A tale of Paraguay — Canto 4

The bells rang blithely from St. Mary's towerWhen in St. Joachin's the news was toldThat Dobrizhoffer from his quest that hourDrew nigh: the glad Guaranies young and oldThrong thro' the gate, rejoicing to beholdHis face again; and all with heartfelt gleeWelcome the Pastor to his peaceful fold,Where so beloved amid his flock was heThat this return was like a day of jubilee.

How more than strange, how marvellous a sightTo the new comers was this multitude!Something like fear was mingled with affrightWhen they the busy scene of turmoil view'd.Wonder itself the sense of joy subduedAnd with its all-unwonted weight opprestThese children of the quiet solitude;And now and then a sigh that heaved the breastUnconsciously bewray'd their feeling of unrest.

Not more prodigious than that little townSeem'd to these comers, were the pomp and powerTo us, of ancient Rome in her renown;Nor the elder Babylon, or e'er that hourWhen her high gardens, and her cloud-capt tower,And her broad walls before the Persian fell;Nor those dread fanes on Nile's forsaken shoreWhose ruins yet their pristine grandeur tell.Wherein the demon gods themselves might deign to dwell.

But if, all humble as it was, that scenePossess'd a poor and uninstructed mindWith awe, the thoughtful spirit, well I ween,Something to move its wonder there might find,Something of consolation for its kind,Some hope and earnest of a happier age,When vain pursuits no more the heart shall blind,But Faith the evils of this earth assuage,And to all souls assure their heavenly heritage.

Yes; for in history's mournful map, the eyeOn Paraguay, as on a sunny spot,May rest complacent: to humanity,There, and there only, hath a peaceful lotBeen granted, by Ambition troubled not,By Avarice undebased, exempt from care,By perilous passions undisturb'd. And whatIf Glory never rear'd her standard there,Nor with her clarion's blast awoke the slumbering air?

Content, and cheerful Piety were foundWithin those humble walls. From youth to ageThe simple dwellers paced their even roundOf duty, not desiring to engageUpon the busy world's contentious stage,Whose ways they wisely had been trained to dread:Their inoffensive lives in pupilagePerpetually, but peacefully they led,From all temptation saved, and sure of daily bread.

They on the Jesuit, who was nothing loth,Reposed alike their conscience and their cares;And he, with equal faith, the trust of bothAccepted and discharged. The bliss is theirsOf that entire dependence that preparesEntire submission, let what may befall:And his whole careful course of life declaresThat for their good he holds them thus in thrall,Their Father and their Friend, Priest, Ruler, all in all.

Food, raiment, shelter, safety, he provides;No forecast, no anxieties have they;The Jesuit governs, and instructs and guides;Their part it is to honour and obey,Like children under wise parental sway.All thoughts and wishes are to him confest;And when at length in life's last weary dayIn sure and certain hope they sink to rest,By him their eyes are closed, by him their burial blest.

Deem not their lives of happiness devoid,Tho' thus the years their course obscurely fill;In rural and in household arts employ'd,And many a pleasing task of pliant skill,For emulation here unmix'd with ill,Sufficient scope was given. Each had assign'dHis proper part, which yet left free the will;So well they knew to mould the ductile mindBy whom the scheme of that wise order was combined.

It was a land of priestcraft, but the priestBelieved himself the fables that he taught:Corrupt their forms, and yet those forms at leastPreserved a salutary faith that wrought,Maugre the alloy, the saving end it sought.Benevolence had gain'd such empire there,That even superstition had been broughtAn aspect of humanity to wear,And make the weal of man its first and only care.

Nor lack'd they store of innocent delight,Music and song and dance and proud array,Whate'er might win the ear, or charm the sight;Banners and pageantry in rich displayBrought forth upon some Saint's high holyday,The altar drest, the church with garlands hung,Arches and floral bowers beside the way,And festal tables spread for old and young,Gladness in every heart, and mirth on every tongue.

Thou who despisest so debased a fate,As in the pride of wisdom thou may'st callThese meek submissive Indians' low estate,Look round the world, and see where over allInjurious passions hold mankind in thrall!How barbarous Force asserts a ruthless reign,Or Mammon, o'er his portion of the ball,Hath learn'd a baser empire to maintain,Mammon, the god of all who give their rouls to gain.

Behold the fraudful arts, the covert strife,The jarring interests that engross mankind;The low pursuits, the selfish aims of life;Studies that weary and contract the mind,That bring no joy, and leave no peace behind;And Death approaching to dissolve the spell!The immortal soul, which hath so long been blind,Recovers then clear sight, and sees too wellThe error of its ways, when irretrievable.

Far happier the Guaranies humble race,With whom in dutiful contentment wise,The gentle virtues had their dwelling place.With them the dear domestic charitiesSustain'd no blight from fortune; natural tiesThere suffer'd no divorcement, save aloneThat which in course of nature might arise;No artificial wants and ills were known;But there they dwelt as if the world were all their own.

Obedience in its laws that takes delightWas theirs; simplicity that knows no art;Love, friendship, grateful duty in its height;Meekness and truth, that keep all strife apart,And faith and hope which elevate the heartUpon its heavenly heritage intent.Poor, erring, self-tormentor that thou art;O Man! and on thine own undoing bent,Wherewith canst thou be blest, if not with these content?

Mild pupils, in submission's perfect school,Two thousand souls were gather'd here, and hereBeneath the Jesuit's all-embracing ruleThey dwelt, obeying him with love sincere,That never knew distrust, nor felt a fear,Nor anxious thought, which wears the heart away.Sacred to them their laws, their Ruler dear;Humbler or happier none could be than theyWho knew it for their good in all things to obey.

The Patron Saint, from whom their town was named,Was that St. Joachin, who, legends say,Unto the Saints in Limbo first proclaim'dThe Advent. Being permitted, on the dayThat Death enlarged him from this mortal clay,His daughter's high election to behold,Thither his soul, glad herald, wing'd its way,And to the Prophets and the Patriarchs oldThe tidings of great joy and near deliverance told.

There on the altar was his image set,The lamp before it burning night and day,And there was incensed, when his votaries metBefore the sacred shrine, their beads to say,And for his fancied intercession pray,Devoutly as in faith they bent the knee.Such adoration they were taught to pay.Good man, how little had he ween'd that heShould thus obtain a place in Rome's idolatry!

But chiefly there the Mother of our Lord,His blessed daughter, by the multitudeWas for their special patroness adored.Amid the square on high her image stood,Clasping the Babe in her beatitude,The Babe divine on whom she fix'd her sight;And in their hearts, albe the work was rude,It raised the thought of all-commanding might,Combined with boundless love and mercy infinite.

To this great family the Jesuit broughtHis new-found children now; for young and oldHe deem'd alike his children while he wroughtFor their salvation,—seeking to unfoldThe saving mysteries in the creed enroll'd,To their slow minds, that could but ill conceiveThe import of the mighty truths he told.But errors they have none to which they cleave,And whatsoe'er he tells they willingly believe.

Safe from that pride of ignorance were theyThat with small knowledge thinks itself full wise.How at believing aught should these delay,When every where new objects met their eyesTo fill the soul with wonder and surprize?Not of itself, but by temptation bred,In man doth impious unbelief arise;It is our instinct to believe and dread,God bids us love, and then our faith is perfected.

Quick to believe, and slow to comprehend,Like children, unto all the teacher taughtSubmissively an easy ear they lend:And to the font at once he might have broughtThese converts, if the Father had not thoughtTheirs was a case for wise and safe delay,Lest lightly learnt might lightly be forgot;And meanwhile due instruction day by dayWould to their opening minds the sense of truth convey.

Of this they reck'd not whether soon or late;For overpowering wonderment possestTheir faculties; and in this new estateStrange sights and sounds and thoughts well nigh opprestTheir sense, and raised a turmoil in the breastResenting less of pleasure than of pain;And sleep afforded them no natural rest,But in their dreams, a mixed disordered train,The busy scenes of day disturb'd their hearts again.

Even when the spirit to that secret woodReturn'd, slow Mondai's silent stream beside,No longer there it found the solitudeWhich late it left: strange faces were descried,Voices, and sounds of music far and wide,And buildings seem'd to tower amid the trees,And forms of men and beasts on every side,As ever-wakeful fancy hears and sees,All things that it had heard, and seen, and more than these.

For in their sleep strange forms deform'd they sawOf frightful fiends, their ghostly enemies:And souls who must abide the rigorous lawWeltering in fire, and there, with dolorous criesBlaspheming roll around their hopeless eyes;And those who doom'd a shorter term to bearIn penal flames, look upward to the skies,Seeking and finding consolation there,And feel, like dew from Heaven, the precious aid of prayer.

And Angels who around their glorious QueenIn adoration bent their heads abased;And infant faces in their dreams were seenHovering on cherub wings; and Spirits placedTo be their guards invisible, who chasedWith fiery arms their fiendish foes away:Such visions overheated fancy traced,Peopling the night with a confused arrayThat made its hours of rest more restless than the day.

To all who from an old erratic courseOf life, within the Jesuit's fold were led,The change was perilous. They felt the forceOf habit, when till then in forests bred,A thick perpetual umbrage overhead,They came to dwell in open hght and air.This ill the Fathers long had learnt to dread,And still devised such means as might prepareThe new-reclaim'd unhurt this total change to bear.

All thoughts and occupations to commute,To change their air, their water, and their food,And those old habits suddenly uprootConform'd to which the vital powers pursuedTheir functions, such mutation is too rudeFor man's fine frame unshaken to sustain.And these poor children of the solitudeBegan ere long to pay the bitter painThat their new way of life brought with it in its train.

On Monnema the apprehended illCame first; the matron sunk beneath the weightOf a strong malady, whose force no skillIn healing, might avert, or mitigate.Yet happy in her children's safe estateHer thankfulness for them she still exprest;And yielding then complacently to fate,With Christian rites her passing hour was blest,And with a Christian's hope she was consign'd to rest.

They laid her in the Garden of the Dead.Such as a Christian burial-place should beWas that fair spot, where every grave was spreadWith flowers, and not a weed to spring was free;But the pure blossoms of the orange treeDropt like a shower of fragrance, on the bier;And palms, the type of immortality,Planted in stately colonnades, appear,That all was verdant there throughout the unvarying year.

Nor ever did irreverent feet intrudeWithin that sacred spot; nor sound of mirth,Unseemly there, profane the solitude,Where solemnly committed earth to earth,Waiting the summons for their second birth,Whole generations in Death's peaceful foldCollected lay; green innocence, ripe worth,Youth full of hope, and age whose days were told,Compress'd alike into that mass of mortal mould.

Mortal, and yet at the Archangel's voiceTo put on immortality. That callShall one day make the sentient dust rejoice;These bodies then shall rise and cast off allCorruption, with whate'er of earthly thrallHad clogg'd the heavenly image, then set free.How then should Death a Christian's heart appal?Lo, Heaven for you is open;—enter yeChildren of God, and heirs of his eternity!

This hope supported Mooma, hand in handWhen with Yeruti at the grave she stood.Less even now of death they understandThan of the joys eternal that ensued;The bliss of infinite beatitudeTo them had been their teacher's favourite themeWherewith their hearts so fully were imbuedThat it the sole reality might seem,Life, death, and all things else, a shadow or a dream.

Yea, so possest with that best hope were they,That if the heavens had opened overhead,And the Archangel with his trump that dayTo judgement had convoked the quick and dead,They would have heard the summons not with dreadBut in the joy of faith that knows no fear:Come Lord! come quickly! would this pair have said,And thou O Queen of men and Angels dear,Lift us whom thou hast loved into thy happy sphere!

They wept not at the grave, tho' overwroughtWith feelings there as if the heart would break.Some haply might have deem'd they suffered not;Yet they who look'd upon that Maiden meekMight see what deep emotion blanched her cheek.An inward light there was which fill'd her eyes,And told, more forcibly than words could speak,That this disruption of her earliest tiesHad shaken mind and frame in all their faculties.

It was not passion only that disturb'dHer gentle nature thus; it was not grief;Nor human feeling by the effort curb'dOf some misdeeming duty, when reliefWere surely to be found, albeit brief,If sorrow at its springs might freely flow;Nor yet repining, stronger than beliefIn its first force, that shook the Maiden so,Tho' these alone might that frail fabric overthrow.

The seeds of death were in her at that hour.Soon was their quickening and their growth display'd:Thenceforth she droop'd and withered like a flower,Which when it flourished in its native shadeSome child to his own garden hath convey'd,And planted in the sun, to pine away.Thus was the gentle Mooma seen to fade,Not under sharp disease, but day by dayLosing the powers of life in visible decay.

The sunny hue that tinged her cheek was gone,A deathy paleness settled in its stead;The light of joy which in her eyes had shone,Now like a lamp that is no longer fedGrew dim: but when she raised her heavy headSome proffered help of kindness to partake,Those feeble eyes a languid lustre shed,And her sad smile of thankfulness would wakeGrief even in callous hearts for that sweet sufferer's sake.

How had Yeruti borne to see her fade?But he was spared the lamentable sight,Himself upon the bed of sickness laid.Joy of his heart, and of his eyes the lightHad Mooma been to him, his soul's delight,On whom his mind for ever was intent,His darling thought by day, his dream by night,The playmate of his youth in mercy sent,With whom his life had past in peacefullest content.

Well was it for the youth, and well for her,As there in placid helplessness she lay,He was not present with his love to stirEmotions that might shake her feeble clay,And rouse up in her heart a strong arrayOf feelings, hurtful only when they bindTo earth the soul that soon must pass away.But this was spared them; and no pain of mindTo trouble her had she, instinctively resigned.

Nor was there wanting to the sufferers aughtOf careful kindness to alleviateThe affliction; for the universal thoughtIn that poor town was of their sad estate,And what might best relieve or mitigateTheir case, what help of nature or of art;And many were the prayers compassionateThat the good Saints their healing would impart.Breathed in that maid's behalf from many a tender heart.

And vows were made for her, if vows might save;She for herself the while preferr'd no prayer;For when she stood beside her Mother's grave,Her earthly hopes and thoughts had ended there.Her only longing now was, free as airFrom this obstructive flesh to take her flightFor Paradise, and seek her Mother there,And then regaining her beloved sightRest in the eternal sense of undisturb'd delight.

Her heart was there, and there she felt and knewThat soon full surely should her spirit be.And who can tell what foretastes might ensueTo one, whose soul, from all earth's thraldom free,Was waiting thus for immortality?Sometimes she spake with short and hurried breathAs if some happy sight she seem'd to see,While in the fulness of a perfect faithEven with a lover's hope she lay and look'd for death.

I said that for herself the patient maidPreferr'd no prayer; but oft her feeble tongueAnd feebler breath a voice of praise essay'd;And duly when the vesper bell was rung,Her evening hymn in faint accord she sungSo piously, that they who gathered roundAwe-stricken on her heavenly accents hung,As tho' they thought it were no mortal sound.But that the place whereon they stood was holy ground.

At such an hour when Dobrizhoffer stoodBeside her bed, oh how unlike, he thoughtThis voice to that which ringing thro' the woodHad led him to the secret bower he sought!And was it then for this that he had broughtThat harmless household from their native shade?Death had already been the mother's lot;And this fair Mooma, was she form'd to fadeSo soon,—so soon must she in earth's cold lap be laid?

Yet he had no misgiving at the sight;And wherefore should he? he had acted well,And deeming of the ways of God aright,Knew that to such as these, whate'er befellMust needs for them be best. But who could dwellUnmoved upon the fate of one so young,So blithesome late? What marvel if tears fell,From that good man as over her he hung,And that the prayers he said came faltering from his tongue!

She saw him weep, and she could understandThe cause thus tremulously that made him speak.By his emotion moved she took his hand;A gleam of pleasure o'er her pallid cheekPast, while she look'd at him with meaning meek,And for a little while, as loth to part,Detaining him, her fingers lank and weak,Play'd with their hold; then letting him departShe gave him a slow smile that touch'd him to the heart.

Mourn not for her! for what hath life to giveThat should detain her ready spirit here?Thinkest thou that it were worth a wish to live,Could wishes hold her from her proper sphere?That simple heart, that innocence sincereThe world would stain. Fitter she ne'er could beFor the great change; and now that change is near,Oh who would keep her soul from being free!Maiden beloved of Heaven, to die is best for thee!

She hath past away, and on her lips a smileHath settled, fix'd in death. Judged they aright,Or suffered they their fancy to beguileThe reason, who believed that she had sightOf Heaven before her spirit took its flight;That Angels waited round her lowly bed;And that in that last effort of delight,When lifting up her dying arms, she said,I come! a ray from Heaven upon her face was shed?

St. Joachin's had never seen a dayOf such profuse and general grief before,As when with tapers, dirge, and long arrayThe Maiden's body to the grave they bore.All eyes, all hearts, her early death deplore;Yet wondering at the fortune they lament,They the wise ways of Providence adore,By whom the Pastor surely had been sentWhen to the Mondai woods upon his quest he went.

This was, indeed, a chosen family.For Heaven's especial favor mark'd, they said;Shut out from all mankind they seem'd to be,Yet mercifully there were visited,That so within the fold they might be led,Then call'd away to bliss. Already twoIn their baptismal innocence were dead;The third was on the bed of death they knew,And in the appointed course must presently ensue.

They marvell'd, therefore, when the youth once moreRose from his bed and walk'd abroad again;Severe had been the malady, and soreThe trial, while life struggled to maintainIts seat against the sharp assaults of pain:But life in him was vigorous; long he layEre it could its ascendancy regain:Then when the natural powers resumed their swayAll trace of late disease past rapidly away.

The first enquiry when his mind was free,Was for his sister. She was gone, they said,Gone to her Mother, evermore to beWith her in Heaven. At this no tears he shedNor was he seen to sorrow for the dead;But took the fatal tidings in such partAs if a dull unfeeling nature bredHis unconcern; for hard would seem the heartTo which a loss like his no suffering could impart.

How little do they see what is, who frameTheir hasty judgement upon that which seems!Waters that babble on their way proclaimAll shallowness: but in their strength deep streamFlow silently. Of death Yeruti deemsNot as an ill, but as the last great good,Compared with which all other he esteemsTransient and void: how then should thought intrudeOf sorrow in his heart for their beatitude?

While dwelling in their sylvan solitudeLess had Yeruti learnt to entertainA sense of age than death. He understoodSomething of death from creatures he had slain;But here the ills which follow in the trainOf age, had first to him been manifest,—The shrunken form, the limbs that move with pain,The failing sense, infirmity, unrest,—That in his heart he said to die betimes was best.

Nor had he lost the dead: they were but goneBefore him, whither he should shortly go.Their robes of glory they had first put on;He, cumbered with mortality, belowMust yet abide awhile, content to knowHe should not wait in long expectance here.What cause then for repining, or for woe?Soon shall he join them in their heavenly sphere,And often, even now, he knew that they were near.

'Twas but hi open day to close his eyes,And shut out the uprofitable viewOf all this weary world's realities,And forthwith, even as if they lived anew,The dead were with him: features, form and hue,And looks and gestures were restored again:Their actual presence in his heart he knew;And when their converse was disturbed. Oh thenHow flat and stale it was to mix with living men!

But not the less, whate'er was to be done,With living men he took his part content,At loom, in garden, or a-field, as oneWhose spirit wholly no obedience bent,To every task its prompt attention lent.Alert in labor he among the best;And when to church the congregation went,None more exact than he to cross his breast,And kneel, or rise, and do in all things like the rest.

Cheerful he was, almost like one elateWith wine, before it hath disturb'd his powerOf reason. Yet he seem'd to feel the weightOf time; for alway when from yonder towerHe heard the clock tell out the passing hour,The sound appeared to give him some delight:And when the evening shades began to lower,Then was he seen to watch the fading lightAs if his heart rejoiced at the return of night.

The old man to whom he had been given in care,To Dobrizhoffer came one day and said,The trouble which our youth was thought to bear,With such indifference, hath deranged his head.He says that he is nightly visited.His Mother and his Sister come and sayThat he must give this message from the deadNot to defer his baptism, and delayA soul upon the earth which should no longer stay.

A dream the Jesuit deem'd it; a deceitUpon itself by feverish fancy wrought;A mere delusion which it were not meetTo censure, lest the youth's distempered thoughtMight thereby be to farther error brought;But he himself its vanity would find,—They argued thus,—if it were noticed not.His baptism was in fitting time design'dThe father said, and then dismiss'd it from his mind.

But the old Indian came again ere longWith the same tale, and freely then confestHis doubt that he had done Yeruti wrong;For something more than common seem'd imprest;And now he thought that certes it were bestFrom the youth's lips his own account to hear,Haply the Father then to his requestMight yield, regarding his desire sincere,Nor wait for farther time if there were aught to fear.

Considerately the Jesuit heard and badeThe youth be called. Yeruti told his tale.Nightly these blessed spirits came, he said,To warn him he must come within the paleOf Christ without delay; nor must he failThis warning to their Pastor to repeat,Till the renewed intreaty should prevail.Life's business then for him would be complete,And 'twas to tell him this they left their starry seat.

Came they to him in dreams?—He could not tell.Sleeping or waking now small difference made;For even while he slept he knew full wellThat his dear Mother and that darling MaidBoth in the Garden of the Dead were laid:And yet he saw them as in life, the same,Save only that in radiant robes arrayed,And round about their presence when they cameThere shone an effluent light as of a harmless flame.

And where he was he knew, the time, the place,—All circumstantial things to him were clear.His own heart undisturb'd. His Mother's faceHow could he chuse but know; or knowing, fearHer presence and that Maid's, to him more dearThan all that had been left him now below?Their love had drawn them from their happy sphere;That dearest love unchanged they came to show;And he must be baptized, and then he too might go.

With searching ken the Jesuit while he spakePerused him, if in countenance or toneAught might be found appearing to partakeOf madness. Mark of passion there was none;None of derangement: in his eye alone,As from a hidden fountain emanate,Something of an unusual brightness shone:But neither word nor look betrayed a stateOf wandering, and his speech, though earnest, was sedate.

Regular his pulse, from all disorder free;The vital powers perform'd their part assign'd;And to whate'er was ask'd, collectedlyHe answer'd. Nothing troubled him in mind;Why should it? Were not all around him kind?Did not all love him with a love sincere,And seem in serving him a joy to find?He had no want, no pain, no grief, no fear:But he must be baptized; he could not tarry here.

Thy will be done, Father in heaven who art!The Pastor said, nor longer now denied;But with a weight of awe upon his heartEntered the Church, and there the font beside.With holy water, chrism and salt applied,Perform'd in all solemnity the rite.His feeling was that hour with fear allied;Yeruti's was a sense of pure delight.And while he knelt his eyes seem'd larger and more bright.

His wish had been obtain'd, and this being doneHis soul was to its full desire content.The day in its accustomed course past on:The Indian mark'd him ere to rest he went,How o'er his beads, as he was wont, he bent,And then, like one who casts all care aside,Lay down. The old man fear'd no ill event,When, "Ye are come for me!" Yeruti cried;"Yes, I am ready now!" and instantly he died.