primitive kind. At night, while
every soul on board slept soundly, our bongo was left to find its own
way, which, however, it refused to do; for when we awoke at dawn I saw
we were heading to the place we had come from. By and by, nevertheless,
we drew nearer to our point of destination. When we had left the two
peaks of Ometepe on one side, the summit of Mombacho, designating the
site of Granada, gradually rose from the water. We passed the island of
Zapotera, celebrated for its idols, which have been discovered and
described by my friend Mr. Squier. It is uninhabited, and may be said to
be a mountain covered with a forest, here and there interrupted by a
savanna. Like other islands in this lake, it contains numerous wild
animals, such as deer, peccaries, monkeys, and panthers....
On the evening of the 5th of December we doubled the outermost rock of
the _Corrales_ or _Isletas_, a cluster of more than a hundred diminutive
islands at the foot of the Mombacho, and a few hours after dark landed
on the _playa_, or beach, of Granada.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN SALVADOR.
CARL SCHERZER.
[Dr. Carl Scherzer, in his "Travels in the Free States of
Central America," gives a graphic picture of the destruction,
in 1854, of the city of San Salvador by an earthquake, as
witnessed by his friend Dr. Wagner, whose description of the
event is well worth repeating. This city, which stands on a
plateau about two thousand feet above the Pacific, was built by
the Spaniards in 1528, and, with the exception of Guatemala,
was the neatest and handsomest of Central American cities,
possessing several handsome churches, a new university, and
numerous attractive residences.]
On the 12th and 13th of April, 1854, there was heard in the upper part
of the city, towards the southwest, a hollow, subterranean, rumbling
noise, which recurred at short intervals and continued for several
minutes, appearing to come from the mountains which form a kind of large
semi-circle at the foot of the volcano, but there was no shock whatever.
On the Good Friday, at half-past seven in the morning, two slight
shocks, quickly succeeding each other, were felt, and about ten minutes
afterwards a rather stronger one. The roof and walls of my cottage
shook, without my at first perceiving the cause; but a young Spaniard,
who waited on me, said, quietly, "_Es un temblor_." Being a native of
the country, he was accustomed to the phenomenon, and thought little of
it.
These tremblings and rockings of the earth, that seem so terrible to us
Europeans, are such ordinary occurrences in the environs of San Salvador
that the district has acquired the name of the "swinging mat;" but these
shocks, though frequent, had never been hitherto of the violent and
destructive character which they have assumed at Valparaiso and Lima,
where about once in a century the destruction of a town is reckoned on
as a matter of course.
The volcano of Isalco, too, being in constant activity, and only
forty-eight miles south of the city of San Salvador, had always been
regarded as a chimney and safety-valve, affording a free vent for the
steam and other dangerous products of the subterranean furnace.
The shocks were repeated at tolerably regular intervals, two or three
in an hour, during the whole of the Good Friday, and all had the same
direction,--namely, from west-southwest to east-northeast; at which
point, a league from the town, lies the great crater of Cuscatlan,
about five hundred feet above San Salvador.
The ceremonies of the Good Friday proceeded with the accustomed pomp,
and people did not think of disturbing their processions, or their
visits to the cathedral, on account of the earthquake; though
occasionally, when there came a shock rather stronger than usual, some
of the devout crowd did turn pale and make a rush towards the doors.
At half-past nine in the evening there came a shock so violent that the
houses were shaken to the foundations, the roofs cracked, plaster and
tiles fell, and the walls in many places were rent. The houses are all
low and broad, without upper stories, the walls mostly of clay, which
is very elastic, and the rafters made of pliable, closely-plaited cane,
admirably adapted to resist the most violent shocks; otherwise the
houses would have fallen in a mass with this one, which lasted eight
seconds, the ground undulating like the ocean. Every one rushed out into
the open air, but a full hour passed without any further movement. We
determined, nevertheless, not to sleep under a roof; but my countryman,
Mr. Kronmeier, the Prussian vice-consul, who came home about eleven
o'clock, laughed at our caution, and went to bed as usual in his
bedroom. He was used to these unpleasant occurrences; though he
confessed that, during a residence of sixteen years in Central America
and Mexico, he had never felt in one day so many shocks as during the
one just past.
The old volcano of Cuscatlan, from which the shocks appeared to proceed,
lies, as I have said, about three miles from the city; viewed from this
direction, it forms a beautiful cone, with a gently rounded summit, and
its sides are clothed from top to bottom with wood; its crater is still
quite perfect, a mile and a half in diameter, and filled with water at
the bottom.... There exists no certain record of the former activity of
this volcano; but according to tradition an eruption of lava from a
cleft in its side took place in 1650, and overwhelmed the village of
Neliopa; but according to others it was merely an eruption of mud and
not of fire....
The morning of Easter Sunday was announced as usual by the firing off
of rockets and a joyous burst of military music. The multitude betook
themselves in festival procession to the Cathedral, to witness the
celebration of high mass; the houses were gayly adorned with branches of
palm and banana-leaves, and the "_Sanctissimum_" was borne in triumph
through the streets, followed by crowds of senors and senoritas in their
gayest attire.... On this Easter Day, as on preceding ones, the people,
after having performed their devotions like good Catholics, gave
themselves up to festivity and enjoyment, and the day closed with music,
feasting, and fireworks.
Immediately after nine o'clock, however, a shock occurred more violent
than the strongest felt on the Good Friday. I was unwell with a slight
feverish attack, and had gone to bed, but was awakened by the noise.
Some walls fell in, many houses were rent, and a part of the ceiling of
my room fell, striking me on the head and face, and for some minutes
blinding me with the dust. I sprang from my bed, and groped my way to
the door, which unluckily I had locked; but after a time I succeeded in
getting it open, and made my way to the court-yard, where I found the
rest of the inhabitants of the house praying and screaming.
After a few moments had elapsed, however, they had quite got over their
fright, and were laughing and joking at their previous consternation and
precipitate flight. Unless the houses actually fall, people do not,
after the first moment, think much of these shocks, but this time they
did take the precaution to put all their doors open, and had their beds
carried out into the court. Mine was placed under the gallery of the
corridor, and a great deal of compassion was expressed for me when they
found I had been a little hurt. A young doctor, who occupied the room
next to mine, thought there would be no strong "temblor" again to-night,
but an aged priest said that this house was old and decayed, and it was
very necessary to be careful. My housemates then went back into their
rooms, and, though they kept the doors open, consumed with a good
appetite the remainder of the Easter feast, the conversation the while
turning, of course, almost exclusively on the "temblor."
I lay gazing up into the night sky, not at all inclined to sleep. The
day had been, as usual, very warm, the thermometer at noon showing 88 deg.
Fahrenheit; a heavy mass of clouds (strato-cumulus) lay piled up about
the waning moon, but dispersed towards ten o'clock, and the moon then
shone brightly through a clear and tranquil atmosphere. A few light
scattered clouds of the cirrus and cirro-stratus lay motionless at a few
points on the horizon, but there was nothing to portend any unusual
phenomenon.
At thirty minutes past ten, however, came the shock that laid the city
of San Salvador in ruins. It began with a terrific noise, the earth
heaving as if lifted by a subterranean sea; and this movement, and the
thunder accompanying it, continued for ten or twelve seconds, while the
crash and uproar of falling buildings were still more deafening than the
thunder. An immense and blinding cloud of dust arose, through which were
heard the shrieks and supplications of the flying people, calling on
"Maria Santissima" and all other saints; and at length a hymn, in
thousand-voiced chorus, which was heard plainly, through all the other
noises, at a distance of a mile and a half from the town, by a family of
German emigrants with whom I was acquainted.
I had witnessed many terrible scenes of war and revolution in the Old
World, but there at least they were visible enemies of flesh and blood
with whom people had to contend; but here were unknown, terrific,
incalculable forces at work, of whose nature they had only the vaguest
idea. The shocks went on, sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, and with
very brief intervals, until, by the evening of Easter Monday, one
hundred and twenty had been counted, and they were accompanied all the
time by hollow thunder and detonations, as if a tremendous battle were
raging beneath the earth. People now abandoned all thoughts of their
property, and sought only to save their lives, for, with the continual
oscillations of the ground in all directions, rents and chasms were
opening on it, so that no one knew whether it might not the next moment
yawn beneath their feet and engulf every living soul. After every new
shock I noticed that the people changed their prayers and the names of
the saints they were invoking; but whether the saints did not hear, or
could not or would not help them, the subterranean artillery continued
to bellow forth its fearful salvos with unmitigated fury.
Towards one in the morning, one of my acquaintances came climbing over
the ruined wall of our court-yard to inquire after me, as he knew I
was unwell; and he then proposed to me to take a walk through the town
by moonlight. We took the direction of the market-place, where the
Cathedral stood; and from what I saw I can truly say that the whole city
was destroyed, for I did not see a _single_ house uninjured. Those that
were not lying in ruin had so many rents, and damages of various kinds,
as to be quite uninhabitable. The Cathedral--an elegant rather than
imposing building--had escaped with less damage than many other
churches; but the clock-tower had fallen, the portal was lying in
fragments, and the walls were gaping open in two or three places.
The interior of the Franciscan convent, the door of which stood wide
open, presented a sad picture of desolation. So many stones had fallen
from the roof and such large portions of the walls, that most of the
altars lay scattered in fragments, or were covered with rubbish; several
of the colossal figures of saints had fallen from the niches, and lay
with their finery all covered with dust and stones; but the people, who
the day before had been carrying them about in triumph, now did not
trouble themselves any more about them: everybody was occupied in saving
his life, or, if possible, his most valuable possessions.
Of the new university buildings only one wing was left standing: it was
the one containing the clock-tower, and in this the clock was still
going on, regularly striking the hours. The roof of the Episcopal Palace
had fallen in, and some stones had struck the sacred head of the bishop
with no more ceremony than had been shown towards our profane pates,
though this bishop was Don Tomaso Saldana, a man most justly held in
high repute for the excellence of his life. Much injury had also been
sustained by the President of the Republic, Senor Duenas, who was
originally a monk, but afterwards a lawyer and statesman, and perhaps
the man of the greatest capacity in the whole country.
The streets were empty and desolate, and we had to scramble over heaps
of ruins to get through them: not a creature was to be seen but a few
sentinels, and in the interior of the houses also there reigned the
stillness of the grave. Even in the broadest streets the people did
not think themselves safe, and rich and poor were huddled together
indiscriminately in the great square, praying, singing, and screaming
whenever a new shock startled them with its terrible explosion; but
fortunately, in the midst of all this, the new President, Don Jose Maria
San Martin, showed much presence of mind, and gave his orders for the
preservation of property with much composure.
[Fortunately, the previous warning shock had driven most of the
people from their houses, a chance which saved most of their
lives, though several hundreds were found buried in the ruins.]
The rising sun of Easter Monday morning shone on a mournful spectacle,
and the few people who were left in the town wandered about looking pale
and worn, the women with a total disregard of their dress very unusual
with them. Among these I noticed the wife of the President, who was
entreating him to fly, like so many others, from the scene of danger;
but he remained faithful to duty, and was exerting himself vigorously to
keep order. He had established a kind of court-martial under a tent in
the University Square, before which every thief caught in the act was
brought, and, on the evidence of two witnesses against him, immediately
shot.
Since the ruins of San Salvador could now no longer offer me a shelter,
I set off on foot, at an early hour, towards the hacienda of Mr.
Kronmeier, and on the way felt four more shocks, the strongest of which
lasted six or seven seconds, and was accompanied by violent oscillations
of the ground, and detonations like the salvos from Vesuvius, when, in
the lesser eruptions, you stand near the crater while stones are being
thrown up. I was now more than ever convinced that the centre of the
subterranean action was very near, and that the explosive steam and
glowing masses of the interior were seeking a new outlet.
The country-house of Mr. Kronmeier was still standing, but its thick
walls had been rent in so many places that it offered only an
uncomfortable and insecure shelter. From the steep cliffs on the left of
the river's bed masses of rock and earth had fallen, and the hot springs
at the foot of the hill had ceased to flow; the mill-stream was dry; one
of the cocoa-palms was prostrate, and the whole landscape, so lovely
before, had a dejected and melancholy aspect, increased, of course, by
the general flight of the inhabitants of the district.... The shocks
still went on, though they were not so frequent as on the two Easter
nights; and, as the subterranean forces were evidently struggling for a
new vent, no one could feel himself safe within the sphere of their
operations.
Many of the people whom we met, however, were leaving the place, though
not so much for any reason of this kind as on account of a prophecy of
the worthy bishop, "that before the new moon the whole district of San
Salvador, with the ruins of the city, would be swallowed up." But,
unluckily for the bishop's character as a prophet, the prediction was
not fulfilled.
SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA.
JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.
[Froude is scarcely known as a traveller, his reputation being
founded in another field of literature, that of history. Yet he
is the author of two works of travel,--"Oceana," from which we
have elsewhere given a selection, and "The English in the West
Indies," from which our present selection is derived. He
visited most of the British West Indies, and has given
picturesque descriptions of them all. We append some extracts
from his account of Trinidad.]
Trinidad is the largest, after Jamaica, of the British West Indian
Islands, and the hottest absolutely after none of them. It is
square-shaped, and, I suppose, was once a part of South America. The
Orinoco River and the ocean-currents between them have cut a channel
between it and the mainland, which has expanded into a vast shallow lake
known as the Gulf of Paria. The two entrances by which the gulf is
approached are narrow, and are called _bocas_, or mouths,--one the
Dragon's Mouth, the other the Serpent's. When the Orinoco is in flood
the water is brackish, and the brilliant violet hue of the Caribbean Sea
is changed to a dirty yellow; but the harbor which is so formed would
hold all the commercial navies of the world, and seems formed by nature
to be the depot one day of an enormous trade.
[Landing was made at Port of Spain, the capital, so called when
Trinidad was a Spanish possession, and Mr. Froude found
pleasant quarters in the house of a friend.]
The town has between thirty and forty thousand people living in it, and
the rain and the Johnny crows [a black vulture that acts as scavenger]
between them keep off pestilence. Outside is a large savanna or park,
where the villas are of the successful men of business. One of these
belonged to my host, a cool, airy habitation, with open doors and
windows, overhanging portico, and rooms into which all the winds might
enter, but not the sun. A garden in front was shut off from the savanna
by a fence of bananas. At the gate stood as sentinel a cabbage-palm
a hundred feet high; on the lawn mangoes, oranges, papaws, and
bread-fruit-trees, strange to look at, but luxuriantly shady. Before
the door was a tree of good dimensions, whose name I have forgotten,
the stem and branches of which were hung with orchids which G----
had collected in the woods.
[Illustration: A WATERFALL IN THE TROPICS]
The borders were blazing with varieties of the single hibiscus, crimson,
pink, and fawn-color, the largest that I had ever seen. The average
diameter of each single flower was from seven to eight inches. Wind
streamed freely through the long sitting-room, loaded with the perfume
of orange-trees; on table and in bookcase the hand and mind visible of a
gifted and cultivated man. The particular room assigned to myself would
have been delightful, but that my possession of it was disputed, even
in daylight, by mosquitoes, who for blood-thirsty ferocity had a bad
pre-eminence over the worst that I had ever met with elsewhere. I
killed one who was at work upon me, and examined him through a glass.
Bewick, with the inspiration of genius, had drawn his exact likeness as
the devil,--a long black stroke for a body, a nick for a neck, horns on
the head, and a beak for a mouth, spindle arms, and longer spindle legs,
two pointed wings, and a tail. Line for line, there the figure was
before me, which in the unforgetable tail-piece is driving the thief
under the gallows, and I had a melancholy satisfaction in identifying
him. I had been warned to be on the lookout for scorpions, centipedes,
jiggers, and land-crabs, who would bite me if I walked slipperless over
the floor in the dark. Of these I met with none, either there or
anywhere, but the mosquito of Trinidad is enough by himself. For malice,
mockery, and venom of tooth and trumpet he is without a match in the
world.
From mosquitoes, however, one could seek safety in tobacco-smoke,
or hide behind the lace curtains with which every bed is provided.
Otherwise I found every provision to make life pass deliciously. To walk
is difficult in a damp, steamy atmosphere, hotter during daylight than
the hottest forcing-house in Kew.... Beautiful, however, it was beyond
dispute. Before sunset a carriage took us around the savanna. Tropical
human beings, like tropical birds, are fond of fine colors, especially
black human beings, and the park was as brilliant as Kensington Gardens
on a Sunday. At nightfall the scene became even more wonderful, air,
grass, and trees being alight with fireflies, each as brilliant as an
English glow-worm. The palm-tree at our own gate stood like a ghostly
sentinel clear against the starry sky, a single long dead frond hanging
from below the coronet of leaves and clashing against the stem as it was
blown to and fro by the night-wind, while long-winged bats swept and
whistled over our heads.
[The governor's residence and the botanical gardens next call
for attention.]
The "Residence" stands in a fine situation, in large grounds of its own,
at the foot of the mountains. It has been lately built, regardless of
expense, for the colony is rich, and likes to do things handsomely. On
the lawn, under the windows, stood a tree which was entirely new to me,
an enormous ceiba or silk-cotton-tree, umbrella-shaped, fifty yards in
diameter, the huge and buttressed trunk throwing out branches so massive
that one wondered how any woody fibre could bear the strain of their
weight, the boughs twisting in and out till they made a roof over one's
head, which was hung with every fantastic variety of parasites.