Manoa

“ After an exciting voyage, enlivened by conflicts with Spanish ships, the survivors land on the coast of South America and proceed inward in search of Manoa. Besides the dangers from Spaniards and natives, they meet with all the perils of the wilderness: disease and death at the hands of the Spaniards, Indians and wild animals thinning their ranks to less than half; yet the spirits of Amyas never falter, and the remnant of his force follow him with a devotion that is wonderful. ”

“ Manoa, whose golden spires and pinnacles are shining below us, is the City of the Sun, which Sir Walter Raleigh and the p. 185Spaniards could never find, so that men have doubted of its existence. We are needed there, to judge by that angry crowd in the marketplace. How they howl!”
p. 186CHAPTER X.
The End.
It was on a strange sight that the king and Ricardo looked down from the Flying Horse. Beneath them lay the City of Manoa, filling with its golden battlements and temples a hollow of the mountains. ”

“ He was informed by Berreo that the empire of Guiana had more gold than Peru; that the imperial city called by the Spaniards “El Dorado” was called by the Indians “Manoa,” and was situated on a lake of salt water two hundred leagues long, and that it was the largest and richest city in the world. Berreo showed Sir Walter a copy of a narrative by Juan Martinez of his journey to Manoa, which had induced Berreo to send a special messenger to Spain to get up an expedition for the conquest of El Dorado, or, as it was then called, “Laguna de la Gran Manoa.” ”

“ These rat-sister-gods seemed to have charge of their brother and his sports. His incantations and chants were made in their names. The real [158] sister was named “Ka-ui-o-Manoa” (“The Beauty of Manoa”) . She was a very beautiful woman, who came to Oahu to meet Pawaa, the chief of Manoa Valley, and marry him. He was an aikane (bosom friend) to Kakuhihewa, the king of Oahu. They made their home at Kahaloa in Manoa Valley. They also had Kahoiwai in the upper end of the valley.
The boy’s name was Pikoi-a-ka-Alala (Pikoi, the son of Alala) . ”

“ The conversion of the Manoa Indians, although inconsiderable, was extremely interesting, inasmuch as it led to that of the other tribes which are scattered over the Pampa del Sacramento, and on the banks of the Ucayali. Twenty leagues to the south of Manoa, the Sipibos, sprung from the ferocious Callisecas, by whom the Payanzos missionaries were cut off, inhabit the banks of the river Pisqui. ”

“ The legend, which has never been traced to its ultimate source, had many variants, especially as regards the situation attributed to Manoa. It induced many Spanish explorers to lead expeditions in search of treasure, but all failed. Among the most famous were the expedition undertaken by Diego de Ordaz, whose lieutenant Martinez claimed to have been rescued from shipwreck, conveyed inland, and entertained at Omoa by “El Dorado” himself (1531) ”

“ When the Indians on the coast found that the whites seemed insatiate of gold and pearls, they fostered the madness, directing their strange invaders far up into the land, to the great city of Manoa, the El-Dorado of the Spaniards, and which no one ever reached. ”

“ Berrio caused his maese de campo, Domingo de Vera, to prepare in Europe an expedition of two thousand men to go up the Orinoco, and conquer El Dorado, which then began to be called the country of the Manoa, and even the Laguna de la gran Manoa. Rich landholders sold their farms, to take part in a crusade, to which twelve Observantin monks, and ten secular ecclesiastics were annexed. ”

“ In the story are related the adventures of Amyas Leigh, a large, powerful and exceedingly vigorous man from Devonshire, who follows the life of the sea during the days of Queen Elizabeth. Like many of the men of his age, he becomes absorbed with the notion that in South America is the great city of Manoa, whose wealth in gold and jewels far exceeds that of Mexico and Peru. ”

“ Sir Walter Raleigh also twice tried to reach the pretended city of Manoa, or El Dorado, which is supposed to have been situated in lake Parima, and whose streets were paved with gold; which marvellous story had most probably its origin in an Indian village, built on an island whose soil contained mica, which glittering, and appearing splendid in the sunshine, deceived the adventurers who had observed it.
In later times the Spaniards have endeavoured to conquer these regions, but have always been unsuccessful ”

“ Manoa then departs to prosecute his endeavour with the Philistian Lords for Samson's redemption; who in the mean while is visited by other persons; and lastly by a publick Officer to require coming to the Feast before the Lords and People, to play or shew his strength in thir presence ”

“ And he said, I am.
13:12 And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the rule for the child and what will be his work?
13:13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the woman take note of what I have said to her.
13:14 She is to have nothing which comes from the vine for her food, and let her take no wine or strong drink or anything which is unclean; let her take care to do all I have given her orders to do.
13:15 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Now let us keep you while we make ready a young goat for you. ”

“ If the writer above quoted be correct in saying that Manoah was a shoemaker, he must have made good use of his spare time, and even of his working hours, for at the age of nineteen he is said to have been teaching Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac. During the greater part of his life he was a prominent preacher in connection with the New Jerusalem or Swedenborgian community. For fifty-three years, from the time of his ordination in 1790, he held the pastorate of the congregation for which the Friars Street Chapel, London, was built in 1803. ”

“ Twenty miles away to the south and east of the ship, the purple-grey crests of the mountains of Savai'i rose nearly five thousand feet in air, and, nearer the long verdant slope of beautiful Upolu stretched softly and gently upwards from the white beaches of the western point to the forest-clad sides of Mount Tofoa—ten miles distant. Still nearer to the ship, and shining like a giant emerald lying within a circlet of snow, was the island of Manono, the home or birthplace of all the chiefly families of Samoa for many centuries back. ”

“ They are ships at anchor. Six leagues to the westward the white line of reef trends away from the shore, makes a sharp turn, and then runs southward. Within this bend the water is a brilliant green, and resting upon it are two small islands. One is Manono, a veritable garden, lined with strips of shining beaches and fringed with cocos. It is the home of the noble families of Samoa, and most of the past great chiefs are buried there. Beyond is the small but lofty crater island of Apolima—a place ever impregnable to assault by natives. ”

“ Manoo was a very learned judge, who had been appointed, while still quite young, Chief Justice of the King's Court, and was renowned for the wise and prudent judgments that he invariably pronounced.
The Nāt objected to the proposition. Secretly he feared that Manoo might perhaps guess his identity; but the woodman assented eagerly to his wife's idea, and between them they overcame [15] the other's dislike, and the three started without delay, going through the forest between the silvered line of palm-trees ”

“ The A'ana people at this time were suffering from the tyranny of Manono, a small island which boasted of the fact of its being the birthplace and home of nearly all the ruling chiefs of Samoa, and the extraordinary respect with which people of chiefly lineage are treated by Samoans, generally led them to suffer the greatest indignities and oppressions by the haughty and warlike Manonoans, who exacted under threats a continuous tribute of food, fine mats and canoes. ”

“ Then Manono made alliance with other powerful chiefs of Savai'i and Upolu against A'ana, and two thousand of them, after great slaughter, occupied the town of Fasito'otai, and the A'ana people retired to inland fortresses, resolved to fight to the very last. Among the leaders of the defeated people were two white men—an Englishman and an American—whose valour was so much admired, even by the Manono people, that they were openly solicited to desert the A'ana people, and come over to the other side, where great honours and gifts of lands awaited them. ”

“ Manvers, shaking with excitement, left them. Here again was a Manuela! Manuela, her burnt face on fire, her eyes blown fierce by rage, her tawny hair streaming in the wind; Manuela with a knife, hacking the life out of Estéban, came vividly before him. Ah, those soft lips of hers could bare the teeth; within an hour of his kissing her she must have bared them, when she snarled on that other. And her eyes which had peered into his, to see if liking were there—how had they gleamed. upon the man she slew? ”

“ Manoo and the missionary both expressed a great deal of disappointment when I spoke in terms of disapprobation of this also as a watering-place—it being altogether too far from the shore. On our return from the spring, we took a different footpath from that by which we came, and ascended to a more elevated part of the island to see the work of the missionary, as it was called by Manoo. This consisted of two or three enclosures by means of stakes, in the midst of the forest, where the trees had been cut down for several acres, which was cleared and planted with sweet potatoes and tobacco. ”

“ One of my greatest pleasures in Manaos has been to walk toward the neighboring forest at nightfall, and see the water-carriers, Indian and negro, coming down from the narrow pathways with their great red earthen jars on their 192heads. They make quite a procession at morning and evening; for the river water is not considered good, and the town is chiefly supplied from pools and little streamlets in the woods. ”

“ Manuel, the night before, pulled out of the water into a boat—raging, half-drowned, eloquent, inspired. The contemptible beast was inspired, as a politician is, a demagogue. He could sway his fellows, as I had heard enough to know. And I felt a slight chill on the warmth of my hope, because that bright sail, brilliantly and furtively dodging along in our wake, must be the product of Manuel’s inspiration, urged to perseverance by the fear of O’Brien. ”

“ Benito did not speak; he could not utter a word. Manoel and Fragoso respected his silence. And so the three of them went along and looked about on all sides as they traversed the space between the bank of the Rio Negro and that of the Amazon. Three-quarters of an hour after leaving Manaos, and still they had seen nothing!
Once or twice Indians working in the fields were met with. Manoel questioned them, and one of them at length told him that a man, such as he described, had just passed in the direction of the angle formed by the two rivers at their confluence. ”

“ It is very difficult to explain the prevailing fairness of this tribe except by presupposing an admixture of some other blood. The Manóbo lives in as dark forests and on as lofty mountains as those occupied by Mandáyas. His manner of life is practically the same, and yet the average tint of his skin is far darker, so much so that the Mandáya, in speaking not only of him but of Mañgguáñgan and even of Bisáya, spurns them all as being "black." ”

“ In a large house, with such a conglomeration of human beings, it is obvious that an impression of confusion is made upon the visitor. The performance of the various culinary operations by the women, the various employments in which the men are engaged, making arrows, fish traps, etc., the romping of the children, all these tend to heighten the impression. But the Manóbo goes on with his work, tranquil in the midst of it all, savoring his conversation with incessant quids of betel nut or tobacco. ”

“ When other woodcutters have come, they have and do always crave permission of the Nāt residing in the tree to take from it even one branch. [20] Therefore you must see that I have had just cause to be angry."
Manoo then said that the woodman had certainly been wrong in the way he had acted. Then, turning to the woman, he directed her and her husband to hang up a dried cocoa-nut on the best side of their hut for the Nāt to make his home in—an order which they promised to speedily obey. ”

“ The unwearied object of my solicitude was to save Manon from every inconvenience. She felt this, and her gratitude, together with a lively sense of the singular position in which I had placed myself solely for her sake, rendered the dear creature so tender and impassioned, so attentive also to my most trifling wants, that it was between us a continual emulation of attentions and of love. I felt no regret at quitting Europe; on the contrary, the nearer we approached America, the more did I feel my heart expand and become tranquil. ”

“ But the form he has observed cowering under the shadow of the cotton-woods was no fancy, nor four-footed creature, but a human being, a man—in short, Manuel the Indian.
Manuel is mad in love with the little mestiza, who, with Spanish blood in her veins, is, nevertheless, maternally of his own race—that of the Indios mansos, or “tame Indians,” of New Mexico—so called in contradistinction to the Indios bravos, the savages who, from the conquest till this day, have never submitted themselves to Spanish rule. ”

“ Minha made Manoel admire the natural wonders which could not be found in their simplicity in the more civilized provinces of the east. He listened to her more with his eyes than his ears, for the cries and the songs of these thousands of birds were every now and then so penetrating that he was not able to hear what she said. The noisy laughter of Lina was alone sufficiently shrill to ring out with its joyous note above every kind of clucking, chirping, hooting, whistling, and cooing. ”