Page:An Epistle to Posterity.djvu/92

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
VISITS MADE IN SANTA CRUZ
69

scene, one that strangers never forget. We have an African prince named Manuel, who was brought here when he was a boy. He was very unruly, but kindness has tamed him."

So I saw Manuel, the African prince, and many another with the original brand of the slave-ships on their foreheads, and they played the rude drum (which was a skin pulled over the head of a barrel) with their thumbs, as they sang a monotonous chant in the minor key (all savage music is in the minor key, and is profoundly sad, never joyous); and they danced, wildly, savagely — as a bird might fly, with one of its wings broken.

Our next expedition was to the house of an old Scotch knight, Sir Matthew Macdonald, whose house commanded a splendid view. We found the old man of scientific attainments at his post of observation, noting barometers and thermometers and Nature generally.

Two naval officers were of our party; their ship, a fine man-of-war flying the Stars and Stripes, lay in the harbor. Sir Matthew showed great interest in these, and opened a musty yellow volume in which he recorded the name, tonnage, number of guns, etc.

"This I have done for fifty years," said the old gentleman. "My interest in this world is bounded by what comes into these seas which lie under my eyes — by Nature, which lies all about me, and the heavens above me. I do not care for society, for politics, for the performance of man in the theatre of this world. So long as friends choose to come to me here, they are welcome; I go nowhere. It may be a selfish existence, but to me it is a happy one, and it hurts no one." After taking coffee with Lady Macdonald, Sir Matthew led us into a ruined, desolated wing of his house to show us the rav-