A Prince and Princess--The Frenchman’s Cross--Quadruco Customs--Weapons
and Drill.
On descending we found an ample repast laid out on the floor. It
consisted of various kinds of game, birds, fish, and boiled herbs. We
also found awaiting us two more people, whom Quibibio, by signs, gave us
to understand were his son and daughter. I was rather astonished to find
these young people so old, as I had taken the king to be only about
middle age, but the beardless faces were very deceptive. In fact the
only difference noticeable between the Princess Azolta and her brother,
Prince Zolca, lay in the length of the hair, and the fact that Azolta
wore flowers round her head.
The Quadrucos are a fine race, and as Azolta was a most beautiful girl
Paul could not keep his eyes off her during the meal, until I had to
tell him that he might give offence. Her twin brother, as I afterwards
learned he was, appeared to be of a lively disposition, and to greatly
regret that we could not understand each other.
The meal being finished the attendant boy brought round a basin of water
for us to wash our hands in; and we then arose from our reclining
position, which I and Paul found very irksome.
Azolta retired, as also did Quibibio, leaving his son, Zolca, to
entertain us. This he did by smilingly inviting us to walk out. We took
our way down a beaten track by the side of the river, which was a broad,
sandy stream, with long reaches of water. We soon reached a gorge
through which the river descended, or at least the small stream it then
was, in a series of cascades. Zolca led us up an easy ascent by the side
of this gorge, and we suddenly found ourselves within sight of the
ocean. At our feet lay a well-sheltered bay, overlooked by the rise we
were on, and beyond was the sea unstudded by a sail. Some large-sized
canoes were lying near the beach, and on the rise on which we stood were
several men, some with shells slung across their shoulders. Zolca waited
quietly until I happened to turn my head slightly, and then I started
with surprise, for close to us was reared a wooden Cross, some thirty
feet in height.
We approached, and when near it Zolca bent his knee as Roman Catholics
do. Paul and I, being of course of the Reformed Religion, did not do so,
until it struck me that it would be policy to follow Zolca’s example. I
whispered this to Paul, and we then both knelt down.
Then we examined the cross. It was firmly put together and well planted
in the earth; but the inscription that had been cut on it, of which I
could but detect a few letters, had been almost entirely defaced by the
weather. The cross was made of a ships’ spars, and must have been a
prominent object from seaward.
Zolca patted the post that formed the cross, and said, two or three
times, a word that sounded like “Gon-vil”. This awakened a chord in my
memory, which I could not explain until it suddenly flashed before me.
And I saw myself a boy in old Harlem, pondering over stories of
adventure; and amongst them that of the Norman captain, Paulmier de
Gonneville, who discovered a great south land, where he stayed with the
natives for six months, finding them very peaceful and gentle, although
warlike towards other tribes. My memory now becoming clear, I recalled
reading of the great Cross he erected, and how he had taken a prince of
the country to France, promising to return with him, which, however, he
was prevented from doing.
This, then, was the land, and thus was our friendly reception accounted
for. It was more than one hundred years since Paulmier de Gonneville had
been there, but the tradition that he would return had evidently been
faithfully handed down and preserved. I now saw what course to pursue,
and felt thankful that my boyish love of reading about discoveries had
given the information.
“Gonneville! Gonneville!” I said eagerly, and the delighted native
repeated it. Then he insisted on our returning with him, and on arriving
at what may be called the palace, he produced a Latin missal, inside of
which I could trace in faded characters:
“_Jean Binot Paulmier de Gonneville. Honfleur, 1503._”
After deciphering it I read it aloud, much to the pleasure of the two
natives, for Quibibio had now joined us. Zolca next produced an
old-fashioned, short sword, evidently of French make, but there was no
inscription on it. Struck by a sudden thought, I drew the old cutlass I
had carried so long and presented it to Zolca, making him understand
that it was a present. He seemed at first so pleased with the wretched
weapon that he could only look at it with delighted eyes; then he put
his hands on my shoulders and kissed me on both cheeks, a French custom
handed down, I presume, from Gonneville’s time. I heartily wished the
performer had been his sister, Azolta, who had entered the room and was
gazing shyly at us.
I now, having got a footing, as it were, tried to show them by signs,
and drawings on the ground with my finger, what had happened to us; how
our ship had been wrecked, how we had lived amongst the Indians--at
which both father and son showed signs of disgust,--how we had walked on
and on until we came to their country. They seemed to readily comprehend
it all, and from that time we were as one of the race, and from the date
of giving him the cutlass Zolca was my brother. We at once assumed the
Quadruco dress, and every one was our friend.
I will now give some account of these people, it being of course what I
have since learned.
They are, or, alas! were, of a light colour, with dark hair and eyes,
and as I said before, beardless. They were well built, averaging about
five feet eight or nine; extremely good-looking, especially the women,
many of the young girls being nearly as beautiful as Azolta. Their
dress, which was woven out of the woolly pod of a bush, was a single
garment like a long shirt, with a girdle round the waist; it reached a
little below the knee, and was the same in both sexes. The men wore a
turban, but the women wore only ornamental head-dresses of flowers and
feathers. They had little occasion to work, the valley being so fertile,
and the hunting was merely a pastime and an exercise. The men had but
one wife (Quibibio’s was dead), and family affection seemed very strong
between them. They had a simple kind of religion, which I don’t think
was much thought of, and consisted merely in a belief in a Great Spirit,
who sometimes was kind, and sometimes angry. They had plenty of dances
and games, but very few rites or ceremonies.
The tradition of their origin was that their forefathers, with their
wives, came from some far-away island in two large canoes; that they
found the valley they lived in almost uninhabited, save for some
scattered families of savages who fled at sight of them, and they
settled down and had lived there ever since.
Of their wars with the Indians, and with two other nations who came
from the sea in big boats, I shall have to speak presently, as I had to
take my part in them.
The cocoa-nuts growing in groves up and down the valley of the river
were, they told me, brought by their ancestors from the land from which
they came. This I could most readily believe, as we had seen none
throughout our long journey; nor would the arid country we passed
through have supported them. So far as I could make out the Quadrucos,
at the time of our visit, numbered 800 souls.
I applied myself diligently to learning the language, and with two such
teachers as Zolca and his sister it was easy work. Paul did not make
such rapid progress, on account of his want of education, but he could
soon make himself understood.
One day Zolca came to me in great glee and showed me the old cutlass,
polished up and made as sharp as a razor. Little did I then think to
what use I should one day see that keen blade put! I asked him who did
it, and he took me to a large house I had never yet entered. In it we
found many men at work sharpening and cleaning swords, hatchets, and
heavy knives, but all very coarsely and roughly made. I was astonished
at the sight, for I had no idea that they had any knowledge of metals,
but Zolca informed me that these weapons had been taken from the dead
bodies of their enemies, belonging to the two tribes who came from the
sea and fought them.
By this time we could fairly understand each other, and Quibibio
approached me on a subject which had evidently been troubling him.
“When would I teach them to make swords?”
On inquiry it turned out that de Gonneville when he left promised to
return, and told the then king, Arosca, that he would bring back men who
would teach them how to make metal, and also how to fight like his
people.
I hesitated before replying, and then told the king that I was afraid no
metal existed in his land, but that Paul and I would go through the
weapons they had, and teach his people how men fought in our country. In
saying this I, of course, relied upon Paul, who had once seen military
service. This answer satisfied Quibibio, and I held a consultation with
Paul, who readily agreed to do something that would raise his
importance.
Next day, then, we inspected the weapons they made themselves, putting
on one side those captured from the enemy. We found that not only did
they all possess serviceable bows and arrows, but, in addition, most of
the men were expert slingers, and all could throw the lance with
precision. They had, however, no system of fighting, each man acting
independently, and this was due to the enemies they had had to deal
with.
On first coming to the land, some hundreds of years ago, no doubt, their
only foes were the native Indians, whom they called Papoos, and these
they easily vanquished. Still, however, they had occasional trouble with
them, so a beaten path was marked out around the settlement, and this
was traversed twice a day by sentinels. As every Quadruco wore sandals,
it was easy to detect a barefooted footmark crossing the path, and it
was this which led to our detection. The Indians, however, grew to fear
them greatly, which was the cause of the abandoned tract of country
Paul and I had passed over.
Then a fresh enemy arose. Men came from the sea in great canoes, half
the size of Gonneville’s, and nearly as high out of the water. These men
were of two races, and although they both attacked the Quadrucos, they
also fought between themselves when they met.
Fortunately they had not appeared until the settlement was numerous
enough to resist them, and as yet, though some of them had actually
landed, none had succeeded in getting beyond the shore. These people
used bows and arrows, swords, and another weapon which, by its
description, I took to be a blow-pipe. A look-out was constantly kept
for these marauders, and the shell which was ingeniously turned into a
trumpet was sounded as the signal of danger.
Paul was now made captain, and took the work with pleasure, for I think
he felt sore that I had been made so much of, and was anxious to also
attract admiration.
With my assistance he divided his men into archers, slingers, and a
small body of swordsmen, all of them also being armed with lances. In
addition, finding that they had no notion of the use of the
shield,--strange to say, for even the Papoos knew about that,--we set
some of the artificers to work and soon had some light wooden shields
covered with hide, which we taught them how to use, for I had been
trained to arms in Harlem, as all youths of my position were.
Time passed quickly and happily. The Quadrucos were delighted with their
new employment, and as for me, so long as I could look in Azolta’s dark
eyes and hear her soft voice, I wanted no more.