“‘In vain our eyes, from the mast, searched the shore for evidences of man’s habitation; neither smoke from hamlets or signs of cultivation could be traced. Weary and weak, but composed in spirit, from our now secure attachment to land, which, although foreign, seemed afar off fruitful, all sank into a deep and refreshing slumber, lulled by the familiar sound of the cicada’s shrill vibrations, which continued unbroken until the dawn of another day, when we were awakened by the sound of strange voices speaking an unknown tongue. Surprised, but not alarmed, when we discovered that the utterances were from a collection of human beings who were viewing us and our vessel from the bank that overlooked the transtra, our own curiosity was in like manner attracted by the novelty of their appearance. In stature they exceeded in height our own, but were gracefully formed, with expressive features inclined in color to a brownish red. With eyes of vivid blackness they seemed capable of giving intensity to the two extremes of passion—expressed by revengeful anger and dalliant softness. The covering of their bodies was so slight that it failed to afford the shadow of concealment or restraint to their persons.
“‘While we were sleeping they had drawn our vessel into the inlet so far that with slight assistance we could raise ourselves to a footing upon the bank, this with signs they proffered and we accepted. When seated upon the grassy plain, the women with native grace prepared in shell a thick paste compounded of milk and fruits, exceedingly palatable and refreshing. For a drink they pierced the eyes of large nuts from which flowed a milky fluid that found special favor with our women and children. These tokens of kindly regard were presented with timid gentleness and solicitude that won our confidence.
“‘When our appetites were appeased in their craving for the novus res in freedom from the ocean’s savor of salt, signs of mutual curiosity began to flow in pantomimic gesture. First, they questioned from whence we came? We answered by pointing over the ocean. But when they pointed to the sky in its descent to the horizon, we saw that they would ask whether we were descended from the gods. Humoring their implied belief, we answered truly by uprooting a stalk of grass, then holding its seed filled follicles dependent we in addressing the roots to heaven shook the semina from their receptacles to the earth, therewith, to their apprehension, acknowledging our heavenly origin.
“‘Communing among themselves, with a deferential review of our persons they seemingly acknowledged the superiority of our pretensions, while questioning the cause of our forlorn condition when found. At length in their doubt they appealed to an aged man whose appearance augured wisdom, who answered sagely by addressing, for our comprehension and approval, his symbolic exposition of the cause. Selecting two tall spears of grass, overtopping the heads of their kind, he pointed to the eldest parents of our group, then reversing the stalks with the roots upward, he forced the symbols apart by introducing a younger female blade between, adherent to the tendrils of the paternal branch, causing the mother and her seed to fall to the earth. This disruptive demonstration so clearly defined his knowledge of the human passions, in accordance with the experienced injustice of our own race, that a blush of shame suffused, with its evidence of conviction, the faces of some of our elders whose withers of frailty had been touched. Taking these symptoms of assent as evidences of conviction, the oracle, with a self-complacent air, relapsed into silence, his kindred mingling their admiration for his ability in prescientia with reverence for our supposed paternity. Having arrived at the Ultima Thule of their curiosity we endeavored to satisfy ours without lessening the kindly reverence we inspired from our presumed descent from the gods. But learned nothing beyond the impression that the land extended, in the three opposed directions to the ocean, to the horizon, and that their country was the full of a moon nearer the setting sun, to which they invited us warmly to accompany them.
“‘Although still fancying that we were in a remote division of our own land, yet hopeless of regaining our homes, or intelligence of our people, we concluded to avail ourselves of their invitation, for an attempt to return by the ocean augured sure destruction. Nourished with fruits and wild game, which nature furnished and sustained without the aid of human labor, and nursed with the tenderest care we soon regained our strength. Signifying our readiness to accompany them, and desire to take with us our household lares, utensils, harvest, and fruit seeds, they brought, after the lapse of days, diminutive beasts of burden, which seemed united in equal relationship to the camel and goat. When the day of departure came, we bid tearful farewell to our vessel, then with the ready aid of our benefactors buried it from vision that it might escape desecration from wandering tribes.
“‘Many days were occupied in our inland journey before we reached the valley of our destination. When at length, after surmounting many difficulties, it opened to our view we were overjoyed with its beauty and the bounteous prospect it afforded for the fruitful recompense of our mischance in original intention. In the sincerity of our joy we could not withhold our thanksgiving for the divine direction that had conducted us through so many perils to a land, where, as demi-gods, we could live in freedom from the dread of invasion and corrupt oppression of imposed tyrants. Our advent brought peace to our benefactors, who had been forced into wandering exile by the neighboring tribes; who instead of opposing their return solicited the privilege of bestowing their labor as a willing sacrifice in atonement for their injustice in expelling the Betongo tribes from their lands while under the favor of the ruling spirit.
“‘Season after season followed the advent and propagation of our Latin generations in the Betongo valleys, each more bountiful than its predecessor, until years were multiplied into centuries. The reproduction of the exotic grains, fruits, and vegetables yielded tenfold returns in excess of their rates from native soil; and while our people preserved their original prestige as a race of superior beings, dealing with arbitrary justice free from forced oppression, they prospered and were reverenced by the aboriginals for the happiness they conferred by kindly example. During the first century, the castaways and their descendants did not disdain to give instruction to the natives with the exampled labor of their own hands; and through the adoption of their children in allied direction with those of the Latin race, easy communication in language was held.’”
Correliana here remarked, that in the first part she had adhered closely to the rendering of her Latin ancestor, Marcus Adinope, the Prætor of the castaways in their first settlement of the Betongo valleys. “I will now,” she said, “append his apology for practicing duplicity in accepting the homage of the aboriginals as their due in the assumed character of demi-gods.
“‘In the first instance, we felt constrained to accept their proffered reverence paid in fealty to our supposed descent from the gods, not from the feeling that the assumption would offer us the means of practicing arbitrary oppression in safety; but as a necessary composition for an exampled restraint of gentleness in association among ourselves, as a secure hostage for imparting its godlike virtues to our trusting neophytic benefactors. Aided with the harmless reverential impression, we were able the better to control the plebiscite democracy incorporated with our element of self command over the thoughtless impulses of the subservient oarsmen and hinds of our vessel. Our memories were kept on the alert with the monitorial revival of insurrections and massacres, which had their origin from impositions exacted in the conquered Roman provinces by plebeian officials who had paid a price for their promotion. Indeed, the cause of our transmigration had had its birth from that illegitimate source of instability.’
“After the passage of many centuries, another of our family has recorded the result of the democratic majority’s usurpation of the power of equalizing self-command, evidently in re-admonition of his predecessor’s apology:—