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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 23, 1902)
Robinson Crusoe's Man-Eating Savages it .-if ' .;,,:,;,; "':;. - - j i i tm.-mm ggm iii'MMiftn r- .iW." VMtMMM wimm ii i 'ii i imm ' ' M 1 tf 1 CHIEF AUGUSTE WEAVING A BASKET. DAUPHINE, THE T1ASKET VKNOER. "f TALAATE AND CURLIN IN THE FOREST. w (Cupyright, 1902, by L. M. Howe.) iHO does not remember the thrill of childish fear with which, bur led in his well-thumbed "Robin son Crusoe," he crept after Fri day and his master, cautiously, tremblingly through the tropic underbrush, to peer out at the horrible Carihs dancing around their cannibal banquet on the beach? In after years did not the dull pages of the history lesson suddenly glow with human Interest when that canoe full of fierce savages, "very lion-like and terrible of countenance, with red-painted cheek bones," rushed out to battle with the sail ors of Columbus, and we recognized our old enemies of the story book? "Most Incredi bly fierce and brave." Columbus called them, "quite amphibious, fighting with equal Fklll from the water, after their canoe was overturned." On the little Island of Dominica, which, oddly enough, was the first of their strong holds to be discovered and the last to be surrendered, live In plmost Inaccessible mountain foreBts a pitiful remnant of the Carib race. For the sake of the old child hood memories, this brief sketch of their latter end, before they die out utterly, seems worth the writing. How C'nlnniliu Pictured Island. A strange, wild, beautiful island, this Do minica. Columbus, at loss for words to de scribe It, crumpled a eheet of paper and threw It down upon the table before Queen Isabella. One could easily imagine that, at first, its highest peak, well named Mount Diablotln, had stood alone, lashed by gi gantic seas, which, by a miracle, had been turned Into billows of red, damp earth and gray volcanic ash, over which nature bad thrown a marvelous mantle of countless shades of green, woven with fantastic pat terns In brilliant-colored tropic flowers. A weird, uncanny land of dark, mys terious forests, through which the noon sun struggles feebly; of darker, more mys terious gorges. Into which the sun falls not at all. A land beneath which seethe wicked, world-old volcanic fires, full of devil haunted spots, where sulphurous waters bubble up, steaming hot, spewing out horrid masses of slimy mud, tinted In unnatural hues of vivid red and green, with weird, oily gurgling like some monstrous living thing. In the crater of Mount Diablotln Itself a boiling lake lies like a huge sliver spider, luring strangers through his net of emerald green to slay them with deadly invisible vapors; an English tourist and his guide the latest victims, only a few weeks ago. Surely this Island, with Its savage beauty, was of all spots most euited to those strange, lion-featured Caribs, who flitted, noiseless and mysterious as their own for ests, from shadow to shadow, until they burst with diabolic shouting, a wild hur ricane of death, upon the white-faced In vaders of their land. t'nllke All Other Indiana. Wrapped lu fascinating mystery Is this Carlb race. Vnllke all other Indian tribes In appearance and customs, their origin Is speculative; their habits travelers' tales, too often evidently untrue. Occupying th's chain of Islands known as the Lesser An tilles, they were very different from tha peaceful Arawaks of Trinidad, only a few miles distant from their southern Islands, or the easily conquered Indians of Porto Rico, so near them to the north. Indeed, they had a pleasant habit of assembling great fleets of war canoes and sweeping down upon the larger Islands, killing or carrying off for slaves their less warlike population. Tradition says that each year, gathering from their various Islands, they would travel In their frail boats, over 300 miles of turbulent sea, to the mainland of South America, and, with the regularity reservation, are dying like the trees. A fear, and In the present terror all past clothes. Me chief! Now, which one you of clockwork, Boundly trounce the Indians fL.w square miles of land, so rough as to memories are blotted out. say I give up?" there, apparently for sheer love of fighting, be unfit for cultivation, Is all that remains , When old Joseph died, full of years and Held In wholesome respect by the Span- of their once wide domain. Of their old At " r"r,, Vlllnaii. honor, three widows wept his loss, lards, their Ules were named "The Carlb- pride little is left; of their old cuBtoms, Though It is but twenty miles from the i bees," the surrounding sea "The Carib- nothing. Like etout-heartcd fighters, who English town of Roseau to the Carlb village " Maker, bean," and to them Is due the doubtful must be beaten Into insensibility or not of Salibla, yet so rough and wild Is the Hehold, now, Augtiste Francais, chief honor of Introducing the word "cannibal" beaten at all, every memory of their old trail that it is a good two days' journey, of the Carlb nation, conquerors of the Into the English language. Before their glory, their old ways, their old language well worth the trouble, however, so wonder- Spaniards, the French and the English, discovery, eaters of human flesh were con- eVcn, has been whipped out of this frag- ful is the wild riot of emerald vegetation, long the undisputed masters of tho Carlb- sldered largely mythical, and Peter Martyr, ment of a once mighty people who ter- Tree ferns, those last survivals of the old bees Augusts Francais, whose descent writing to Pomponlus Laetus of Columbus' rorze(j a continent and swept the sea. carboniferous period, forty feet in height; runs straight, without a cross, from those adventures, says: "The stories of the Les- begonlaa growing like weeds, hundreds of rcd-palnted, lion-featured eaters of men. Is trlgonians and of Polyphemus, who fed on l.nii(tiinne for Warrior. unknown brilliant flowers, with here and squatted on the ground, weaving baskets. human flesh, are no longer doubtful. At- p,,h there an orchid, scenting the air with No longer reason to ask why AugUBte has language. There wa. one 'vocabulary for grange perfume: soft clouds rolling down ,0Bt caste with his people. It Is as If the the warriors and another for the women tend, but beware lest thy hair bristle with horror." Fouiiht I he Conquerors. Long after the other races had been which the children were also required to use. The boys of course, were taught from the mountains, covering everything king of England were to go to blacksmlth wlth a warm mist; gorgeous rainbows arch- ng or the sultan of Turkey take In wash ing the green valleys, seemingly close )ng. willingly would his people follow enough to touch; cool streams gurgling un- tn6 old custom and bring him fish or seen amid the foliage, 300 feet below; the mttnioe flour, but Auguste well, there Is cnnnnered and enslaved the Carlbbees re- the war vocabulary also when they were . , . . . .ik ihn flhtlncr nortlna nvl " v , UIHI11UC I1UUT, UUl AUgUHlB Wfll, IUCIB IB mained the Islands of the Caribs in tact as ao,e o go ou . n ... . -uu... . ya. i . Car,b town ,tgelf ut , collectlon of . , Btuff thRt comes In bottles from well as in name. Slowly, however, fighting The last Carlb who could speak the a queer mt)(j Bhanty on,y tQ bj prQ. . A. j" -JJ. T"t' TT- ' "" ' ' ":; ."'-m ' :' r ulf'y h:a0il jpfn ' j . whose cross at the apex of its roof pro- ,.urPi by gold or silver, and gold or silver claims It to be the Catholic mission. They n)U8t De worked for. They are very good are all good Catholics, these Caribs, so the baskets AugUBte makes, to be sure; In priests say, but It Is to be feared that Is fart tne flneBt , the wori,j. pirBt bis so mainly because it Is easier to be con- ,oan cnnng fingers will weave the dried verted than not. What the real religion Kra(g ,nto a basket of the ordinary kind, of this strange people was no one really Bn(1 thPn w)h brown and black-dyed knows. Spirits of wood and air. a terrible B(ran(lB )n curious patterns; around It he devil. Mabanya. requiring human offerings wpavp ano,hpr DRHkPti putting plan- for his appeasement, ghosts of dead ances- (a,n )(,avpg bPtwppn lhe two Impervious tors, all these were part. It Is guessed, of (o (rope BhnwprB water ltB,,lf mny their belief. However deep their present b carrlpa , thpm raun may oe. u ones n..i .im ue,. r,..,..Ku n . f ...,..- hll, ,.. . rollh. to dull the dogged persistence with which they hold every Inch of the little land now left them. A flourishing settlement was started, called La Bote, but one day the news came that the land where the chapel stood had been presented to the priests. That night all save five deserted their huts forever as a silent protest against the granting of their territory. There Is some thing Indescribably pathetic In this frag ment of a nation dinging to the fragment of Its country. When the reservation was surveyed last year a claimed as theirs was found to belong to a palm-thatched shed, Auguste's wife is making cavassa flour. Her unmistakable negro features explain why Auguste Is the last of the Carlb chiefs. Ry and by, when he dies, the people will elect another head man to represent their side In any dispute with the government, but the old royal line dies with this dull-featured weaver of baskets. Whllo we are watching his flying Angers a French gentleman from the nearby Island little farm they miniuo iint-n up, nun m iiiuimcuiaic wuiie. lie i hoi pieasea lo see us, ana, :: ... r ,. " eat. inany n .I:: v. " . a h. m h. mounts and begs a word In n private with the chief. The gleam of gold Is In his band as he talks, and when Auguste returns and begs to be excused he is clutching some thing very tightly. The two enter the house together. The French gentleman Is TYPICAL CARIUS AND THEIR ABODE. A sklllfu. knack of weaving curious fiercely to the last, they were driven south- language died, an old, old woman, many ward until here, In Dominica, they made years ago. their last stand. Spanish, French, English tried In vain to conquer them. As late at 1748 Eat royal grant treaty bet the lsla land, belonging to the "Charalbs." In 1756, however, the English changed their minds and finally occupied the island, only to be ousted by the French In 1778. From then until 1804 the government was changed with rl Car lsle T who held Dominic, by ba8ke,s' tl,Dn,n8 Bkl11 ln heW,D8 Ul Cane8 expectedly met face to face. Klam of gold ant "a It up as a bad o" and by ,rom 8011,1 trunk8' ,he8e are 811 that 'T'd ing. " ,he PrlpBt- Carry,ng 11 ,n "ween thJ EngUsh and the French maln- Sel,lora' if ever, has a mighty ..0ood mornlng." replied the chief. will shortly rel nd was declared to be a neutral P"P' er utterly crushed. The Carlb ..JopP,,h ... a,d the good man, plunging that clank, a ma was aeciarea 10 ue u ucuimi ...j.. j i ,.... . wnunriari .... .... .. ... . Wmi..i. n,in , surveyor that If he returned he would be killed, if they were all hanged for It. Chief In Name Only. If you are lucky you will find the chief, Aueuste Francais. chief by descent and in name only, for he has little authority over about to fight a duel, and ha. come for the his people. The last real rhlef was old famous Carlb charm. Auguste will undress Joseph Francais, dead then thirty years, him, and, with much ceremony, bathe him Ignorant, let us trust, of the downfall of his t a mysterious decoction, muttering people. There must have been a good deal strange words. Then the duelist will be of the old Hon look about Joseph, for those bullet proof. In a corner of Auguste. who remember him agree with one accord hut hargs a fine ham. It Is a present from that they were always afraid to meet him. the Frenchman's adversary, whom Auguste In proper state he stalked through the for- treated yesterday. It should be a bloodless est, his three wives always trotting obedl- duel, ently behind him in single file. These ,Jood T(n)e ,n wives were a constant source of grief to the parish priest, being rather uncanonlcal, n our way back to Roseau a messenger but Joseph cunningly kept out of the rev- town from Auguste's Francais passe, u. erend father's way until, one day, they un- In a great hurry. You do not see the gleam or gold ln his hand, because he is his mouth for safety. Hi return, bearing a heavy burden at every step, and Auguste of today dreads a stranger as a wounded nlo th(, neart 0f the matter without delay, Francais will give a new Imitation of being deer dreads a hunter. The unknown vis- ..who arp those women back of you?" "drunk a. a king." itor might travel for weeks through the "Them my wives," replied Joseph, briefly. We also pass the four posts that mark reservation without seeing a living soul. nut. Joseph, don't you know that 1. ,he former dwelling of Popott. Before At the sound of horses' hoof, presto! they wrong? You must pick out one of them Popott was taken sick it was like all the .ii- lit.- . 1 J 1. . V. I .i . V. .. .1 ...... ana.a..n .... . .. .. s.thoB. V. . . t - r I 1 . . . th raoiditv 0f a South American republic. B,,p 1 Ke '"""" v.. ani1 j w)u marry you ana tne otners you inram Drougni ropott but In the general peace following the of llvln green' trough wnic n tney peer mut K,ve up .. rooa earn aay. One morning they found Napoleonic wars the island was awarded to ltn frightened eyeB, themselves entirely Tn,.re wag a moment's awkward silence. Popott had turned his face to the wall and England and that power has held It undls- Invisible. If you are accompanied by one Thpn tne rnl,,f beckoning his retinue the food untasted. They brought no turbed ever since they have learnea to know an1 tru8t they alongside, lined them up. m"re. b"t instead each time they called Such briefly is the history of the Caribs mav De coaxed t0 reappear shyly, as a rab- ..Me onpf hp Pxplalned; "chief cannot they took away a door, or shutter, or bit and their Island. Slowly, but surely, the blt 18 t('mP,,",l toward a bit of lettuce. woru; chief rannot starve. This one," f' l'Ie thatch. Popott wa. a long time little fringe of civilization along the coast There are some 200 half-breedB living pointing a lean finger at the head of the dylnK ,or Carlb, who generally goes Is eating its way into the wild, beautiful with them whose negro blood renders stolid line, "ehe flhb for me. This one, she quickly once be has made up his mind, forests. Less slowly, but quite as purely, them less sensitive, but your pure-blooded tend my garden, grow my cacsava, my plan- n'l before it was over there was only a the eighty pure-blooded Caribs. who alone Carib has learned, through generations of tain., my yams. Tbl. one, she tend ray (Continued on Eleventh Page remain of all the millions on their tiny cruel conquest, to know that new word, house, she cook for me, she make my
