Chapter XVI.
Although we had previously moored our boat with the approach of darkness, yet this night the Indians kept on their course. The river was now wide and still, and the banks low and tropical. With the fading light of day, the sea-breeze set in, fresh and pungent, from the ocean. Fire-flies sparkled like stars along the shore, and only the night-hawk, swooping down after its prey, startled the ear of night with its rushing pinions.
The night advanced, and the steady dip of the paddles soothed me into a slumber, from which I was only roused by the noise of drums and the sound of revelry. I leaped up suddenly, with some vague recollections of the orgies at Sandy Bay, which, however, were soon dispelled, and I found that we had already passed Brus Lagoon, and were now close to its northern shore, where the Carib town is situated. There were many lights and fires, and shouts and laughter rang out from the various groups which were gathered around them. I perceived at once that some kind of a festival was going on, and had some hesitation in venturing on shore. But I was reassured by the conduct of the Indians, who paddled the boat up to the beach, with the utmost confidence. Before it touched the sand, however, we were hailed by some one on the shore, in a language which I did not understand. A moment after, the hail was repeated in another dialect, to which my Poyer boy replied, with some kind of explanation. “Advance, friend!” was the prompt response of the challenger, who stepped into the water, and lent a hand to drag up the canoe.
I scrambled forward, and leaped ashore, when I was immediately addressed by the same voice which had hailed us, with, “Very welcome to Brus!” My first impression was, that I had fallen in with Europeans, but I soon saw that my new friend was a pure Indian. He was dressed in white pantaloons and jacket, and wore a sash around his waist, and, altogether, looked like a good fellow. He at once invited me to his house, explaining, as we went along, that the village was in the midst of a festival, held annually, on the occasion of the return of the mahogany-cutters from the various works, both on this coast and in the vicinity of Belize. The next day, he said, they expected a large reënforcement of their numbers, and that then the festivities would be at their height.
Meantime, we had reached the house of our new friend, whose impromptu hospitality I made no hesitation in accepting. It was empty; for all hands were occupied with the festival. Our host stirred up the embers of a fire, which were smouldering beneath a little roof in front of the hut, and hastened away to call his family.
While I awaited his return, I smiled to think what a free and easy way I had contracted since leaving Jamaica, of making myself at home under all circumstances, and with all sorts of people. No letters of introduction, given with hesitation, and received with doubt. And then, the happy excitement of an even chance whether one’s welcome may come in the form of a bullet or a breakfast! These things will do to tell my friend Sly, I soliloquized, and fell into a revery, which was only broken by the return of my host, accompanied by one of his wives—a very pretty and well-dressed Carib woman, her hair neatly braided on the top of her head, and stuck full of flowers. Although it was now past midnight, she insisted on preparing something for us to eat, and then returned to participate in the dances and rejoicings which were going on in the centre of the village.
I would have accompanied my host there also, had it not been for an incident which, for that night at least, banished my idle curiosity. While occupied in arranging my personal baggage in our new quarters, I had observed my Poyer companion standing apart, and regarding me with an earnest and thoughtful expression. I was several times on the point of speaking to him, and as often had my attention diverted by other circumstances. Finally, however, I turned to seek him, but he was gone. I inquired of Antonio what had become of him, but he could give me no information; and, a little concerned himself, he started for the scene of the revelry, under the impression that he might have been attracted thither. He returned with a hasty step, and reported that neither the Poyer or his companions were to be found. We hurried to the shore, where we had left the boat, but that also was gone. The reader may, perhaps, smile when I say that I strained my eyes to penetrate the darkness, if only to catch one glimpse of my Poyer boy; and that I wept when I turned back to the village. And when, on the following day, as I unrolled my scanty wardrobe, a section of bamboo-cane, heavy with gold-dust, rolled upon the floor, I felt not only that I had lost a friend, but that beneath the swarthy breast of that untutored Indian boy there beat a heart capable of the most delicate generosity. Be sure, my faithful friend, far away in your mountain home, that your present shall never be dishonored! Washed from the virginal sands, and wrought into the symbol of our holy faith, it rests above a heart as constant as thine own; and, inscribed with the single word “Fidelity,” it shall descend to my children, as an evidence that Faith and Friendship are heavenly flowers, perennial in every clime!
The Caribs (who pronounce their own name Caribees), those Dyacks of the Antilles, had always been associated in my mind with every thing that was savage in character and habits, and I was astonished to find that they had really considerable pretensions to civilization. It should be observed, however, that they are here an intruded people, and that, first and last, they have had a large association with the whites. They now occupy the coast from the neighborhood of the port of Truxillo to Carataska Lagoon, whence they have gradually expelled the Sambos or Mosquitos. Their original seat was San Vincent, one of what are called the Leeward Islands, whence they were deported in a body, by the English, in 1798, and landed upon the then unoccupied island of Roatan, in the Bay of Honduras. Their position there was an unsatisfactory one, and they eagerly accepted the invitation of the Spanish authorities to remove to the mainland.