Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders/Aiguerre's Fire
AIGUERRE'S FIRE
IN the times when Indians lived in villages built IN on stilts in Lake Maracaibo, thus gaining for their province the name of Venezuela (Little Venice), there was a farol that hung about the southern end of that sheet of water. This "lantern" appeared to shine through a pale mist and often affrighted the people. It has been seen in our own day, and ascribed to malignant spirits. But the water flames are less malignant than the land fire. If any fortune sets you down on the Venezuelan plains, beware the ghost of Aiguerre. Bitterly has he suffered whose purgatory is the pampas, but he tries to make others suffer not less bitterly. Lope de Aiguerre, who discovered the upper Amazon, was, like too many of the explorers from his country and of his day, a harsh oppressor, a greedy seeker after others' wealth. On his appointment as governor of this southern country he bent all public interests to his own advantage, tyrannizing over the whites as savagely as over the Indians. He had the hate of nearly all men, and of heaven, too, for after his death in these wilds his soul was compelled to haunt the plains, appearing to the lonely cattlemen as the will-o'-the-wisp, or Aiguerre's fire, and if you draw near you will see, with horror, that in the centre of the flame the entrails of the wretch are burning. No native in his sober senses will go near. He knows the danger. For no sooner is such a follower beyond call and sight of his companions than he falls under the enchantment of the light. He forgets time and space, he is hypnotized, if you prefer, and rides on and on, until presently he finds himself at the brink of a ravine or a morass with the light dancing before his face, red, confusing, mocking. Lucky indeed is it for him if he can pull up his horse or bring himself to a stop. Too commonly he pitches into the abyss, or sinks into the marsh's black embrace, and if his body is ever found it is buried hastily, for the people who do that service are quick to get away from a spot that has been cursed by another of the tragedies of Aiguerre.