Maraquito

“ West hereof is the city of Maracaibo, very pleasant to the view, its houses being built along the shore, having delightful prospects all round: the city may contain three or four thousand persons, slaves included, all which make a town of a reasonable bigness. There are judged to be about eight hundred persons able to bear arms, all Spaniards. Here are one parish church, well built and adorned, four monasteries, and one hospital. The city is governed by a deputy governor, substituted by the governor of the Caraccas. The trade here exercised is mostly in hides and tobacco. ”

“ OLLANTAY.
I doubt not those who seek me—come,
Let us depart and quickly march.
PIQUI CHAQUI.
When flight is the word, I am here.
(Exeunt.)
SCENE 5
The great hall of the palace of Pachacuti. The INCA, as before, seated on the tiana. Enter to him RUMI-ÑAUI.
PACHACUTI.
I ordered a search to be made,
But Ollantay was not to be found.
My rage I can scarcely control—
Hast thou found this infamous wretch?
RUMI-ÑAUI.
His fear makes him hide from thy wrath.
PACHACUTI.
Take a thousand men fully armed,
And at once commence the pursuit. ”

“ The Senhorina and her sire were engaged in a gossiping criticism of the officers of this vessel when Yoosoof was announced. Audience was immediately granted.
Entering the room, with Azinté close behind him, the Arab stopped abruptly on beholding Maraquita, and bowed gravely.
“Leave us, my child,” said the Governor, in Portuguese; “I have business to transact with this man.”
“And why may not I stay to assist you, father, in this wonderful man-mystery of transacting business?” asked Maraquita, with an arch smile.
“Whenever you men want to get rid of women you frighten them away with business! ”

“ Malachi then spoke to Percival in the Indian language; Percival listened for some time, and at last replied in the same tongue.
“What does he say, Malachi?” said Alfred.
“He says he will sing his own death song; that he is the son of a warrior, and he will die like a brave.”
“Why, the boy is metamorphosed,” said Captain Sinclair; “is it possible that so short a time could have produced this?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Malachi; “in young people a very short time will change them thus, but it won’t last long. ”

“ The waves, Mariquita, are those dangerous and perfidious sirens, personified by the flowery and fantastic imagination of the Greeks; creatures of a rare beauty, but without hearts, as seductive as terrible, and whose sweet voices attract men to their perdition. But thy sweet voice, Mariquita, seduces not to deceive; you attract like the siren, you will not be perfidious like her. Is it not true, Mariquita, you will never be ungrateful? ”

“ North of the city, Maracaibo, are salinas or salt deposits, from which several thousand tons are taken annually. Southwest of Maracaibo, a peculiar tree is found in the forest, the arbol de vaca, or palo de leche, the sap of which, though slightly thicker, may be used in every way as cow’s milk. In the forests are valuable timber, useful creepers, and trees which furnish various gums or resins. Around the lake are found outcrops of coal, also petroleum and asphalt.
COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA, GUIANA, ECUADOR, NORTH BRAZIL
The capital city, Maracaibo, is a busy place, and prosperous. ”

“ Mariquita’s mother knew the exile, since, according to the custom in Filipino families, she looked after the business interests of her husband. Curious to see the belle of whom he had heard so much, the Marquis made an excuse of doing business with the mother, and went Page 59to her home on an occasion when he knew that the mother was away. No one else was there to answer his knock and Mariquita, busied in making candy, could not in her confusion find a coconut shell to dip water for washing her hands from the large jar, and not to keep the visitor waiting, she answered the door as she was. ”

“ But sooner or later Mariquita must share, for in that the silent tenderness of her nature showed itself: she could not be content to have her great happiness to herself, to enjoy alone. So, presently, in her prayer she came, as always, to gathering round her all whom she knew and all whom she did not know. As she would have wished them to think in their prayer of her, so must she have them also in the Divine Presence with her, lift their names up to God, even their names which, unknown to her, He knew as well as He knew her own. ”

“ Malachi was convinced that the young Indian had been sent to intimate that Percival was alive and in captivity, and he resolved to wait patiently till he brought up the subject.
"Does not the cold kill the white man?" said the Indian, at last.
"No; the white man can bear the winter's ice as well as an Indian. He hunts as well, and brings home venison."
"Are all who came here with him now in the white man's lodge?"
"No, not all; one white child slept in the snow, and is in the land of spirits," replied Malachi. ”

“ After the death of this Morequito, the soldiers of Berreo spoiled his territory and took divers prisoners. Among others they took the uncle of Morequito, called Topiawari, who is now king of Aromaia, whose son I brought with me into England, and is a man of great understanding and policy; he is above an hundred years old, and yet is of a very able body. ”

“ As intimated, a considerable portion of Marajo is covered with a forest growth so dense as to be compared to the jungles of Africa and India, and which, so far as is known, has never been penetrated by the foot of man. Travelers who have visited the borders of this leafy wilderness expatiate upon the strange, inexplicable sounds which are heard at times, amid the prevailing stillness and sombre aspect of these primeval woods. Sometimes there comes, it is said, from out the forest depth a wild cry, like that of a human being in distress, but which, however long one may listen, is not repeated. ”

“ When Mariquita had reached the top of the bluff she took advantage of the slight elevation on which she stood, to look round upon the great spread of country stretching to the low horizon on every side. It was, like most days here, a day of wind and sun. The air was utterly pure and scentless; the scent was not fir-scent, and the scattered, windy trees gave no smell. She saw a chipmunk and laughed, as the sight of that queer little creature, and its odd mixture of shyness and effrontery always made her laugh.
It was even singularly clear, and the foothills of the Rockies were just visible. ”

“ What on earth can Mariquita confess? At first her goodness put my back up. But I wish she was back. It never occurs to her that she's good. I soon found that out. And she thinks everyone else as good as gold. She thinks all these cowboys good, and she does almost make them want to be. It was funny that she didn't dislike me. (I should have if I'd been in her place.) When she kissed me good-bye and said 'Sarella, we'll never forget each other,' it meant more than pounds of candy-talk from another girl. Forget her! Not I. Will Gore? He will never think any other girl her equal. ”

“ The girls wanted to kill it, but Mariquita would not let them. The serpent came near to her, caressed her a great deal, and began to lick the sockets of her eyes, for it was the same which she had reared from a little snake. It said to Mariquita, "Thy foster sister Estefania will soon have a baby, and all that she sets eyes on she longs for. Send the little old man to the town, let him buy the most beautiful nosegay of flowers that he can find, and take it to sell at the king's palace." The little old man did so, and when he passed by the palace, cried out, "Who buys nosegays?" ”

“ The mother wore rich but dowdy black and an impossible headgear, a rather hawklike affair which appeared to have alighted by mistake on the piles of dusky hair where it was shakily balancing itself, but Mariquita's narrow blue serge was entirely modish, and her tan pumps, and sheer amber silk hose, and her impudent hat. The Señor spent a large portion of his time in the smoker and the Señora bent over a worn prayer book or murmured under her breath as her fingers slipped over the beads in her lap, but the girl chattered unceasingly. ”

“ If he were to meet again with his mother at the settlement, he would by degrees forget his Indian life and become reconciled; a woman has more effect than a man. Let the Strawberry speak to him. You see, sir, he is bound, and considers himself a captive, and let him loose we must not, until we have done our work; after that, there will be no fear, and when he has been with us a short time, he will come all right again."
Malachi called the Strawberry, and told her to speak to Percival about his home and his mother, and every thing connected with the farm. ”

“ For this great service the chief of Anta was declared to be a noble of the highest rank and cousin to the Inca family. Moreover, the daughter of the Anta chief was married to the Inca Uira-cocha, and was the mother of Pachacuti. Assuming, as seems probable, that Ollantay was a son of the chief of Anta, he would be a cousin of the Inca, and of very high rank, though not an agnate of the reigning family. This, I take it, is what is intended. Pachacuti desired to raise his family high above all others, and that, consequently, there should be no marriages with subjects even of the highest rank ”

“ Mariquita did not want to be indoors; outside, here on the tilted prairie, she was alone and not lonely. The tilt of the vast space around her showed chiefly in this—that eastward the horizon was visibly lower than at the western rim of the prairie. The prairie was not really flat; between her and both horizons there lay undulations, those between her and the western rising into mesas, which, with a haze so light as only to tell in the great distance, hid the distant barrier of the Rocky Mountains, whose foothills even were beyond the frontiers of this State. ”

“ HAVING imprisoned the principal citizens of Lima, got possession of the city, and seized all the arms and horses, the party resolved that Don Diego should be recognized as Governor. The news of the death of the Marquis was soon spread over all the districts, and reached the ears of the Indians. When it became generally known it was deeply mourned. The Indians said that the Christians had been very cruel to kill their captain, and that his death would give rise to grave evils. Never again would there be any one to shelter and protect them like him who was the first to discover and conquer them. ”

“ The archæology of the lower Amazon is best known from the remains found on the Island of Marajo where female figurines exhibit close similarity in pose to specimens from Venezuela and Mexico. This culture of Marajo seems to have been disrupted before the coming of Europeans. But it may be significant that crude fetishes representing women are used at the present time by tribes on the margins of the old Amazonian culture area. The earliest level at Ancon, Peru, yields ware recalling northern products. ”

“ It will thus be seen that fevers and perilous roads are not the only dangers to be apprehended in a search for chinchona-plants.
Lastly, and extending for a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, from Marcapata to the frontier of Bolivia, is the watershed along that part of the eastern Andes known as the Snowy Range of Caravaya, where the numerous streams take their rise which unite to form the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios, Marcapata, and Ynambari are thus the three great sources of the Purus. The tributaries of the latter drain the province of Caravaya. ”

“ Sarella, listening, and knowing that the two men were looking at each other, smiled at her bangle, and softly shook the dangling heart to make the crystal give as diamond-like a glitter as possible. Gore's life, she thought, would come all right. She had done her best valorously for Mariquita; women, in her theory, behooved to do their best for each other against masculine tyrrany ("bossishness," she called it) , but all the time she was half-savage, herself, with the girl for not being willing to be happy in so obviously comfortable a way as offered. ”

“ This was frequently the case on our expeditions to the large townships which lay on the lake of Mexico, and in our attacks upon those mountains which are now known by the name of the Marquis mountains. On the latter occasion it was in vain for us to represent to him that it would be impossible to storm the rocky heights against the huge masses of stone which were rolled down upon us; that all our courage and experience would be of no avail, and that we should all run the risk of being crushed to pieces. ”

“ Our Maracaná used to accompany us sometimes in our rambles, one of the lads carrying it on his head. One day, in the middle of a long forest road, it was missed, having clung probably to an overhanging bough and escaped into the thickets without the boy perceiving it. Three hours afterwards, on our return by the same path, a voice greeted us in a colloquial tone as we passed "Maracaná!" We looked about for some time, but could not see anything until the word was repeated with emphasis "Maracaná-á!" when we espied the little truant half concealed in the foliage of a tree. ”

“ The Indian again stopped and was silent. He knew by the words of Malachi that the wolf’s skin, with which the Indian had been covered when he was crawling to the palisades and had been shot by John, had been discovered; Malachi, after a while, renewed the conversation.
“Is the Young Otter of a near tribe?”
“The lodges of our tribe are twelve days’ journey to the westward,” replied the Indian.
“The chief of the Young Otter’s band is a great warrior?”
“He is,” replied the Indian.
“Yes,” replied Malachi. “The Angry Snake is a great warrior. ”