The Purple Land Page 5

  CHAPTER V

  Faith in the _estancia_ as a field for my activities had been weakfrom the first; the Mayordomo's words on his return had extinguished italtogether; and after hearing that ostrich parable I had only remainedfrom motives of pride. I now determined to go back towards Montevideo,not, however, over the route I had come by, but making a wide circuitinto the interior of the country, where I would explore a new field, andperhaps meet with some occupation at one of the _estancias_ on theway. Riding in a south-westerly direction towards the Rio Marlo in theTacuarembo department, I soon left the plains of Paysandu behind me,and, being anxious to get well away from a neighbourhood where Iwas expected to kill someone, I did not rest till I had ridden abouttwenty-five miles. At noon I stopped to get some refreshment at a littleroadside _pulperia_. It was a wretched-looking place, and behind theiron bars protecting the interior, giving it the appearance of a wildbeast's cage, lounged the storekeeper smoking a cigar. Outside the barwere two men with English-looking faces. One was a handsome young fellowwith a somewhat worn and dissipated look on his bronzed face; he wasleaning against the counter, cigar in mouth, looking slightly tipsy, Ithought, and wore a large revolver slung ostentatiously at his waist.His companion was a big, heavy man, with immense whiskers sprinkled withgrey, who was evidently very drunk, for he was lying full-length on abench, his face purple and swollen, snoring loudly. I asked for bread,sardines, and wine, and, careful to observe the custom of the countryI was in, duly invited the tipsy young man to join in the repast. Anomission of this courtesy might, amongst proud and sensitive Orientals,involve one in a sanguinary quarrel, and of quarrelling I had just thenhad enough.

  He declined with thanks, and entered into conversation with me; thenthe discovery, quickly made, that we were compatriots gave us both greatpleasure. He at once offered to take me to his house with him, andgave a glowing account of the free, jovial life he led in company withseveral other Englishmen--sons of gentlemen, every one of them,he assured me--who had bought a piece of land and settled down tosheep-farming in this lonely district. I gladly accepted the invitation,and when we had finished our glasses he proceeded to wake the sleeper.

  "Hullo, I say, Cap, wake up, old boy," shouted my new friend. "Quitetime to go home, don't you know. That's right--up you come. Now letme introduce you to Mr. Lamb. I'm sure he's an acquisition. What, offagain! Damn it, old Cloud, that's unreasonable, to say the least of it."

  At length, after a great deal of shouting and shaking, he succeeded inrousing his drunken companion, who staggered up and stared at me in animbecile manner.

  "Now let me introduce you," said the other. "Mr. Lamb. My friend,Captain Cloudesley Wriothesley. Bravo! Steady, old cock--now shakehands."

  The Captain said nothing, but took my hand, swaying forwards as if aboutto embrace me. We then with considerable difficulty got him on to hissaddle and rode off together, keeping him between us to prevent himfrom falling off. Half an hour's ride brought us to my host Mr.Vincent Winchcombe's house. I had pictured to myself a charming littlehomestead, buried in cool greenery and flowers, and filled with pleasantmemories of dear old England; I was, therefore, grievously disappointedto find that his "home" was only a mean-looking _rancho,_ with a ditchround it, protecting some ploughed or dug-up ground, on which not onegreen thing appeared. Mr. Winchcombe explained, however, that he had notyet had time to cultivate much. "Only vegetables and such things, don'tyou know," he said.

  "I don't see them," I returned.

  "Well, no; we had a lot of caterpillars and blister beetles and things,and they ate everything up, don't you know," said he.

  The room into which he conducted me contained no furniture except alarge deal table and some chairs; also a cupboard, a long mantelpiece,and some shelves against the walls. On every available place were pipes,pouches, revolvers, cartridge-boxes, and empty bottles. On the tablewere tumblers, cups, a sugar-basin, a monstrous tin teapot, and ademijohn, which I soon ascertained was half-full of Brazilian rum, orcana. Round the table five men were seated smoking, drinking tea andrum, and talking excitedly, all of them more or less intoxicated. Theygave me a hearty welcome, making me join them at the table, pouring outtea and rum for me, and generously pushing pipes and pouches towards me.

  "You see," said Mr. Winchcombe, in explanation of this convivialscene, "there are, altogether, ten of us settlers here going in forsheep-farming and that sort of thing. Four of us have already builthouses and bought sheep and horses. The other six fellows live withus from house to house, don't you know. Well, we've made a jollyarrangement--old Cloud--Captain Cloud, don't you know, first suggestedit--and it is that every day one of the four--the Glorious Four we arecalled--keeps open house; and it's considered the right thing for theother nine fellows to drop in on him some time during the day, justto cheer him up a bit. Well, we soon made the discovery--old Cloud, Ifancy, made it--that tea and rum were about the best things to have onthese occasions. To-day it was my day, and to-morrow it will be someother fellow's, don't you know. And, by Jove, how lucky I was to meetyou at the _pulperia!_ It will be ever so much jollier now."

  I had certainly not stumbled upon a charming little English paradise inthis Oriental wilderness, and as it always makes me uncomfortable tosee young men drifting into intemperate habits and making asses ofthemselves generally, I was not rapturously delighted with "old Cloud's"system. Still, I was glad to find myself with Englishmen in this distantcountry, and in the end I succeeded in making myself tolerably happy.The discovery that I had a voice pleased them greatly, and when,somewhat excited from the effects of strong cavendish, rum, and blacktea, I roared out:

  And may his soul in heaven dwell Who first found out the leather botel,

  they all got up and drank my health in big tumblers, and declared theywould never let me leave the colony.

  Before evening the guests departed, all except the Captain. He had satwith us at the table, but was too far gone in his cups to take part inthe boisterous fun and conversation. Once in about every five minutes hehad implored someone in a husky voice to give him a light for his pipe,then, after two or three ineffectual puffs, he would let it go outagain. He had also attempted two or three times to join in the chorus ofa song, but soon relapsed again into his imbecile condition.

  Next day, however, when he sat down refreshed by a night's sleep tobreakfast, I found him a very agreeable fellow. He had no house of hisown yet, not having received his money from home, he confidentiallyinformed me, but lived about, breakfasting in one house, dining in asecond, and sleeping in a third. "Never mind," he would say, "by and byit will be my turn; then I will receive you all every day for six weeksto make it all square."

  None of the colonists did any work, but all spent their time loungingabout and visiting each other, trying to make their dull existenceendurable by perpetual smoking and tea and rum drinking. They hadtried, they told me, ostrich-hunting, visiting their native neighbours,partridge-shooting, horse-racing, etc.; but the partridges were tootame for them, they could never catch the ostriches, the natives didn'tunderstand them, and they had finally given up all these so-calledamusements. In each house a peon was kept to take care of the flock andto cook, and as the sheep appeared to take care of themselves, and thecooking merely meant roasting a piece of meat on a spit, there was verylittle for the hired men to do.

  "Why don't you do these things for yourselves?" I innocently asked.

  "I fancy it wouldn't quite be the right thing, don't you know," said Mr.Winchcombe.

  "No," said the Captain gravely, "we haven't quite come down to thatyet."

  I was greatly surprised to hear them. I had seen Englishmen sensiblyroughing it in other places, but the lofty pride of these tenrum-drinking gentlemen was quite a new experience to me.

  Having spent a somewhat listless morning, I was invited to accompanythem to the house of Mr. Bingley, one of the Glorious Four. Mr. Bingleywas really a very nice young fellow, living in a house far more worthyof the name than the slovenly _rancho_ tenan
ted by his neighbourWinchcombe. He was the favourite of the colonists, having more moneythan the others, and keeping two servants. Always on his reception-dayhe provided his guests with hot bread and fresh butter, as well as withthe indispensable rum-bottle and teapot. It therefore happened that,when his turn came round to keep open house, not one of the other ninecolonists was absent from his table.

  Soon after our arrival at Bingley's the others began to appear, each oneon entering taking a seat at the hospitable board, and adding anothercloud to the dense volume of tobacco smoke obscuring the room. Therewas a great deal of hilarious conversation; songs were sung, and a vastamount of tea, rum, bread and butter, and tobacco consumed; but it wasa wearisome entertainment, and by the time it was over I felt heartilysick of this kind of life.

  Before separating, after "John Peel" had been sung with greatenthusiasm, someone proposed that we should get up a fox-hunt in realEnglish style. Everyone agreed, glad of anything, I suppose, to breakthe monotony of such an existence, and next day we rode out, followedby about twenty dogs, of various breeds and sizes, brought together fromall the houses. After some searching about in the most likely places, weat length started a fox from a bed of dark-leafed _mio-mio_ bushes. Hemade straight away for a range of hills about three miles distant, andover a beautifully smooth plain, so that we had a very good prospect ofrunning him down. Two of the hunters had provided themselves with horns,which they blew incessantly, while the others all shouted at the top oftheir lungs, so that our chase was a very noisy one. The fox appeared tounderstand his danger and to know that his only chance of escape layin keeping up his strength till the refuge of the hills was reached.Suddenly, however, he changed his course, this giving us a greatadvantage, for by making a short cut we were all soon close at hisheels, with only the wide level plain before us. But reynard had hisreasons for what he did; he had spied a herd of cattle, and in a veryfew moments had overtaken and mixed with them. The herd, struck withterror at our shouts and horn-blowing, instantly scattered and flew inall directions, so that we were able still to keep our quarry in sight.Far in advance of us the panic in the cattle ran on from herd to herd,swift as light, and we could see them miles away fleeing from us, whiletheir hoarse bellowings and thundering tread came borne by the windfaintly to our ears. Our fat lazy dogs ran no faster than our horses,but still they laboured on, cheered by incessant shouts, and at last raninto the first fox ever properly hunted in the Banda Oriental.

  The chase, which had led us far from home, ended close to a large_estancia_ house, and while we stood watching the dogs worrying theirvictim to death, the _capatas_ of the establishment, accompanied bythree men, rode out to inquire who we were, and what we were doing.He was a small dark native, wearing a very picturesque costume, andaddressed us with extreme politeness.

  "Will you tell me, senores, what strange animal you have captured?" heasked.

  "A fox," shouted Mr. Bingley, triumphantly waving the brush, which hehad just cut off, over his head. "In our country--in England--we huntthe fox with dogs, and we have been hunting after the manner of ourcountry."

  The _capatas_ smiled, and replied that, if we were disposed to join him,it would afford him great pleasure to show us a hunt after the manner ofthe Banda Oriental.

  We consented gladly, and, mounting our horses, set off at a swinginggallop after the _capatas_ and his men. We soon came to a small herd ofcattle; the _capatas_ dashed after them, and, unloosening the coils ofhis lasso, flung the noose dexterously over the horns of a fat heifer hehad singled out, then started homewards at a tremendous pace. The cow,urged forward by the men, who rode close behind, and pricked it withtheir knives, rushed on, bellowing with rage and pain, trying toovertake the _capatas_, who kept just out of reach of its horns; andin this way we quickly reached the house. One of the men now flunghis lasso and caught the beast's hind leg; pulled in two oppositedirections, it quickly came to a standstill; the other men, nowdismounting, first ham-strung, then ran a long knife into its throat.Without removing the hide, the carcass was immediately cut up, and thechoice pieces flung on to a great fire of wood, which one of the men hadbeen making. In an hour's time we all sat down to a feast of _carnecon cuero_, or meat roasted in the hide, juicy, tender, and exquisitelyflavoured. I must tell the English reader who is accustomed to eat meatand game which has been kept till it is tender, that before thetender stage is reached it has been permitted to get tough. Meat, gameincluded, is never so tender or deliciously flavoured as when cookedand eaten immediately after it is killed. Compared with meat at anysubsequent stage, it is like a new-laid egg or a salmon with the creamon, compared with an egg or a salmon after a week's keeping.

  We enjoyed the repast immensely, though Captain Cloud bitterly lamentedthat we had neither rum nor tea to wash it down. When we had thankedour entertainer and were about to turn our horses' heads homewards, thepolite _capatas_ once more stepped out and addressed us.

  "Gentlemen," he said, "whenever you feel disposed to hunt, come to meand we will lasso and roast a heifer in the hide. It is the best dishthe republic has to offer the stranger, and it will give me greatpleasure to entertain you; but I beg you will hunt no more foxes overthe ground belonging to this _estancia,_ for you have caused so great acommotion amongst the cattle I am placed here in charge of, that itwill take my men two or three days to find them all and bring them backagain."

  We gave the desired promise, plainly perceiving that fox-hunting in theEnglish fashion is not a sport adapted to the Oriental country. Then werode back, and spent the remaining hours at the house of Mr. Girling,of the Glorious Four, drinking rum and tea, smoking unlimited pipes ofcavendish, and talking over our hunting experience.