Page images
PDF
EPUB

to the religion of my country, that the soul of some infant at the breast having passed from earth, would descend on that flower in a drop of dew, and that a happy dream would attract it in the bosom of my future wife. I went out again to look for my host, I found him with his robe wrapped up in his two pockets, a chaplet in his hand, and awaiting me seated on the trunk of a pine, fallen with old age. He proposed to me to go with him to the Mission, while Atala continued sleeping; I accepted his offer, and we instantly took the route.

'While descending the mountain, I noticed the oaks where the Genii seemed to have drawn strange characters. The hermit told me that he had traced them himself; that they were verses of an ancient poet called Homer, and some sentences of an other poet still more ancient, named Solomon. There was I know not what mysterious harmony which linked that wisdom of the times, those verses eaten with moss, that old solitary man who etched them, and those old oaks which served him for books.

'His name, his age, the date of his mission, were also marked on a reed of the Savanna at the foot of these trees. I was astonished at the frailty of the last monument: 'It will last some time when I am gone,' the Father answered me, 'and will be always of more value than the little good I have done.'

'From thence we arrived at the entrance of a little valley, where I saw a wonderful work: it was a natural bridge, like that of Virginia, of which thou hast perhaps heard people speak. Men, my son, especially those of thy country, often imitate nature, and their copies are always delicate: it is not thus with natnre when she seems to imitate the works of men, offering them models in reality. It is then that she casts bridges from the top of one mountain to the top of another mountain, hangs the ways in the clouds, spreads rivers for canals, sculptures hills for columns, and for basins digs out the seas.

'We passed under the only arch of this bridge, and we found ourselves before another object of astonishment; it was the cemetery of the Indians of the Mission or the Grove of the dead.") Father Aubry had permitted his new converts to bury their dead after their own custom, and to retain the Indian name of their

27) Father Aubry had pursued the same policy with the Jesuits in China, who allowed the Chinese to bury their parents in their gardens, according to their

ancient custom.

burial place; he had consecrated the spot only by a cross. The soil was divided among them, as the common field of harvests, in as many lots as there were families. Each lot was a wood in itself, which varied according to the taste of those who had planted it. A stream noiselessly meandered amid these groves; they called it the stream of peace. This charming refuge of souls was bordered on the East by the bridge under which we had passed; two hills bounded it on the North and on the South; it was opened only on the West, where an immense wood of fir-trees uplifted themselves. The trunks of these trees, red, marble veined with green, mounting without branches almost to their tops, resembled lofty columns, and formed the peristyle of this temple of the dead; a religious tone reigned there, like the deep low moan of an organ under the arches of a church; but when we penetrated the depths of the sanctuary, we heard only the hymns of the birds, who celebrated an eternal festival to the memory of the dead.

'While passing out of this wood, we discovered the village of the Mission, located on the bank of a lake, amid a Savanna blooming with flowers. We arrived there passing along an avenue of magnolias and holm-oaks, which lined one of the anxient routes, found among the mountains that divide Kentucky and the Floridas. So soon as the Indians perceived their Pastor in the plain, they abandoned their labors, and ran to meet him. Some kissed his robe, others aided his steps; the mothers raised their little children in their arms, that they might see the man of Jesus Christ, who wept. He learned while marching what had been going on in the village; he gave counsel to this, and reprimanded that one mildly; he spoke about gathering in the harvests, instructing the children, consoling the afflicted; and God was blended in all his conversations.

"Thus escorted, we arrived at the foot of a large cross which was erected on the way-side. There it was that the servant of God was accustomed to celebrate the mysteries of his religion: 'My dear young converts,' said he while turning around to the crowd, 'a brother and a sister has arrived among you; and, to increase happiness, I see that d.vine Providence has yesterday spared your harvests; here are two extraordinary reasons for thanksgiving. Let us, therefore, offer the holy sacrifice, and may each one bring to it a profound meditation, a lively faith, unlimited gratitude, and an kumble heart.'

"The divine priest then put on a white tunic of the bark of the

mulberry; the sacred vases are brought forth from a tabernacle at the foot of the cross, the altar is prepared on the surface of a rock, the water is furnished from the stream near at hand, and a cluster of the wild grape affords wine for the sacrifice. We all kneel down in the harvest field: the mystery begins.

‘Aurora, appearing beyond the mountains, inflamed the East. The whole solitude was golden or rosy. The star, announced by so much splendor, came forth in fine from the abyss of light, and its first ray met the consecrated host, which the priest at that very moment raised in the air. O charm of religion! O sublimity of Christian worship! An old hermit for a sacrificer, a rock for an altar, the desert for a church, innocent Savages for an audience! No, I doubt not but at the moment when we bowed down in adoration, the extraordinary mystery was fulfilled, and that God descended on the earth, for I felt that he descended in my heart.

'After the sacrifice, when I wanted nothing but the daughter of Lopez, we repaired to the village. There the most touching intermixture of social life and of the life of nature was reigning: in a corner ofa cyprière of the ancient desert, one discovered a starting civilization; the ears of corn rolled in waves of gold over the trunks of fallen oaks, and the sheaf of summer occupied the ground of the tree of three centuries. On every side one might see, forests, delivered to the flames raising huge clouds of smoke in the air, and the plough furrowing lightly among the ruins of their roots. Surveyors with long chains went measuring the ground, arbitrators settled the first property; the bird gave up his nest; the haunt of the wild beast was changed into a cabin; One might hear the hammers beating, and the blows of the axe making the echoes moan for the last time while they themselves were dying away with the trees which were their home.

"I roamed in raptures amid these scenes, rendered lovelier by the image of Atala, and by the dreams of bliss with which I flattered my heart. I admired the triumph of Christianity over savage life; I saw the Indian civilizing himself under the voice of religion; I assisted at the primitive nuptials of man and of the land: man, by this great contract, yielding to the land, the value of his labors; and the land engaging in return faithfully to bear the harvests, the children and the remains of man.

'In the mean while one presented an infant to the Missionary, who baptised it among the blooming jasmines, on the verge of a

fountain, while a coffin, amid sports and labors, was borne to the Groves of the dead. Two married people received the nuptial benediction under an oak, and then we went to establish them at their home in a corner of the desert. The pastor marched before us, blessing here and there, rocks, trees and fountains, as heretofore, according to the Book of the Christians, God blessed the uncultivated earth, while giving its inheritance to Adam. This procession, which, confusedly with the flocks, followed from rock to rock, its venerable chief, represented to my subdued heart those migrations of the first families, at the time when Shem with his children, moved across the unknown world, following the sun which marched before him.

'I wished to know of the holy hermit how he governed the children; he answered me, with great civility: 'I have never given them any law; I have taught them only to love one another, to pray to God, and to hope for a better life: all the laws of the world are here included. You see amid the village one cabin statelier than the others: it serves for a chapel in rainy weather. We assemble there together morning and evening to praise the Lord, and when I am absent, there is an old man who offers prayers, for old age is, as maternity, a kind of priesthood. Then they go to work in the fields, and as the pieces of property are divided, so that each one can learn social economy, the harvests are gathered in common granaries, to maintain brotherly charity. Four old men equitably distribute the produce of labor. Add to this the religious ceremonies, a variety of chaunts, the cross where I have celebrated the mysteries, the elm under which I preach in pleasant weather, our tombs close by our fields of grain, our rivers where I immerse the little children, and the Saint Johns of this new Bethany, you will have a complete idea of this kingdom of Jesus Christ.'

"These words of the solitary man charmed me, and I felt the superiority of this steady and busy life, over the wandering and idle life of the Savage.

"Ah! René, I murmur not against Providence, but I avow that I never call to mind that evangelical society without experiencing the bitterness of regrets. A single hut, with Atala on those banks, would have rendered my life happy! There all my wanderings would have ceased; there, with my wife, unknown by men, concealing my happiness in the depths of the forests, I would have passed away like those streams, which have not even a name in the desert. Instead of that peace, which I presumed to promise myself, in what afflictions have I not steeped my days! A continual sport of fortune, dashed on every coast, exile for a long, long while from my home, and finding nothing there on my return, but a wigwam in ruins and friends in the tomb: such has been the destiny of Chactas.'

(To be continued.)

[graphic]

SCENE ON THE OHIO RIVER NEAR CINCINNATI.
NOTES
ARTS

BAUER has exceeded our expectation with his cut of the 'Scene on the Ohio River "It is true as steel!" It strikes as that this work is as fine as many a steel engraving which we have heard artists praising. The leaves in the foreground are represented with an elaborate minuteness, the foliage of the trees is so delicate and natural that it almost seems waving before our eyes, the life-like hunter is moving along through the underbrush, the smooth sward gives a charming view before the door of his home, and though the hue of the water of the river may be whiter than the original, the bluff in the distance too bleak, and some points too sharply defined, there is a graceful proportion in the perspective, and the clouds seem floating on a flood of light. This we consider a fair representation of the general character of the 'Beautiful River.' The painting was made from a sketch taken on the spot by the distinguished BINGHAM whose faithful genius is above our praise. We hope to present another cut by Bauer from another origin. al painting by Bingham in the next number of the Journal.

SCHAERFF & BRO. have issued a lithographic engraving of Kinkel which speaks for itself, and tells us that men of character may be engraved as well as seen in St. Louis. Even the lines of expression, as also of the features and of the form, are distinct though mellow. The engraving altogether is both striking and pleasing. They have also issued a colored engraving with a great variety of hues, persons, objects of art, and a scene of nature. This is indeed a curiosity in art: and we must say the execution is much more agreeable than the design. As the picture has no name nor unity but a multiplicity of pleasing individual shades, colors and details, we will call it a promise of a better work hereafter in this line.

CANFIELD has painted many beautiful miniatures, and though his works are generally more natural than otherwise, yet some of them are invested with much ideal beauty. The daguerreotype is now almost exclusively occupying his original department of art, and he has turned his hand to portrait and landscape painting. A pic-nic scene of a family party painted by him, combined a more then two fold interest. The likenesses were good and the composition graceful, the wild wood, and domestic happiness were there united, some of the party being painted in repose, others in action. He has now on his easel a painting of a Highland hunter in rich Scotch costume, with a back ground of varied lake and mountain scenery. Though this picture gives promise of a fine effect in itself, yet we prefer illustra tions of American incidents and scenes, and hope to see this rising Artist, pursuing his new style, making compositions thoroughly American.

THE VALLEY FARMER, for January, 1852, contains a great variety of useful and entertaining articles. The leading one on the subject of 'Osage Orange Hedges' will be found particularly interesting. The work is illustrated with cuts representing labor saving machinery. The Horticultural, the Boy's and The Family Circle Departments are filled with practical information, amusing items and beautiful sentiments. The IV. vol. commences with the present number, its whole appearance is greatly improved, and we cordially wish it the rapid success it richly merits.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Wanderer, stop! For the sleeping Echo is near,
Wake it: it speaks; it answers thee friendly; hear:
The modest maid! She will not speak, if thou be still,
But speak to her with words of love, and then she will.

« PreviousContinue »