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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 1901)
Conservative * glass beads and porcelain a'nd other things from Cnnnda , trinkets that are traded with ' this1 nation' for gold , ivhich'they have in so great abuud- aiico. and by. which they set so little stbro that the King told them to take as much of it as .the } ' chose , insomuch that' they loaded themselves there with'and took every man 00 bars of about a palm's length , and their weight about 4 1. The two savages that wore with them. would none of - it , and seemed surprised that the Frenchmen would. lade. themselves with it , they told-them that it .was to make kettles of , which they believed , because those of theAcaniba , and all their cooking utensils and tableware are. of that precious metal. . . .The i , said Sageau saith that he , did .not - seethe fV f the mines .whence. . . thisc-prodigious V quantity of gold isidrawu , but' saith that they cannot be-fair from the city , because two of his .comrades .wlth-\a person of .the nation ; took only throe days for the journey' thither iiiclud- ing the return.- that his' eonlrades who perished afterwards , told him that this gold was in the hollow of Sundry mountains and hills , that in the seasons of Jiign water , which are frequent.in those" .places , the floods break this gold loose and bear , it- away and-when thoyaro dried .up great heaps.of'it-are found in tha.t place in the riverbeds , which are dry for. four mouths'of the year-.when these-peo- ples gather : it up , - . " " Sngea'u'-'assureth us upon- his life , that if ho is'forwarded' to the Missis sippi , "at what- place soever upon the river , ho will'vdry well find his'way , and lead-any one Whom \vemaychooSC , to-Acaariiba , with canoes that ho will build himself , provided , ho have tools and men with arms , and ammunition for hunting , and that one will be very well received by those peoples , in bringing them presents of the things above 'mentioned , which is that by wTiich they set most store. Tho" King Having" dismissed them gave them moreover'more than * 200. horsemen , rather to do'them honor than for their scourity , " "since they had' no risk to run among folk who-loved them unto adoration-and the hors"einenbesides a quantity of nil sorts of provisions car ried their gold as far as their canoes , and followed coasting the"river for five days , after which they "bade them adieu with frightful roarings. And-the continuation' this tale contains the extraordinary adventures of the said Sugean , uud the massacre of almost all those that accompanied him in the river Saint Laurent , to ward 'its mouth , whore they were taken by an English "pirate , his imprison ment , and of "some few of his. com rades who remained , and of his last voyages in which he has sailed to the East and West Indias , and to China , and his return to Brest , whore ho finds himself serving from necessity as a soldier in a company of Marines , where ho has made this statement , having been unwilling to reveal this secret , neither to the Dutch nor to the English , among whom ho has been serving during the long sojourn that he was obliged to make with them , which is confirmed by his responses to the examination made by Monsieur Dechouronx. Ho addeth that upon that river of the Acaaniba which they call Milli , that is Eiver , he hath seen much gold dust upon 'its banks , and thereof giVeth his affirmative assur ance. A. T. EIOHAEDSON. PUBLIC OPINION. * * A-BR1EF SNARK HUNT. . ' Those whohave followed Lewis Oar- roll from his'"Wonderland of Alice , " on ; to his-"Hunt ; pf the Snark , " may have sometimes , . been"too engrossed in t * r " ' * the ) ( - chase" . - to , 'meditato . , . carefully on the quality the frequency of the game. One point'of peculiar interest about this pursuit appears to have been , thatwhen finally run downthe quarry might turn out to be-something else , or practically nothing at all. A recent" English reviewer ( Nine teenth Century , September , 1901) ) treat ing Bulwer Lytton's novels , at the out set casts a glance across the Atlantic. In 'whatever connection' with his sub ject , he presents at' the first paragraph this lively prospect : "The pressure of that tyrannical public opinion , which is rapidly 'moulding the mind of the States on lines which for dull uniform ity can only be paralleled in Kussia. " That conclusion at the beginning seems to be especially founded on the "stamp ing out" of Mormonism ; which is well known to be for more prevalent now than-it ever was in the days of more strenuous contest ; but -that is little matter. A" citizen of- these un lucky States , "who has spent his-hialf century at the heart"'of-them , in frill participa ionof their various "interests" , Isapt" to-be-alike unconscious -of tlie Cause' and effect."He may be aware 'of iio'view tbathe * holds or step'that-he * lias taken-having ever been-formed" altered at the dictate'1 of this tyrant ; lie may * find no otherwise among- his friends ; and he may be accustomed to more inexhaustible variety of all that goes to malceup social life , than he would reasonably expect to find among any other people-on-the earth"He might then take a-moment'-to , inquire , how his British cousin had come to be thus impressed. - " - - - The" answer would seem to be simple and obvious. Here are seventy- eighty million- people , of whom this observer could know but very few ; therefore the rest would appear all alike to him ; the subjective impression being- the same , from a million uniform things , as from' the uniform ignorance of one's own mind in regard to the things. Objects in the dark are like dark objects. Ho would remark the absence of monarchy or other ancient institution of government , yet a social order as well kept as elsewhere ; hence as the only alternative , he would sup pose a power acting within them to the same effect as such institutions , and that must be public .opinion , operating everywhere like atmospheric pressure , and flattening out the subject area as described. This , except that more distance and less knowledge put it at rather an ex treme , is no preposterous type of usual modes of thinking upon this matter. Public Opinion seems to be nearly always spoken of as a power , for good or evil indeterminately , with never an effort to seejwhether such a. power really exists , and of what it consists if it does. An attempt at some such ex amination may be in order. From a distant hill , suppose we" are observing a succession of persons trav ersing a way between one gate and an other. They pursue a course in general tolerably direct or at least consecutive , but here and there they turn , and after some deflection get back to the general route as before. It is presently noticed , that these deviations are nearly at.the same points ; each wayfarer , different in all manner of other respects , yet bends aside , this way or that , just about where another did. Then we say , "What a set of sheep these people'are. One turns and tumbles hither and thither , just because the rest are doing so , and as they do. ' . ' Suppose we then descend from our perch , ' and inspect the actual state of things where they happen. We find in the first place that a path has * been worn , along which each successive traveller passes , with out apparent thought of other travellers or anything else except that it is the way which will naturally carry him where he is to go. Next , following its course , wo find that on one side at a certain spot is a marshy space , which has to be avoided ; on the other at an other spot a ledge of stone , a hollow or the likeriiot obvious where we sat ; and these > , determined the variations. In each case , as a rule , the reason for the course was. fairly- traceable from the ground itself ; in few oases decided by the direct influence of the other travel lers. Still less could the other travellers collectively , imagined as acting in one abstract whole , -be reasonably con ceived to have exerted such an in fluence. If the pilgrims went a similar way , it was because similar causes had acted on each. We had made the com mon mistake of putting a thing we did not .know for a" thing wo knew. Those points or.topics on which a majority of the individuals in a given community think alike , are probably determined in the same manner. The