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AMERICAN TABLEAUX,
No. 1.
SKETCHES
OF
ABORIGINAL LIFE.
'Tis like a dream, when one awakes,--
These visions of the scenes of old;
'Tis like the moon, when morning breaks;
'Tis like a tale round watch-fires told.
By V. V. VIDE.
NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY BUCKLAND & SUMNER,
79 JOHN-STREET.
1846.
Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the year 1846, by
BUCKLAND & SUMNER,
in the Clerk's office of the District Court
of the United States, for
the Southern District of New York.
Stereotyped by Vincent L. Dill,
128 Fulton st. Sun Building, N. Y.
C. A. Alvord, Printer, Cor. of John and Dutch sts.
PREFACE.
The American Tableaux lay no claim to the respect and confidence, which
is justly shown to authentic history; nor do they anticipate the ready
favor usually accorded to high wrought romance. They are neither the one
nor the other. The general outline is designed to be historical, and
true to the characters of individuals, and the customs of nations and
tribes; and the drapery in which it is arrayed is intended rather to
illustrate the truth, and place it in bolder relief, than to weaken its
force by irrelevant inventions. It is proposed rather to shade and color
the naked sketches of history, and restore them to their natural setting
and accompaniments, than to alter or distort them. The characters of
history are usually stiff, cold, and statue-like, and their drapery, if
they have any, is of the same marble rigidity with themselves. The
Tableaux would transfer them to canvass in their natural colors,
strongly relieved by a back-ground of familiar scenery and every day
associations, and shaded or lightened, as the case may be, by the
sorrows or joys of social life, and the cares or honors of public
station. It may be presumptuous to hope that all this has been
accomplished. It is safer to say, it has been attempted.
CONTENTS.
THE AZTEC PRINCESS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF TECUICHPO. 15
The Horoscope--Faith in the revelations of
Astrology--Montezuma in his palace--The message
delivered--Resignation--Fatalism--Infancy of the
Princess--The slave Karee--Obtains her freedom--The
Chinampa--Genius and faith of Karee--Her devotion to the
Princess--Chivalry of the Aztecs.
CHAPTER II.
YOUTH OF THE PRINCESS--HER EARLY LOVE REVEALED--PROPHETIC
ANNOUNCEMENT, AND SUDDEN ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS. 27
Superstitious forebodings of Montezuma--Loveliness of his
daughter--Her suitors--The Prince of
Tezcuco--Karee-o-than--A secret
revealed--Guatimozin--The ancient legend--The young
Pythoness--Her vision--Warning and appeal--The vision
realized--The pictured scroll--Agitation of Montezuma--A
second courier--The royal council--Courtesy to the
strangers--Splendid embassy--Their meeting with
Cortez--Munificent presents--Avarice of the
Spaniards--They make interest with the Totonacs, and
send proposals to Tlascala--Their proposal
rejected--They meet and conquer the Tlascalans--An
alliance formed--The compeers of
Cortez--Xicotencatl--The strength and weakness of the
Aztecs.
CHAPTER III.
SUPERSTITIOUS FEARS AND VACILLATING POLICY OF MONTEZUMA. 45
Frequent embassies and rich presents to the
Spaniards--Montezuma, fearing to act openly, plots their
destruction secretly--Cortez cautioned by the
Tlascalans--His prudence and strict
discipline--Cuitlahua urges Montezuma to bold decided
measures--Scene in the royal garden--Mysterious
chant--Warning--Its effect--Montezuma roused to
action--Energy of Cuitlahua--The army in motion to repel
the enemy--Confident of victory--The monarch changes his
plan--A stratagem--Cholula--The army arrested in its
march--The Spaniards in Cholula--Hospitable
reception--Sudden change--Suspicion of
treachery--Perilous position and bold bearing of
Cortez--His demand upon the Cholulan princes--Charges
them with conspiracy--Their alarm and apology--Terrible
massacre--Conflict on the great Teocalli--The Spaniards
victorious--Painful position of Cuitlahua and his
army--Tlascalans in Cholula.
CHAPTER IV.
AGITATIONS IN THE CAPITAL--THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD--THE
SPANIARDS STEADILY ADVANCING. 65
Montezuma's duplicity--Shuts himself up in
despair--Divided counsels--Mistaken policy--Triumphant
advance of Cortez--His ambitious views--His military
caution--Montezuma in his family--His youngest
daughter--Her loveliness--Her clouded destiny--The royal
household--A family scene--A dark superstition versus a
cheerful faith--Excursion on the lake--The royal
cortege--The Princess--Guatimozin--The dream and its
echo--Prophecy--Signal and sudden return--Preparation to
receive the Spaniards--Cacama's embassy to
Cortez--Exchange of courtesies--Reception of the
strangers at Iztapalapan--Lofty bearing of
Cuitlahua--The Capital and its environs.
CHAPTER V.
ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS AT THE CAPITAL--THEIR RECEPTION
BY MONTEZUMA--DETERMINED HOSTILITY OF GUATIMOZIN. 81
Singular relative position of the Spaniard and the
Aztec--The power and timidity of the one, and the danger
and boldness of the other--Speculation--Cortez
advancing--The Grand Causeway--The Fort of Xoloc--The
Emperor's retinue--Abject deference of his
lords--Magnificent palanquin--His personal appearance
and costume--The reception--Exchange of
presents--Montezuma retires--Cuitlahua escorts the
Spaniards to their quarters--Their admiration on seeing
the splendor of the city--Curiosity of the people--The
omens of that day--Their influence upon
Montezuma--Guatimozin's true devotion to his
country--His interview with the Princess--True
interpretation of the omens--Filial devotion versus
patriotism--The pledge--A new omen--The parrot turned
prophet--Karee and her prediction--Extreme sensitiveness
of the Princess.
CHAPTER VI.
MUNIFICENCE OF MONTEZUMA--THE ROYAL BANQUET--THE
REQUITAL--THE EMPEROR A PRISONER IN HIS OWN PALACE. 97
Grand military display by the Spaniards--The terror of the
Aztecs--Fearlessness and high purpose of Guatimozin and
others--The Banquet--The company--A contrast--The
strangers presented to the Queen--Her grace and
dignity--Beauty of the Aztec women--Awkward position of
the admiring Cavaliers--Their ingenuity in
pantomime--Readily matched by the Aztec--Sandoval and
the Princess--Cortez and Karee--Guatimozin and Cacama in
argument--The Princess interposes--Sternness of
Guatimozin--An incident--Orteguilla--Alvarado and the
Naiads--Metamorphosed into a flower-god--Pays homage to
the Princess--The feast--The true character of the
invaders--Bold movement of Cortez--Montezuma's blind
submission to fate--Voluntarily becomes a vassal to the
crown of Spain--A still bolder movement of
Cortez--Montezuma remonstrates, but yields, and becomes
a prisoner in the Spanish quarters--Indignation of the
nobles--Portentous omen--Distress in the palace--The
Princess expostulates with her father--The parting, and
the promised meeting--Guatimozin departs in disgust--His
interview with the Princess at Chapoltepec--Courageous
hopes--Oracle and omens--Timidity made bold by love.
CHAPTER VII.
TREACHERY AND RETRIBUTION--MASSACRE OF THE AZTEC
NOBILITY--DEATH OF MONTEZUMA. 121
Cortez visits Vera Cruz--Alvarado in command in the
Capital--His character--The Aztec festival--Unprovoked
attack and massacre--The whole nation in arms for
revenge--Alvarado in imminent peril--Cortez returns--The
Aztecs threaten the entire destruction of the
Spaniards--Furious assault upon their
quarters--Desperate sortie--Implacable spirit of the
Aztecs--Their leaders--Cortez persuades Montezuma to
interpose--Cacama summoned to the royal presence--His
noble reply--The Princes' rendezvous--Guatimozin warned
of danger--His escape--Cacama and Cuitlahua
arrested--The latter released--Fresh assaults upon the
Spaniards--At the instigation of Cortez, Montezuma
appears and addresses the people--Their loyalty and
deference--Suddenly changed to uncontrollable rage--The
Emperor mortally wounded by his own people--A temporary
suspension of hostilities--Death of Montezuma--His
funeral obsequies.
CHAPTER VIII.
BRIEF REIGN OF CUITLAHUA--EXPULSION OF THE
SPANIARDS--GUATIMOZIN CHOSEN EMPEROR--HIS MARRIAGE WITH
TECUICHPO. 137
Cuitlahua elected to the vacant throne--His
resolution--Cortez, realizing his danger, resolves to
evacuate the city--Attempts to steal away in the
night--Assaulted on all sides by the Aztecs--Perils of
the retreat--Awful position on the Great
Causeway--Hemmed in on all sides--Terrible slaughter--A
remnant escape--Cortez in tears--Singular neglect of his
adversary--Activity of Cuitlahua--His sudden
death--Grief and despondency of the nation--Guatimozin
elected to his place--His activity and prudence--He
claims the hand of the Princess--Her timidity and her
devotion--Love finding the bright side of the
picture--The nuptial festival--Grand procession to the
Capital--A nation's welcome.
CHAPTER IX.
FESTIVITIES AT THE COURT OF GUATIMOZIN--THE NEW HYMENEAL
VOW. 151
Character of Guatimozin--His practical wisdom and
activity--Gaiety of the court--The young
Queen--Nahuitla, the Prince of Tlacopan--Atlacan, a
princess of Tezcuco--Her brother, Maxtli--Her
suitors--The Merchant of Cholula--Mercenary views of
Maxtli--Endeavors to thwart Nahuitla--How he is thwarted
himself--The betrothal--Sanctioned by the Emperor--The
nuptials--Polygamy abjured--A new Imperial
statute--Torch dance--Significant pantomime.
CHAPTER X.
RETURN OF CORTEZ--SIEGE OF TENOCHTITLAN--BRAVERY AND
SUFFERINGS OF THE AZTECS. 161
Guatimozin prepares for a new invasion--Cortez approaches
with a new army--Orders vessels built at Tlascala--Takes
possession of Tezcuco--Makes liberal overtures to
Guatimozin--Rejected with scorn--Determined spirit of
Guatimozin--Success of Cortez in reducing some of the
smaller towns--Narrow escape at Iztalapatan--General
defection of the tributary cities--How accounted
for--The Spanish fleet on the Lake--Genius of
Cortez--Tenochtitlan invested--Preparations for the
siege--Spirit of the Aztecs--Their supplies cut off--The
Queen in her reverses--Famine--Distress in the
city--Love stronger than hunger--The famishing
fed--Desperation--an assault--an ambush--The tide of
battle suddenly turned--Perilous position and severe
loss of the Spaniards--Cortez narrowly
escapes--Disastrous retreat.
CHAPTER XI.
STRAITNESS OF THE FAMINE--THE FINAL CONFLICT--FLIGHT AND
CAPTURE OF GUATIMOZIN--DESTINY FULFILLED. 179
The Mexicans encouraged--Oracular declaration of the
priests--It fails to be fulfilled--Cortez resolves to
lay waste the city--A wide spread ruin--Terrible
sufferings of the besieged--Love and loyalty outliving
hope--Death preferred to submission--Nahuitla proposes a
plan of escape--Guatimozin rejects it, but is overruled
by the unanimous voice of his people--Prepares for
flight--The battle of the ghosts--The
retreat--Guatimozin on the lake--Pursued by the enemy--A
captive--Brought before Cortez--His noble spirit and
bearing--The Queen and the conqueror--Her destiny
fulfilled.
* * * * *
THE FLIGHT OF THE KATAHBA CHIEF. 193
The dream of Minaree, the young bride of Ash-te-o-lah--Its
effect upon the Chief--He goes to the chase--Power and
prosperity of the Katahbas--Beauty of their
villages--The wigwam of Ash-te-o-lah--The Chief in his
canoe--The deer--The foe--The chase--He turns upon his
pursuers--Slays seven of their number successively--Is
taken--Marched off as a captive--His boldness and
dignity--Arrives in the territories of his
enemies--Insulted and beaten by the women--Condemned to
the fiery torture--Led out to execution--Breaks away
and escapes--Pauses to defy his pursuers--Distances
them all--Stops to rest--Finds a place of
concealment--Plans the destruction of the pursuing
party--Succeeds--Returns home in triumph, laden with
trophies and spoils.
MONICA--THE ITEAN CAPTIVE. 209
Reverence for the dead--Indian burial--The journey to the
Spirit land--The favorite dog killed--Food for
journey--Mementoes of the departed--The grave of an
infant boy--The Itean encampment--A sister's grief--Her
dream--She visits the grave by moonlight--Her
song--Enters a canoe and floats down the stream--A
captive, devoted to the "Great Star"--Pagan rite among
the Pawnees--Preparing for the sacrifice--Ignorant of
her fate--Gathering of the Pawnees to the festival--The
victim led to the stake--The terrible orgies
commence--Are suddenly interrupted--The captive
unbound--The flight--Parting with her deliverer--Meets
her friends--Reaches her home in safety--Petalesharro,
her deliverer--His person and character--Bloody rite
abolished.
THE HERMITESS OF ATHABASCA. 227
The wigwam of Kaf-ne-wah-go--His family--Tula, his only
daughter--O-ken-ah-ga, her husband--The Athapuscows
steal in at night--The chiefs murdered--Tula a
captive--Her infant boy murdered before her eyes--The
Chippeways in pursuit of the murderers--Following the
trail--The enemy overtaken--Retribution wreaked upon
the innocent--The deep grief of Tula--Her weary
marches--Her captors encamp--The tempest--She escapes
in the darkness--Vain attempts to discover her
retreat--Seeks to find her way back to her people--The
forest--A midnight intruder--She climbs a tree--Is
besieged--Assaulted--Repels and destroys the
enemy--Intricacies and dangers of the forest--An
opening, but no light--Bewildered--Resolves to go no
farther--Finds a convenient spot--builds a cabin--her
house-keeping--Her ingenuity, industry and taste--The
Hermitess discovered--Her solitude reluctantly
abandoned--Indian mode of obtaining a
wife--Journeyings--A new party--An unexpected meeting.
THE AZTEC PRINCESS,
OR
DESTINY FORESHADOWED.
Rapacious Spain
Followed her bold discoverer o'er the main;
A rabid race, fanatically bold,
And steeled to cruelty by lust of gold,
Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored,
The cross their standard, but their path the sword;
Their steps were graves; o'er prostrate realms they trod,
They worshipped Mammon, while they vowed to God.
THE AZTEC PRINCESS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF TECUICHPO.
~Tell me, ascribest thou influence to the stars?~
"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial House of Tenochtitlan! Never saw I
the heavens in so inauspicious an aspect. Dark portentous
influences appear on every side. May the horoscope of the
infant daughter of Montezuma never be fulfilled."
These were the awful words of the priestly astrologer of Tenochtitlan,
uttered with solemn and oracular emphasis from the lofty Teocalli, where
he had been long and studiously watching the heavens, and calculating
the relative positions and combinations of the stars. A deep unutterable
gloom seemed to pervade his soul. Several times he traversed the broad
terrace, in a terrible agitation; his splendid pontifical robes flowing
loosely in the breeze, and his tall majestic figure relieved against the
clear sky, like some colossal moving statue,--and then, in tones of
deeper grief than before, finding no error in his calculations,
reiterated his oracular curse--"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial House of
Tenochtitlan!" Casting down his instruments to the earth, and tearing
his hair in the violence of his emotions, he prostrated himself on the
altar, and poured forth a loud and earnest prayer to all his gods.
"Is there no favoring omen in any quarter, venerable father?" inquired
the agitated messenger from the palace, when the prayer was ended--"is
there no one of those bright spheres above us, that will deign to smile
on the destiny of the young princess?"
"It is full of mysterious, portentous contradictions," replied the
astrologer. "Good and evil influences contend for the mastery. The evil
prevail, but the good are not wholly extinguished. The life of the
princess will be a life of sorrow, but there will be a peculiar
brightness in its end. Yet the aspect of every sign in the heavens is
wo, and only wo, to the imperial House of Montezuma."
Faith in the revelations of astrology was a deeply rooted superstition
with the Aztecs. It pervaded the whole structure of society, affecting
the most intelligent and well-informed, as well as the humblest and most
ignorant individual. In this case, the prophetic wailings of the
priestly oracle rolled, like a long funereal knell, through the
magnificent halls of the imperial palace, and fell upon the ear of the
monarch, as if it had been a voice from the unseen world. Montezuma was
reclining on a splendidly embroidered couch, in his private apartment,
anxiously awaiting the response of the celestial oracle. He was
magnificently arrayed in his royal robes of green, richly ornamented
with variegated feather-work, and elaborately inwrought with gold and
silver. His sandals were of pure gold, with ties and anklets of gold and
silver thread, curiously interwoven with a variegated cotton cord. On
his head was a rich fillet of gold, with a beautiful plume bending
gracefully over one side, casting a melancholy shade over his handsome
but naturally pensive features. A few of the royal princes sat, in
respectful silence, at the farther end of the chamber, waiting, with an
anxiety almost equal to that of the monarch, the return of the royal
messenger.
The apartments of the emperor were richly hung with tapestry of
ornamental feather-work, rivalling, in the brilliancy of its dyes, and
the beautiful harmony of its arrangement, the celebrated Gobelin
tapestry. The floor was a tesselated pavement of porphyry and other
beautiful stones. Numerous torches, supported in massive silver stands,
delicately carved with fanciful figures of various kinds, blazed through
the apartment, lighting up, with an almost noonday brilliancy, the
gorgeous folds of the plumed hangings, and filling the whole palace with
the sweet breath of the odoriferous gums of which they were composed.
The emperor leaned pensively on his hand, seemingly oppressed with some
superstitious melancholy forebodings. Perhaps the shadow of that
mysterious prophecy, which betokened the extinction of the Aztec
dynasty, and the consequent ruin of his house, was passing athwart the
troubled sky of his mind, veiling the always doubtful future in mists of
tenfold dimness. Whatever it was that disturbed his royal serenity, his
reverie was soon broken by the sound of an approaching footstep. For a
moment, nothing was heard but the measured tread of the trembling
messenger, pacing with unwilling step the long corridor, that led to the
royal presence. With his head bowed upon his breast, his eyes fixed upon
the pavement, his person veiled in the coarse _nequen_,[A] and his feet
bare, he stood before the monarch, dumb as a statue.
"What response bring you," eagerly enquired the emperor, "from the
burning oracles of heaven? How reads the destiny of my new-born infant?"
"The response be to the enemies of the great Montezuma," replied the
messenger, without lifting his eyes from the floor, "and the destiny it
foreshadows to the children of them that hate him."
"Speak," exclaimed the monarch, "What message do you bring from the
priest of the stars?"
"Alas! my royal master, my message is full of wo--my heart faints, and
my tongue refuses its office to give it utterance. The old prophet bade
me say, that the celestial influences are all unpropitious; that the
destiny of the infant princess is a life of sorrow, with a gleam of more
than earthly brightness in its evening horizon. And then, prostrating
himself upon the great altar, he groaned out one long, deep,
heart-rending wail for the imperial House of Tenochtitlan, and the
golden realm of Anahuac."
A deeper shade came over the brow of Montezuma, and heaving a sigh from
the very depths of a soul that had long been agitated by melancholy
forebodings of coming evil, he raised his eyes to heaven, and said,
"the will of the gods be done." Then, waving his hand to his attendants,
they bowed their heads, and retired in silence from the apartment.
"It has come at last," inwardly groaned the monarch, as soon as he found
himself alone--"it has come at last--that fearful prophecy, that has so
long hung, like the shadow of a great cloud, over my devoted house, is
now to be fulfilled. The fates have willed it, and there is no escape
from their dread decrees. I must make ready for the sacrifice."
Nerved by the stern influence of this dark fatalism, Montezuma brushed a
tear from his eye, and putting a royal restraint upon the turbulent
sorrows and fears of his paternal heart, hastened to the apartments of
the queen, to break to her, with all the gentleness and caution which
her delicate and precarious circumstances required, the mournful issue
of their inquiries at the court of heaven, into the future destiny and
prospects of their new-born babe.
A deep gloom hung over the palace and the city. Every heart, even the
most humble and unobserved, sympathized in the disappointment, and
shared the distress, of their sovereign. And the day, which should have
been consecrated to loyal congratulations, and general festivities,
became, as by common consent, a sort of national fast, a season of
universal lamentation.
The little stranger was welcomed into life with that peculiar chastened
tenderness, which is the natural offspring of love and pity--love, such
as infant innocence wins spontaneously from every heart--pity, such as
melancholy forebodings of coming years of sorrow to one beloved, cannot
fail to awaken. She was regarded as the most beautiful and the most
interesting of all her race. Every look and motion seemed to have its
peculiar significance in indicating the victim of a remarkable destiny.
And it is not to be wondered at, that a superstition so sad, and an
affection so tender and solicitous, discovered an almost miraculous
precocity in the first developments of the intellectual and moral
qualities of its subject. She was the attractive centre of all the
admiration and love of the royal household. Imagination fancied a
peculiar sadness in her eye, and her merry laugh was supposed to mingle
an element of sadness in its tones. Her mild and winning manners, and
her affectionate disposition made her the idol of all whom she loved;
and each one strove to do her service, as if hoping to avert, in some
measure, the coming doom of their darling; while she clung to the fond
and devoted hearts around her, as the ivy clings to the oak, which
receives its embraces, and is necessary to its support.
When the young princess, who received the name of Tecuichpo, had arrived
at the age of one year, she was given in charge to a young and beautiful
slave, whom the Emperor had recently obtained from Azcapozalco. Karee
was gifted with rare powers of minstrelsy. Her voice had the sweetness,
power and compass of a mocking bird, and all day long she warbled her
ever-changing lays, as if her natural breathing were music, and song the
natural flow of her thoughts. She soon became passionately devoted to
the little pet, and exerted all her uncommon gifts to amuse and instruct
her. She taught her all the native songs of Azcapozalco and Mexitli,
instructed her in dancing, embroidery and feather-work, and initiated
her into the science of picture-writing and the fanciful language of
flowers. Karee and her royal charge were never apart. Gentle and timid
as the dove, Tecuichpo clung to her new nurse, as to the bosom of a
mother. Even in her early infancy, she would so sweetly respond, like an
echo, to the gentle lullaby, and mingle her little notes so
symphoniously with those of Karee, that it excited the wonder and
admiration of all. Karee was passionately fond of flowers. It was indeed
an element in the national taste of this remarkable people. But Karee
was unusually gifted in her preceptions of natural beauty, and seemed to
have a soul most delicately attuned to the spirit and language of
flowers, the painted hieroglyphics of nature. She loved to exercise her
exuberant fancy in decorating her little mistress, and often contrived
so to arrange them upon the various parts of her person and dress, as to
make her at different times, the emblematic representation of every
bright and beautiful spirit, that was supposed to people their celestial
paradise, or to hover, on wings of love and gentle care, about the path
of those whom the gods delighted to favor.
It was the daily custom for Karee to carry the young princess into the
apartment of the Emperor, as soon as he rose from his siesta, to receive
the affectionate caresses which her royal father was so fond of
lavishing upon her. At such times, Tecuichpo would often take with her
some rich chaplets of flowers which Karee had woven for her, and amuse
herself and her father, by arranging them in a coronet on his brow, or
twining them, in every fantastic form, about his person, to make, as
she said, a flower-god of _him_, who was a sun to all the flowers of her
earthly paradise.
One day, when the young princess was sleeping in her little arbor, the
ever watchful nurse observed a viper among the flowers, which she had
strown about her pillow, just ready to dart its venomous fang into the
bosom of her darling. Quick as lightning she seized the reptile in her
hand, and, before he had time to turn upon her, flung him upon the
floor, and crushed him under her sandalled heel. Passionately embracing
her dear charge, she hastened with her to the apartments of the queen,
and related the story of her narrow escape, with so much of the
eloquence of gratitude for being the favored instrument of her
deliverance from so cruel a death, that it deeply affected the heart of
the queen. She embraced her child and Karee, as if both were, for the
moment, equally dear to her; and then, in return for the faithful
service, rendered at the hazard of her own life, she promised to bestow
upon the slave whatever she chose to ask. "Give me, O give me freedom,
and a chinampa, and I ask no more," was the eager reply of Karee to this
unexpected offer of the queen. The request was immediately granted; and
the first sorrow that ever clouded the heart of the lovely Tecuichpo,
was that of parting with her faithful and loving Karee.
A _chinampa_ was a floating island in the lake of Tezcuco, upon whose
very bosom the imperial city was built. They were very numerous, and
some of them were large, and extremely beautiful. They were formed by
the alluvial deposit in the waters of the lake, and by occasional masses
of earth detached from the shores, held together by the fibrous roots,
with which they were penetrated, and which in that luxurious clime, put
out their feelers in every direction, and gathered to their embrace
whatever of nutriment and support the richly impregnated waters
afforded. In the process of a few years accumulation, the floating mass
increased in length, breadth and thickness, till it became an island,
capable of sustaining not only shrubs and trees, but sometimes a human
habitation. Some of these were from two to three hundred feet square,
and could be moved about at pleasure, like a raft, from city to city,
along the borders of the lake. The natives, who were skilful gardeners,
and passionately devoted to the cultivation of flowers, improved upon
this beautiful hint of nature, to enlarge their means of supplying the
capital with fruits, vegetables and flowers. Constructing small rafts of
reeds, anchoring them out in the lake, and then covering them with the
sediment drawn up from the bottom, they soon found them covered with a
thrifty vegetation, and a vigorous soil, from which they were able to
produce a large supply of the various luxuries of their highly favored
clime.
It was to one of these fairy gardens that the beautiful Karee retired,
rich in the priceless jewel of freedom, and feeling that a chinampa all
her own, and flowers to train and commune with, was the summit of human
desire. Karee was no common character. Gifted by nature with unusual
talents, she had, though in adverse circumstances, cultivated them by
all the means in her power. Remarkably quick of perception, and shrewd
and accurate of observation, with a memory that retained every thing
that was committed to it, in its exact outlines and proportions, she
was enabled to gather materials for improvement from every scene through
which she passed. Her imagination was exceedingly powerful and active,
sometimes wild and terrific, but kept in balance by a sound judgment and
a discriminating taste. Her love of flowers was a passion, a part of her
nature. For her they had a language, if not a soul. And there was not
one of all the endless varieties of that luxuriant clime, that had not a
definite and emphatic place in the vocabulary of her fancy. The history
of her life she could have written in her floral dialect, and to her,
though its lines might have faded rapidly, its pages would have been
always legible and eloquent. Her attachments were strong and enduring,
and there was that element of heroism in her soul, that she would
unhesitatingly have sacrificed life for the object of her love.
It is not to be wondered at, that, with such qualities of mind and
heart, Karee was deeply impressed with the solemn and imposing
superstitions of the Aztec religion. The rites and ceremonies by which
they were illustrated and sustained, were well calculated to stir to its
very depths, a soul like hers, and give the fullest exercise to her wild
imagination. That pompous ritual, those terrible orgies, repeated before
her eyes almost daily from her infancy, had become blended with the
thoughts and associations of her mind, and intimately related to every
scene that interested her heart, or engaged her fancy. Yet her soul was
not enslaved to that dark and dismal superstition. Though accustomed to
an awful veneration of the priesthood, she did not regard them as a
superior race of beings, or listen to their words, as if they had been
audible voices from heaven. Her spirit shrunk from many of the darker
revelations of the established mythology, and openly revolted from some
of its inhuman exactions. Its chains hung loosely upon her; and she
seemed fully prepared for the freedom of a purer and loftier faith. Her
extreme beauty, her bewitching gaiety, and her varied talents, attracted
many admirers, and some noble and worthy suitors. But Karee had another
destiny to fulfil. She felt herself to be the guardian angel of the
ill-fated Tecuichpo, and her love for the princess left no room for any
other passion in her heart. She therefore refused all solicitations, and
remained the solitary mistress of her floating island.
Karee's departure from the palace, did not in any degree lessen her
interest in the welfare of the young princess. She was assiduous in her
attention to every thing that could promote her happiness; and seemed to
value the flowers she cultivated on her chinampa chiefly as they
afforded her the means of daily correspondence with Tecuichpo. She
managed her island like a canoe, and moved about from one part of the
beautiful lake to another, visiting by turns the cities that glittered
on its margin, and sometimes traversing the valleys in search of new
flowers, or exploring the ravines and caverns of the mountains for
whatever of rare and precious she might chance to find. The chivalry of
the Aztecs rendered such adventures perfectly safe, their women being
always regarded with the greatest tenderness and respect, and treated
with a delicacy seldom surpassed in the most civilized countries of
Christendom.
This chivalric sentiment was, not improbably heightened, in the case of
Karee, in part by her extreme beauty, and in part by the power of her
genius and the brilliancy of her wit. She commanded respect by the force
of her intellect, and the purity of her heart; while the uncommon depth
and splendor of her imagination, when excited by any favorite theme, and
the seemingly inexhaustible fruitfulness of her mental resources,
invested her, in the view of the multitude, with something of the
dignity, and much of the superstitious charm of a prophetess.
[A] A mantle of coarse cotton fabric, which all who approached
the emperor were compelled to put on, in token of humility and
reverence.