Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

GRAVE OF A COUNTRYMAN.

367

flowers. It was a bier carrying the body of a child to the cemetery. We followed, and passing it at the gate, entered through a chapel, at the door of which sat three or four men selling lottery-tickets, one of whom asked us if we wished to see the grave of our countryman. We assented, and he conducted us to the grave of a young American whom I had known by sight, and several members of whose family I knew personally. He died about a year before my visit, and his funeral was attended with mournful circumstances. The vicar refused him burial in consecrated ground. Dr. Brayley, who was the only European resident in Cartago, and at whose house he died, rode over to San José, and making a strong point of the treaty existing between the United States and Central America, obtained an order from the government for his burial in the cemetery. Still the fanatic vicar, acting, as he said, under a higher power, refused. A messenger was sent to San José, and two companies of soldiers were ordered to the doctor's house to escort the body to the grave. At night men were stationed at its side to watch that it was not dug up and thrown out. The next day the vicar, with the cross and images of saints, and all the emblems of the church, and a large concourse of citizens, moved in solemn procession to the cemetery, and formally reconsecrated the ground which had been polluted by the burial of a heretic. The grave is the third from the corridor.

In the corridor, and in an honoured place among the principal dead of Cartago, lay the body of another stranger, an Englishman named Bailey. The day before his death the alcalde was called in to draw his will, who, according to the customary form, asked him if he was a Christian. Mr. Bailey answered yes; and the

alcalde wrote him Catolico Romano Apostolico Chris. tiano. Mr. Bailey himself did not contemplate this; he knew the difficulty in the case of my countryman about six months before; and wishing to spare his friends a disagreeable and, perhaps, unsuccessful controversy, had already indicated a particular tree under which he wished to be buried. Before the will was read to him he died. His answer to the alcalde was considered evidence of his orthodoxy; his friends did not interfere, and he was buried under the special direction of the priests, with all the holiest ceremonies of the Church. It was the greatest day ever known in Cartago. The funeral was attended by all the citizens. The procession started from the door of the church, headed by violins and drums; priests followed, with all the crosses, figures of saints, and banners that had been accumulating from the foundation of the city. At the corners of the plaza and of all the principal streets, the procession stopped to sing hallelujahs, to represent the joy in Heaven over a sinner that repents.

arms.

While standing in the corridor we saw pass the man who had accompanied the bier, with the child in his He was its father, and with a smile on his face was carrying it to its grave. He was followed by two boys playing on violins, and others were laughing around. The child was dressed in white, with a wreath of roses around its head; and as it lay in its father's arms it did not seem dead, but sleeping. The grave was not quite ready, and the boys sat on the heap of dirt thrown out, and played the violin till it was finished. The father then laid the child carefully in its final restingplace, with its head to the rising sun; folded its little hands across its breast, and closed its fingers around a small wooden crucifix; and it seemed, as they thought

MANAGING A SERVANT.

369

it was, happy at escaping the troubles of an uncertain world. There were no tears shed; on the contrary, all were cheerful; and though it appeared heartless, it was not because the father did not love his child, but because he and all his friends had been taught to believe, and were firm in the conviction, that, taken away so young, it was transferred immediately to a better world. The father sprinkled a handful of dirt over its face, the grave-digger took his shovel, in a few moments the little grave was filled up, and preceded by the boy playing on his violin, we all went away together.

The next morning, with great regret, I took leave of my kind friends and returned to San José.

me.

It is my misfortune to be the sport of other men's wives. I lost the best servant I had in Guatimala because his wife was afraid to trust him with me, and on my return I found 'Hezoos at the convent waiting for While putting my things in order, without looking me in the face, he told me of the hardships his wife, "la povera," had suffered during his absence, and how difficult it was for a married woman to get along without her husband. I saw to what he was tending; and feeling, particularly since the recurrence of my fever and ague, the importance of having a good servant in the long journey I had before me, with the selfishness of a traveller I encouraged his vagabond propensities, by telling him that in a few weeks he would be tired of home, and would not have so good an opportunity of getting away. This seemed so sensible that he discontinued his hints and went off contented.

At three o'clock I felt uncertain in regard to my chill, but, determined not to give way, dressed myself, and went to dine with Mr. Steiples. Before sitting down, the blueness of my lips, and a tendency to use superfluVOL. I.-3 A

ous syllables, betrayed me; and my old enemy shook me all the way back to the convent, and into bed. Fever followed, and I lay in bed all next day, receiving many visits at the door, and a few inside. One of the latter was from 'Hezoos, who returned stronger than before, and coming to the point, said that he himself was anxious to go with me, but his wife would not consent. I felt that if she had fairly taken the field against me it was all over, but told him that he had made a contract, and was already overpaid; and sent her a pair of gold earrings to keep her quiet.

For four days in succession I had a recurrence of chill and fever. Every kindness was shown me in the convent, friends visited me, and Dr. Brayley came over from Cartago to attend me, but withal I was desponding. The day fixed for setting out with Alvarado arrived. It was impossible to go; Dr. Brayley advised me that it would be unwise, while any tendency to the disease remained, to undertake it. There were six days of desert travelling to the port of San Juan, without a house on the road, but mountains to cross and rivers to ford. The whole party was to go on foot except myself; four extra men would be needed to pass my mule over some difficult places, and there was always more or less rain. San Juan was a collection of miserable shanties, and from that place it was necessary to embark in a bungo for ten or fifteen days on an unhealthy river. Besides all this, I had the alternative to return by the Cosmopolita to Zonzonate, or to go to Guatimala by land, a journey of twelve hundred miles, through a country destitute of accommodations for travellers, and dangerous from the convulsions of civil war. At night, as I lay alone in the convent, and by the light of a small

AN ACCOMPLISHED VAGABOND.

371

candle saw the bats flying along the roof, I felt gloomy and would have been glad to be at home.

Still I could not bear the idea of losing all I came for. The land-route lay along the coast of the Pacific, and for three days was the same as to the port. I determined to go by land, but, by the advice of Dr. Brayley, to start in time for the vessel; and in the hope that I would not have another chill, I bought two of the best mules in San José, one being that on which I had ascended the Volcano of Cartago, and the other a macho, not more than half broke, but the finest animal I ever mounted.

To return to 'Hezoos. The morning after I gave him the earrings he had not come, but sent word that he had the fever and ague. The next day he had it much worse, and satisfied that I must lose him, I sent him word that if he would procure me a good substitute I would release him. This raised him from bed, and in the afternoon he came with his substitute, who had very much the air of being the first man he had picked up in the street. His dress was a pair of cotton trousers, with a shirt outside, and a high, bell-crowned, narrow-brimmed black straw hat; and all that he had in the world was on his back. His hair was cut very close except in front, where it hung in long locks over his face; in short, he was the beau ideal of a Central American loafer. I did not like his looks, but I was at the time under the influence of fever, and told him I could give him no answer. He came again the next day at a moment when I wanted some service; and by degrees, though I never hired him, he quietly engaged me as his master.

The morning before I left, Don Augustin Gutierres called upon me, and seeing this man at the door, ex

« FöregåendeFortsätt »