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During the outward voyage the Abbe performs the impressive ceremony a solemn high mass chanted on deck midway in the great . Atlantic . -cry thing in that grand -spectacle makes its way to the soul : the immensity the heavens , the vast ocean , the light ' breeze playing through the rigging , -i tiny -waves that rise and fell unceasingly , the ambient air filled with eet voices and mysterious murmur ings , all proclaim harmony and eternal andeur—vo . v Domini super aquas . It is God ' s own eloquence speaking to 3 heurt of man , conscious that between liim and eternity there interposes t a single plank .
Poor as an apostle , and with an almost apostolic enthusiasm for his work , ther Douienech lands at Galveston , the metropolis of Texas . Soon , after encountered the Abbe Dubuis , appointed to be his collaboratcur in evunliziJig the Mexicans and Indo-Mexicans' thinly peopling that vast pon . They have but a single cassock between them , so that while one d mass the other walked about in his shirt-sleeves ! Dubuis , feeling that : ci * tain augmentation of his wardrobe' was indispensable , makes ji pair of ntaloons from an old petticoat given him by a certain widower as a' burial j for the interment of his wife . On one occasion he entreats his little
lgregation to excuse the sermon , seeing he hadnot tasted food for the last ¦ ty- eight hours . The priest of Bazonia " wears trousers of sky-blue , wide those of a Dutch skipper or Algerian Zouave ; the shape and colour of 1 hat baffled , description . " An old bottomless tin bath served him for tli altar and dining-table . IN or was the poverty of these resources more rtiirkable than the perils to which they were hourly exposed . One day , iebrating mass in a little hovel that served as a chapel , the dogs commeed barking furiously . An Alsatian , whose rifle lay . in the corner loaded , n out to ascertain the cause . An enormous panther , chased by tbe imds , had climbed into the tree overhanging the roof , ready to drop on 2 first unconscious passenger . To see the beast and shoot him down , was t-thp work of a moment . Another time , an ill-advised bear , attracted , doubt , by the incense and chanting , entered during vespers . His '
curioy was fatal , being killed , and eaten next day . 1 he benevolent , kindarted 13 ishop of Galveston , apprehensive for the state of Domenech ' s alth , removes him to San Antonio d « Kexar- The road lay through a strict lovely as Eden ' s garden . Rivulets . murmured on all sides , and the iy was bordered with flowers in' such profusion , and so thickly matted » oiher , that scarcely was a leaf or stem discernible in this melange of briliiifc hues . A light . breeze played through the old oaks scattered here and ere in this delightful garden of -Nature's own culture . At one view the ks were grouped in clumps , then whole forests of them met the eye . irnetinies they -were interspersed with countless planes and sycamores , ley were in a virgin forest , with herds of deer attended by their fawns , posing in . its dark shadows . It was the America of Chateaubriand , slighted to find himself amidst vegetation so luxuriant , he was lost in
miration . But the enchantment is short-lived . The driver suddenly izes his carbine , cocks it , examines the priming , and then leisurely places at his feet . Danger is at hand , although lie continues to hum his tune , termpted only when he points out to him the honey-tree and those plants lich cure serpents' bites . Suddenly the horses stop , snort wildly , tremble over , plunge backwards , dashing the waggon against a tree , and smashing e pole . The honest Anglo-Mexican flights * with his gun . At the same stant a panther of huge size crouches and springs on the foremost horse , shot , and the beast rolls lifeless in the sand . Our abbe is knocked head er heels to the bottom of tlie waggon , and witnesses the scene from an traordinary point of view— -a Penvers . Reaching Sari Antonio without rtfcer misiiap , he is lodged in the garret of "the . Mission , furnished with miserable eamp-bed without mattress or palliasse , a crazy table and two
airs , one of which was without a bottom , and the other minus a leg ; a sola , a public coffin used to convey to the cemetery the bodies of the or , and returned when that duty wns fulfilled . Onions , garlic , pimento , d vegetables lay thick upon the floor , which served him for a promenade r two months , for he could not walk in the town by daylight owing to the tense heat , nor outside its precincts for fear of the terrible archery of the nuanche Indians . The parish priest could not accompany a corpse to the metery , only a pistol-shot from his house , without an escort of armed 2 ti . "In this prison , " says the missionary , "I passed long hours , musing »« od deal , pacing the length and breadth of the planks , picking my steps , t I should crush the vegetables , and all the while meditating profoundly i a great variety of subjects . Close to the Louse was a stream of clear itcr , where the women bathed publicly . My window was in view of their
. mbolin » s ; I was , therefore , obliged to keep it closed during the day . " The following anecdote is highly illustrative of the state of morals and aimers in this portion of the Texnu republic . One night , whilst Doineseli slept , profoundly , there cunie loiul , repeated knocks at the door . Hiding Imste , he is accosted by a youth of eighteen and his sister , entreating him administer the last Micrniuent to their brother , who hud been muiuured f the eldest son of the- family . Two horses were in readiness , one un-• idled the other unsaddled . Lenping on the latter , the ubbd soon arrives the rancho of Ssm liycrouinio , and , guided by traces of blood , filters e cabin where the victim lay . lie tvns .-trelchcd on a bed , bathed in his ood , and breathing heavily , with his forehead bound round with a blooily indkcrchiefV " I asked him if he knew me ? ( Speechless , he inado a sign oi
icoyiution . Two candles , shedding a nickering light through the cabin , a \ ng man , a priest praying for and consoling him , form a very simple cture , but one which ham frequently been repeated during my life . And ill , under the cabin ' s roof , in the wilderness , far from the bustle of cities , have ever considered this picture as sublime . " Abhci Donuncch hud not it terminated the sacred unction , when the fratricide stalks into the room ' deal his brother a fini . shin" blow . "In an instant , " Hays he , " 1 drew * e of nty pistols , and levelling it at his breast ordered him to retire , which i did with a very bad grace . " lie then examines and dresses thu wounds , mo of the cars hnd been cut oil ' . On rait-ing the clotli covering the wound i the breast , horror-stricken , the good iaitln-r lets it fall again . The unrtunuto man had received , near the heart , a blow of a hatchet , fracturing po of tho riba and severing one lobe of the Iuhks . Six months afterwards
he returned to this raxicho , and met a nian walking in . the yairu , pale and tottering in bis gait- He asks his name , and finds it to be that of the person to whom he had given extreme unction , and believed to- be dead for half a year . To be sure he was a German , with the lif ' o of a cat . Some merry circumstances , however , now and then arise to cheer and sweeten his lonely enthusiasm . He goes to Dhauis to baptize the frwx > children of an Alsatian . His stock of German being weak , he wrote on a scrap of paper the word tuufen , to baptize , not to confound it with kau / en , to buy , or xerkciufen , to sell—words which the Yankee fondness for " doing a trade" caused to be continually i-esounding in his ears . Unfortunately , in the haste of departure , he loses this memorandum , and the words become confounded in his memory . Seeing a likely paterfamilias leaning against the doorpost of a cabin , he trusts to his good star , and loudly asks if he has not some children verkaufen— -to sell . Surprise and wrath lower upon the face of the man of Alsace . He had used the wrong word evidently , and
endeavours to make amends by saying he had been sent for Icaiifeu— -to buy two children . This was too audacious , even for a phlegmatic Uermun , and the poor abb ' u received a broadside of energetic , untranslatable compliments . There was now but the remaining tciiifen ., So with all mildness he remarks , " If it is neither to sell nor to buy , then it must be to baptize . " The German looked at him fixedly , and discovering by his .. costume that he might be the priest sent for to admit his two olive-branches within the pale of the church , burst into fits of long-continued laughter , and Douienech catches his infectious hilarity . Contrasted with this pleasant escape from a difficulty , is the conduct of a rich Greek colonist who wishes to have his child , baptized in the Catholic faith . The iibhv declines , owing to a very important omission in the arrangement . ' . The father retorts that , " with his gun , " he would force him to christen his son ! A reprobate drunken German dies in the kennel—his relatives insolently demand the funeral service- —Domenech- refuses : they
also threaten to shoot him ! "I ther , " says Domeneeh , " quietly took off my soutane and said , 'Now you no longer have to denl with a priest , but with a'Frenchman who knows how to make his dwelling respected , and who , should you unfortunately ' . attack with fire-arms , lias a brace of pistols to reply to yours . '" A mason of Castroville had asked a young girl in marriage who was pre-engaged . The worthy stonecutter assures tho priest that he will kill him and his rival also if he celebrates this marriage . It is celebrated notwithstanding , and the unsuccessful suitor , armed to the teeth , waylays the priest in a forest , but fails to effect his murderous intent .
At Matamoros , he has the honour of blessing the marriage of the living descendant of the royal Montezuma . She was twenty-four years old ; her features handsome , noble , and very sweet withal ; her deportment easy but listless in the extreme . The ancient glory of the Incas revealed itself in this the last scion of their race , for she said she was sin orphan without kindred in the remotest degree , and that of all the magnificent possessions of her ancestors nothing remained but some fields in Texas . Six thousand dollars had been offered for them , and , fearing to be stripped of all , she accepted the miserable price , married the man she loved , and retired into obscurity ' ; - her existence unknown indeed to the world , but withal peaceful and happy .
Tie present Comanche Indian race are the direct descendants of the hold and warlike tribes once ruled by her royal ancestry . Their women are of wild and savage , beauty , set off most effectively by a chemise of delicately tanned deer-skin , fringed with red cloth , tin , and Venetian pearls . Some wear im ornament of the teeth of wild-boars and panthers , ranged on their breasts like the brandebourgs worn by hussars . They often join their husband m the chase , for the Comanche is u polygamist , who purchases as many wives as he fancies , at the price of a horse for each . Ona of these handsome Amazons wore the skin of a lion Icillcd with her own hand , and the lion of Texas is large and formidable . She wns always accompanied by . an nnhmil about the size of-a cat , but of the form and appearance of a goat . Its horns were rose-coloured , its fur of the finest quality , glossy like silk and white us snow ; instead of hoo / s it had claws . They tempted her with an oftvr of five hundred franc ? , and the commandant ' s wife would have
given for it a brilliant of great vtilue . She refused both . She knew a wood , she said , where they abounded , and would , if ever she returned , catch some of these singular creatures , expressly for them . Sickness at last compels the Abbci to seek his native climate , and , by the bishop ' s sanction , lie sails for France . "Arriving at Lyons , my native town , it was just ( en ocloek when I knocked at my mother's door . How my heartbeat ! 'Who is there ? 'Itisi . 'Ah ! my Kmmanuel ! ' We fell into each other ' s arms , and wept tears of joy . A mother ' s caresses are sweet at any n » e . " After a sojourn of three weeks in the bosom of his family , he starts for Rome , lie was but poorly clad , but at the Vatican a man is not
judged by his dress . Mis Holiness receives him with accustomed benevolence . " During my life , " says the author , " 1 hud never seen features so full , of sympathy , so kind , so venerable . I briefly told my adventures , and the Holy Father replied , ' I see , denr child , that you nre inured to misery . ' ' So much so , ' 1 rejoined , ' that even in Koine it quits me not . ' " lie then frankly avows his pecuniary embarrassments , for his hist five francs lad totally disappeared . Ilia Holiness smiled , and seeing my confidence in God , said , " Since you travel on the business of Providence , his vicar ahull pay your travelling expenses ; " and suiting- the action to the word , Tope i'ius IX ., with princely largess , gavu hima I urge handful of gold pieces . After
a very short sojourn in France , Abbd Domenech returns to the scene of his lornyjr labours , to which want of spsico will not allow of our following him . Tlio journey wns not without its accompanying perils . During a voyage on the Hudson , in one of the monster steamboats flint ply i \» far as Albany , innking tire distance —ono hundred mid fifty-six miles—in a few houi-R , for tho trifling charge of one piastre , two contending boats weigh anchor at the huiic moment , and set out in a spirit of proud " rivalry . His captain , not satisfied with a speed of twenty-five—at times twenty-buven — links an hour , had oil and grease thrown into the furnace . The : bont . H get entangled , and there arc from seven to ci » ht hundred passengers on board . At this alarming crisis , a deputation accosts thu captain , entreating him to
Untitled Article
ff o , 432 , July 3 , 1858 . ] T H E LEADEE . 64 . 3
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 3, 1858, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2249/page/19/
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