Works of Jules Verne/The Mutineers/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
FROM CIGUALAN TO CUERNAVACA
THE next morning at daybreak, the horses were saddled and bridled. The travelers, taking a worn-away path which wound like a serpent before them, directed their course towards the east, where the sun was just then seen ascending above the mountain tops.
"When shall we get over the mountains, José?"
"By to-morrow evening, lieutenant, and from their summit although too far off it is true we shall perceive the end of our journey, that golden town of Mexico. Do you know what I am thinking of, lieutenant?"
Martinez did not reply.
"I ask myself what can have become of the officers of the ship and brig which we abandoned on the desert island."
Martinez trembled. "I do not know," he answered sullenly.
"I most heartily hope that all those great persons have died of hunger," continued José, "or perhaps when we landed them, some of them may have tumbled into the sea, and there is on those shores a kind of shark—the tintorea, who never lets anybody escape him. Holy Mary! should Captain Don Orteva have come to life he may have the chance of being swallowed up by a fish. But, happily, his head was struck by the mainboom, and by the noise it made must have been completely crushed."
"Hold your tongue!" replied Martinez.
The sailor rode on with closed mouth. "See what curious scruples this man has," said José to himself; he then added in his usual voice, "On my return I shall settle down in this charming country of Mexico, where one can enjoy, without stint, these beautiful ananas and bananas, and where one can eat off plates of gold and silver."
"Was it for this you mutinied?" asked Martinez.
"Why not, lieutenant? it was an affair of dollars."
"Ah!" exclaimed Martinez with disgust.
"And you, why did you mutiny?" inquired José.
"I! It was an affair of wounded honor. The lieutenant wished to be revenged on his captain."
"Ah!" exclaimed José with contempt.
There was not much difference between these two men whatever were their motives.
"Hold!" cried Martinez, pulling up short, "what do I see down there?"
José rode towards the edge of the cliff. "I can see no one," he replied.
"I saw a man suddenly disappear," repeated Martinez.
"Imagination!"
"I did see him," replied the lieutenant impatiently.
"Very well, look for him at your leisure," and José continued to ride on.
Martinez proceeded towards a clump of mangroves, the branches of which, taking root as they touched the ground, formed an impenetrable thicket. The lieutenant dismounted. It was a perfect solitude. Suddenly he perceived a spiral form moving about in the shade. It was a small species of serpent, the head held fast under a piece of rock, while the hinder part twisted about as if it had been galvanized.
"There has been someone here," cried the lieutenant. Guilty and superstitious, he looked around in every direction. He began to tremble. "Who, who can they be?" he murmured.
"Well! what is the matter?" asked José, who had now rejoined him.
"It is nothing," answered Martinez; "let us go on."
The evening approached. Martinez followed some paces behind his guide Jose, and the latter, not without difficulty, found his way in the midst of the increasing darkness.
Looking out for a practicable path, swearing now at a stump against which he ran, now at the branch of a tree which struck him, threatening to put out the excellent cigar he was smoking, the lieutenant let his horse follow that of his companion. Useless remorse agitated him, and he gave himself up to the melancholy forebodings with which he was oppressed.
The night had now completely set in. The travelers pushed forward. They traversed without stopping, the little villages of Contepec and Iguala, and at length arrived at the town of Tasco. Here, little as they relished their food, their hunger was satisfied, and fatigue made even Martinez and Jose sleep until an hour after sunrise the next morning.
The lieutenant was the first to awake. " Let us start, Jose," he cried out.
The two Spaniards hastened to the stable, ordered their horses to be saddled, filled their saddle-bags with cakes of maize, grenadas, and dried meat, for among the mountains they would run a great risk of finding nothing to eat. The bill paid, they mounted their beasts and took the road once more.
" Have we nothing to fear among these solitudes ? " asked Martinez.
" Nothing, excepting it may be a Mexican dagger ! "
" That is true," answered Martinez, " the Indians of these elevated regions are still attached to the use of the dagger."
" Yes, indeed," replied the seaman, laughing. " What a number of words they have to designate their favorite arm–estoqe, verdugo, puna, anchillo, beldoque, navaja. The names come as quickly to their lips as the dagger does to their hands. Very well ! so much the better. Holy Mary ! at least we shall not have to fear those invisible balls from long carbines. I do not know anything more provoking than not to be able to discover the wretch who has killed one!"
"Who are the Indians who inhabit these mountains?" asked Martinez.
" Indeed, lieutenant, who can count the different races which have multiplied so rapidly in this El Dorado of Mexico? Just consider the various crosses, which I have studied carefully, with the intention of some day making an advantageous marriage. We here find the Mestisa, born of a Spaniard and an Indian woman; the Castisa, of a Castilian woman and a Spaniard; the Mulatto, of a Spanish woman and a Negro; the Monisque, born of a Mulatto woman and a Spaniard; the Albino, of a Monisque woman and a Spaniard; the Tintinclaire, of a Tornatras man and a Spanish woman; the Lovo, born of an Indian woman and a Negro; the Caribujo, of an Indian woman and a Lovo; the Barsino, born of a Coyote and a Mulatto woman; the Grifo, born of a Negress and a Lovo; the Albarazado, born of a Coyote and an Indian woman; the Chanesa, born of a Metis and an Indian man; the Mechino, born of a Lovo and a Coyote!"
José spoke the truth; the mixture of races in this country causes wonderful difficulties to anthropological students. Notwithstanding this learned conversation of the seaman, Martinez continually fell again into his previous taciturnity; lie indeed sometimes pushed on ahead of his companion, whose presence seemed to annoy him. In a short time two torrents crossed the road before them. The lieutenant pulled up at the first, disappointed on seeing that its bed was dry, for he had reckoned on watering his horse at it.
"Here we are, in a fix, lieutenant, without food and without water!" exclaimed Jose. "Never mind; follow me. We will look among these rocks and cliffs for the tree which is called the 'ahuehuelt,' which advantageously takes the place of the wisps of straw which decorate the fronts of inns. Under its shade one can always enjoy a cool draught, and, in a word, it is not only what some call water, but it is the wine of the desert."
The horsemen hunted about, and before long discovered the tree in question, but the promised fountain had been emptied, and they discovered it must have been visited only a short time previously.
"It is singular," observed Jose.
"It is indeed singular," said Martinez, growing pale. "Let us push forward."
The country now assumed an extremely rugged aspect. Gigantic peaks rose up before them, their basaltic summits stopping the clouds wafted by the winds from the Pacific. Doubling a large rock there appeared high above them the Fort of Cochicalcho, built by the ancient Mexicans on a spot elevated nineteen thousand feet above the sea. The travelers directed their course towards the base of this vast cone, which was crowned by tottering rocks and crumbling ruins.
After having dismounted and fastened their horses to the trunk of a tree, Martinez and Jose, wishing to ascertain the direction of their road, climbed up to the summit of the cone, assisted by the ruggedness of the sides.
Night now coming on made the outline of objects appear very indistinct, and assume the most fantastic forms. The old fort did not ill-resemble an enormous bison, crouching down, its head immovable; but as Martinez looked at the figure, his disordered imagination made him fancy that he saw the body of the monstrous animal move. He did not, however, say anything lest he should lay himself open to the railleries of the unscrupulous Jose. The latter hastily made his way round a part of the hill, and after he had disappeared for some time behind some broken fragments, he summoned his companion with the loudness of his " Saint lagos! " and " Saint Marias! "
All of a sudden, an enormous night-bird, uttering a hoarse shriek, slowly rose on its outstretched wings.
Martinez stopped short; a vast mass of rock was seen to shake -about thirty feet above him, then a portion of the mass became detached, and, shattering everything in its passage with the rapidity of a cannon-ball, came crashing down-wards, and was engulfed in the abyss below.
" Santa Maria ! " cried the seaman. " Hello, lieutenant, what has happened? "
"Jose!"
" Here ! " The two Spaniards joined each other.
" What a fearful avalanche descended on us ! " exclaimed the seaman. Martinez followed him without saying a word, and the two soon regained the lower plateau.
Here a large furrow marked the passage of the rock.
" Santa Maria ! " exclaimed Jose. " Look here ! Our two horses have disappeared crushed dead ! "
" It is too true ! " said Martinez.
" See here ! " The tree to which the two animals had Been fastened had been indeed carried away with them.
"If we had been under it!" philosophically observed the seaman, with a shrug of his shoulder.
Martinez was seized with a violent feeling of terror. "The serpent!—the fountain!—the avalanche!" he murmured.
Then he turned his haggard eyes on José.
"How is it that you do not speak to me of Captain Orteva?" he cried, his lips contracted with anger.
José drew back. "Oh, do not talk nonsense, lieutenant! Let us give the finishing stroke to our poor steeds and then push on. It will not do to stop here while the old mountain is combing her hair."
The two Spaniards proceeded on their road without saying a word, and in the middle of the night they arrived at Cuernavaca ; but it was impossible to procure horses, so the next morning they directed their course on foot towards the heights of Popocatepetl.