"Incertus, quo fata ferant, ubi sistera detur."
Kind and gentle reader, if the journey in quest of the wourali-poison has
engaged thy attention, probably thou mayst recollect that the traveller
took leave of thee at Fort St. Joachim, on the Rio Branco. Shouldst thou
wish to know what befell him afterwards, excuse the following
uninteresting narrative.
Having had a return of fever, and aware that the farther he advanced into
these wild and lonely regions the less would be the chance of regaining
his health, he gave up all idea of proceeding onwards, and went slowly
back towards the Demerara nearly by the same route he had come.
On descending the falls in the Essequibo, which form an oblique line
quite across the river, it was resolved to push through them, the
downward stream being in the canoe's favour. At a little distance from
the place a large tree had fallen into the river, and in the meantime the
canoe was lashed to one of its branches.
The roaring of the water was dreadful; it foamed and dashed over the
rocks with a tremendous spray, like breakers on a lee-shore, threatening
destruction to whatever approached it. You would have thought, by the
confusion it caused in the river, and the whirlpools it made, that Scylla
and Charybdis, and their whole progeny, had left the Mediterranean, and
come and settled here. The channel was barely twelve feet wide, and the
torrent in rushing down formed transverse furrows, which showed how near
the rocks were to the surface.
Nothing could surpass the skill of the Indian who steered the canoe. He
looked steadfastly at it, then at the rocks, then cast an eye on the
channel, and then looked at the canoe again. It was in vain to speak.
The sound was lost in the roar of waters; but his eye showed that he had
already passed it in imagination. He held up his paddle in a position,
as much as to say, that he would keep exactly amid channel; and then made
a sign to cut the bush rope that held the canoe to the fallen tree. The
canoe drove down the torrent with inconceivable rapidity. It did not
touch the rocks once all the way. The Indian proved to a nicety "medio
tutissimus ibis."
Shortly after this it rained almost day and night, the lightning flashing
incessantly, and the roar of thunder awful beyond expression.
The fever returned, and pressed so heavy on him, that to all appearance
his last day's march was over. However, it abated; his spirits rallied,
and he marched again; and after delays and inconveniences he reached the
house of his worthy friend Mr. Edmonstone, in Mibiri Creek, which falls
into the Demerara. No words of his can do justice to the hospitality of
that gentleman, whose repeated encounters with the hostile negroes in the
forest have been publicly rewarded, and will be remembered in the colony
for years to come.
Here he learned that an eruption had taken place in St. Vincent's; and
thus the noise heard in the night of the first of May, which had caused
such terror amongst the Indians, and made the garrison at Fort St.
Joachim remain under arms the rest of the night, is accounted for.
After experiencing every kindness and attention from Mr. Edmonstone, he
sailed for Granada, and from thence to St. Thomas's, a few days before
poor Captain Peake lost his life on his own quarter-deck, bravely
fighting for his country on the coast of Guiana.
At St. Thomas's they show you a tower, a little distance from the town,
which, they say, formerly belonged to a buccaneer chieftain. Probably
the fury of besiegers has reduced it to its present dismantled state.
What still remains of it bears testimony of its former strength, and may
brave the attack of time for centuries. You cannot view its ruins
without calling to mind the exploits of those fierce and hardy hunters,
long the terror of the western world. While you admire their undaunted
courage, you lament that it was often stained with cruelty; while you
extol their scrupulous justice to each other, you will find a want of it
towards the rest of mankind. Often possessed of enormous wealth, often
in extreme poverty, often triumphant on the ocean, and often forced to
fly to the forests, their life was an ever-changing scene of advance and
retreat, of glory and disorder, of luxury and famine. Spain treated them
as outlaws and pirates, while other European Powers publicly disowned
them. They, on the other hand, maintained that injustice on the part of
Spain first forced them to take up arms in self-defence; and that, whilst
they kept inviolable the laws which they had framed for their own common
benefit and protection, they had a right to consider as foes those who
treated them as outlaws. Under this impression they drew the sword, and
rushed on as though in lawful war, and divided the spoils of victory in
the scale of justice.
After leaving St. Thomas's a severe tertian ague every now and then kept
putting the traveller in mind that his shattered frame, "starting and
shivering in the inconstant blast, meagre and pale--the ghost of what it
was"--wanted repairs. Three years elapsed after arriving in England
before the ague took its final leave of him.
During that time several experiments were made with the wourali-poison.
In London an ass was inoculated with it, and died in twelve minutes. The
poison was inserted into the leg of another, round which a bandage had
been previously tied a little above the place where the wourali was
introduced. He walked about as usual, and ate his food as though all
were right. After an hour had elapsed the bandage was untied, and ten
minutes after death overtook him.
A she-ass received the wourali-poison in the shoulder, and died
apparently in ten minutes. An incision was then made in its windpipe,
and through it the lungs were regularly inflated for two hours with a
pair of bellows. Suspended animation returned. The ass held up her
head, and looked around; but the inflating being discontinued, she sank
once more in apparent death. The artificial breathing was immediately
recommenced, and continued without intermission for two hours; this saved
the ass from final dissolution. She rose up, and walked about; she
seemed neither in agitation nor in pain. The wound, through which the
poison entered, was healed without difficulty. Her constitution,
however, was so severely affected that it was long a doubt if ever she
would be well again. She looked lean and sickly for above a year, but
began to mend the spring after, and by Midsummer became fat and frisky.
The kind-hearted reader will rejoice on learning that Earl Percy, pitying
her misfortunes, sent her down from London to Walton Hall, near
Wakefield. There she goes by the name of Wouralia. Wouralia shall be
sheltered from the wintry storm; and when summer comes she shall feed in
the finest pasture. No burden shall be placed upon her, and she shall
end her days in peace.
For three revolving autumns the ague-beaten wanderer never saw, without a
sigh, the swallow bend her flight towards warmer regions. He wished to
go too, but could not; for sickness had enfeebled him, and prudence
pointed out the folly of roving again too soon across the northern
tropic. To be sure, the Continent was now open, and change of air might
prove beneficial; but there was nothing very tempting in a trip across
the Channel, and as for a tour through England--England has long ceased
to be the land for adventures. Indeed, when good King Arthur reappears
to claim his crown he will find things strangely altered here; and may we
not look for his coming? for there is written upon his gravestone:--
"Hic jacet Arturus, Rex quondam Rexque futurus,"
"Here Arthur lies, who formerly
Was king--and king again to be."
Don Quixote was always of opinion that this famous king did not die, but
that he was changed into a raven by enchantment, and that the English are
momentarily expecting his return. Be this as it may, it is certain that
when he reigned here all was harmony and joy. The browsing herds passed
from vale to vale, the swains sang from the bluebell-teeming groves, and
nymphs, with eglantine and roses in their neatly-braided hair, went hand
in hand to the flowery mead to weave garlands for their lambkins. If by
chance some rude uncivil fellow dared to molest them, or attempted to
throw thorns in their path, there was sure to be a knight-errant not far
off ready to rush forward in their defence. But alas! in these
degenerate days it is not so. Should a harmless cottage-maid wander out
of the highway to pluck a primrose or two in the neighbouring field the
haughty owner sternly bids her retire; and if a pitying swain hasten to
escort her back, he is perhaps seized by the gaunt house-dog ere he reach
her.
AEneas's route on the other side of Styx could not have been much worse
than this, though by his account, when he got back to earth, it appears
that he had fallen in with "Bellua Lernae, horrendum stridens,
flammisque, armata Chimaera."
Moreover, he had a sibyl to guide his steps; and as such a conductress
nowadays could not be got for love nor money, it was judged most prudent
to refrain from sauntering through this land of freedom, and wait with
patience the return of health. At last this long-looked-for,
ever-welcome stranger came.