His attention being called to the helpless condition of his late antagonist, he was finally persuaded to adventure one of his hands upon the head of the savage in the way of benediction. Answering to a given signal the battery claimed the padre as a victim through the chief, whose yell was accompanied with the exclamation, “My conscience’ sake alive!”—then his fears became as vivid in expression as those of his intended convert. Mr. Welson, addressing himself somewhat scornfully to the padre, said, “You accused me of infidelity when I endeavored to use my privileged endowment of reason bestowed by the Creator for human direction; now you will see how much better it serves as an exorcist than your faith in a religion that ignores man’s duty for the fulfillment of intention in its bestowal.” He then made a few passes over the Indian, and when he had gained the full attraction of fearful awe with mumbling incantations, the padre was reluctantly induced to replace his hands on the chief’s shoulders and remove them without alarming impression. Then assuming an awful aspect and tone, as if addressing the powers of air with the spirit of invocation, he implored their aid to convict the reptile savage, and civilized devotee of a blind infatuation, of their willful errors alike dangerous to the well-being of humanity. When made sufficiently impressive he commanded the padre to take the chief’s hands. Overawed by the majestic impersonation of sublime authority enacted by Mr. Welson, the two joined hands, both keeping their eyes fastened in blank wonder upon his face and movements. The conjuration having fixed their attention, he pronounced in a loud voice the magic word “Letonnow!” Immediately the two commenced a series of contortionate grimaces, directed toward each other, accompanied with spasmodic hand-jerking. The actors were so engrossed with their fears that the spectators were fain to have recourse to a variety of succedaneum vents to suppress the outburst of laughter, the sailors adopting the novel expedient of revolving their quids around the tips of their tongues, which ejected a jet of saturated decoction from the corners of their mouths with every revolution. But for Mr. Welson’s practiced command of his emotions, subject to the control of judgment, the ludicrous scene might have been continued to the extent of injury, for his associates were, from spasmodic action, to all intents speechless. When at length the larger fraction of a minute had been exhausted in husky attempts to command his voice, he managed to stay proceedings with a sign evoked from head and hand, faintly sustained with a vocal negative. When the current was checked the last vestige of ferocity had departed from the face of the savage, leaving the vacuum unsupplied, as it was his sole dependence for the facial expression of his emotions. The padre’s face was confounded with a blending of superstitious dread and suspicion, for with all his phantasmic nervousness provoked by the excessive remedial use of whiskey and tobacco, he could not fail to detect the covert effort of restraint that prevailed. Indeed, with his natural powers of perception free from their imposed embargo, he would have detected the means employed for the production of effects known to the most illiterate members of scientific academies. To dissipate his suspicions the padre had recourse to Doctor Baāhar, of whom he anxiously inquired whether Mr. Welson derived his power from a legitimate source compatible with the apostolic faith inculcated by the tenets of the Church. The doctor, as instinctively absurd when out of the scholastic thrills of antiquity, found especial gratification in teasing those subject to the common frailties of his kind. So, taking his cue from the padre’s necromantic suggestion, he explained that Eusebius, and other Fathers of the primitive Church acquainted with the practice of Egyptian astrology, had confirmed the prevalent belief that in certain families, under peculiar conditions, there was a power developed similar to that exhibited by Mr. Welson.
Here Mr. Dow interrupted their conversation by calling the attention of the padre to the savage, who was following Mr. Welson with the docility of a spaniel. Observing his emotions of superstition he asked, “Are you in reality so blind, padre, that you are unable to detect the agency of Mr. Welson’s power over the savage? You seem to be impressed with the belief that Mr. Welson has been enacting the part of a magician in producing these effects upon the savage, whose ignorance sympathizes with, or rather reciprocates your superstitious delusions? How is it possible for you to overlook, with thought, an impression so familiar to your understanding, and in fact, place yourself on a level with this savage from a lack of intelligent perception? Really, padre, you confound me with astonishment. Time, place, and circumstances, with certain abetting aids, have thrown you off your guard.” A shake of Mr. Welson’s head prevented Mr. Dow from revealing the means employed, as he wished to confound the padre with further evidences of his simplicity and heedlessness. Beckoning the sailor satellites of the savage, he was led back to his place of confinement, and secured in contact with the wires of the battery; then, when the padre’s attention was otherwise engaged, a glass of whiskey from his bottle was administered by Mr. Welson to his experimental victim. But a short time had elapsed when attention was called to an unusual disturbance forward, in which the fierce snarling growl of the dogs was commingled with the guttural “ughs” of the savage, whose face was contorted with an expression of demoniac rage, causing his mouth to froth, exposing through its slaver his pointed teeth, while his eyes gleamed with a ferocity that prompted the padre to flight. But when assured that he was securely confined, the padre asked Mr. Dow what he thought of the source of Mr. Welson’s agency now! Mr. Dow led him to the captain’s room; with a glance at the instrument the nature of his ludicrous position began to dawn. But when his whiskey bottle with diminished contents was produced and proclaimed as the magician of ferocity, his face mantled with the scarlet dismay of shame, which with his ejaculation of “My goodness gracious, what a fool I have been!” filled the cup of mirth to overflowing.
Since the morning of the 9th the strength of the current had increased so rapidly that the captain feared we were approaching impassable rapids; but at nightfall we entered into a broad expanse of water resembling a lake. Keeping beyond the range of arrows, Mr. Dow and Welson in the punt succeeded in killing sufficient wild fowl for a week’s supply. Shortly after nightfall the dogs with their muzzles primed over the chocks kept up a warning cry. Waantha with a crutch, the gift of the carpenter, hopped about the deck with eyes on the alert, and ears primed for sounds from the water and shore. Through the night his vigilance was sustained, until in the darkness of the morning hours he aroused Jack’s attention to floating objects on the water just visible to his sight, but while peering the whiz of an arrow interpreted the source of danger. The angle of flight enabled him to judge with tolerable correctness the position of the foe who discharged it; the yells which answered the report of his escopeta loaded with buckshot bespoke his success with others if not the one whose intention provoked retaliation.
June 11.—Jack’s morning salute awoke all on board, causing a general muster to learn the source of provocation. While Mr. Dow was taking his coffee in the dawning twilight, Waantha hobbled to the place where he was sitting and after directing his attention to an approaching swan, took one of the dead ducks hanging under the awning and placed it on his head, at the same time imitating the movements of a man decoy. Understanding his meaning, Mr. Dow took his rifle from the rack and sped a bullet with sure aim; the unfortunate bird extended above the surface a black pair of arms, then with a gurgling cry sunk out of sight. Flocks of ducks which had been gradually nearing the steamer on all sides made for the shore without taking wing, showing by the wake the nature of the fowl before the submerged Indians clambered up the banks. The undaunted perseverance of the savages in tracking the steamer, despite of our superior weapons, showed an indomitable determination, proof to danger and disappointment, which detracted greatly from our prospective feelings of safety when exposed to the disadvantages of land travel.
The steam-whistle and gong had startled them at first, but they had tested their harmless natures, and evidently thought the howitzers relatives, whose destructiveness could be avoided as easily as the poison of their arrows when they had obtained a knowledge of the antidote. The forbearance of the captain had favored this impression, and it was determined in consultation to use our weapons to the full extent of their destructiveness. An opportunity was soon offered, for in passing a raft lodged on the eastern shore Waantha pointed out a rampart of logs ready poised for an overthrow, with interstices between in which were seen the protruding muzzles of their blow-pipes. One of the mountain howitzers loaded with solid shot was discharged point-blank against the upper tier causing it to fall inward, catching the lurking savages in their own trap, while it exposed those in the rear to the full effect of grape and our small arms, which caused the river echoes to resound with the yells of the wounded. Without stopping to learn the extent of the slaughter, the steamer kept on her course. In passing a glade reaching to the water the plain was seen covered with panic-stricken savages on foot and horseback, directing their course to the foot-hills. Although surprised at the large number collected, we felt safe with the impression that the wood rafts of the left bank would be left free for our acceptance thereafter.
June 14.—While collecting wood from the scattered lodgments of the western bank, parties of mounted Indians watched our movements from the opposite plain. These Waantha informed us were of his own tribe. When asked if he would like to be set on shore to rejoin them, he expressed, with signs, a reproachful negative, blended with fear and sorrow. After a moment’s hesitation he seemed to understand that the proposal was made to test his feelings, then with a pleased look of Indian cunning he pointed to the old chief, who had been regarding him with a revengeful look of ferocity. Understanding his meaning as a proposal of substitution, Mr. Welson asked, through Aabrawa, if they would kill the old chief if set on shore? This was answered with a decided negative, and the pantomimic addenda of labor as a substitute for death. As the captive was sufficiently recovered from his wounds to control his own movements, Mr. Welson took him in charge for initiatory preparation in presage for association with his foes on shore. That it might not, in form, be considered an arbitrary expedient for riddance, after Mr. Parry had fitted to his neck a brass collar, proof to Indian appliances for removal, he was freed from his bonds under the supervision of Mr. Welson, who offered him his choice between the continued hospitalities of the steamer, or liberty, such as he might be able to secure from his congeners on either bank of the river? The speedy announcement of his choice was urged by three strong shocks of the battery. When his agitating consternation had sufficiently subsided from the last talismanic touch to his neck decoration, his head disappeared over the bulwarks with his heels in reversion, giving farewell nods to his civilized entertainers. When last seen beneath the water’s surface he was making for the eastern shore with a frog’s exampled despatch.
The kind-hearted readers will be unnecessarily excited, if from the foregoing relation they are inclined to think our enactments were dictated solely for the gratification of instinctive mirth. Mr. Welson’s object was to obtain a clear demonstration of instinct in the rudimentary foundation of habit as the source of progressive inclination in its bearings upon the present standard of civilization. The participation of the padre in the vague terrors of the savage from a reciprocation in kind, from the two extremes of cultivated progression, offered absolute evidence of a common origin and source of provocation, the variations in expression being dependent upon practiced habits and customs. The padre attempted to offer his own experience to subvert the ferocious testimony of the old savage while under the effects of whiskey, pleading that it had ever exerted an opposite influence with him, exciting in its action a genial flow of sympathy. This partial testimony was overruled by the acknowledgment that in social whiskey bouts, indulged in as night passatempos, he had invariably been obliged to act as a peaceful arbitrator. With the impression made from the effects of whiskey on the savage, all our habits of indulgence were curtailed, greatly to the advantage of kindly reciprocation which had often been chilled by theoretical disputations that ended as they began, in the void of instinctive mutation.
CHAPTER V.
The constantly increasing perils of the voyage from the pertinacity of our savage foes, recalled the warning words of an old priest of Santa Anna who had engaged in one of the Jesuitical expeditions. He advised us to keep at a safe distance from the shore, and never attempt to hold friendly intercourse with the savages, or endeavor to conciliate them with presents, as it would expose us to their deadly treachery. “You must be constant in your guard or they will board you in the night, for they are as familiar with darkness and water as the land. If they come within reach of your guns kill and spare not, for fear, if you can inspire it, will be your only source of safety.” Our daily experience had thus far confirmed the prudence of his advice, and it was yet a question of extreme hazard if we should attempt to land. Each day afforded additional evidence that the tribes were banded together in a defensive alliance against the whites, with a politic foresight that made intertribal jealousies secondary to their exclusion. When partisan ferocity, so deadly in manifestation with the aboriginal races of America, could be made to coalesce for protection against the aggressive tendencies of a race in customs and habits inimical to their own, it seemed an act of desperation to attempt the farther prosecution of our Quixotic enterprise. This feeling had perceptibly gained strength while the ferocious characteristics of the old savage remained unsubdued, under the impression that our vitality was held with a lease as precarious as his own. The padre’s exhibition of fear had established him in the belief that in stoical courage we were inferior to his own race. This impression he had evidently found means to convey to his tribe. But Mr. Welson had, by a seemingly chance train of humorous experiment, dissipated his reliance upon the savage hypothesis of instinctive sagacity. The fancied superiority of his exaltation realized to the old chief the attributes of deity, while the padre became reduced, in his estimation, to a kindred caste with his tribe. In train the gyved circlet of his neck, as a talismanic badge of investment, would be likely to afford material evidence in proof of Mr. Welson’s deistical power. These impressions, which it would be natural for him to impart, would prove ominous as a prestige of awe, similar in effect to that afforded by Moses to the Israelites. The contrast between the old chief and Waantha discovered a marked distinction in tribal caste, dependent upon the miasmatic influence exerted by local impressions derived from degrees of purity in the sources of exhalation that gave birth to kindred habits and customs. The former devoted his attention to engendered animosity, while the latter eagerly searched for some token of kindly sympathy, and when it was bestowed his whole being became instinct with grateful pleasure. Even the dogs evinced an inherent perception of Waantha’s higher grade by fawning acknowledgment, while with the old chief the defiant acrimony increased rather than diminished. In habits the same characteristic features prevailed. In eating the old savage used as little ceremony as the dogs, and far less in the modest observance of the other requirements of nature; while the younger seemed to derive intense pleasure from cleanly imitations. With these instinctive demonstrations we will resume our descriptive course.