( 47 ) 



THE INDIAN MOTHER. 



[A granitic rock on the western bank of the Rio Temi attracted their atten- 

 tion. It is called the Piedra de la Guahiba, or Piedra de la Madre and com- 

 memorates one of those acts of oppression of which Europeans are guilty in all 

 countries whenever they come into contact with savages. In 1797, the mis- 

 sionary of San Fernando had led his people to the banks of the Rio Guaviare, 

 on a hostile excursion. In an Indian hut they found a Guahiba woman with 

 three children, occupied in preparing Cassava flour ; she and her little ones at- 

 tempted to escape, but were seized and carried away. The unhappy female 

 repeatedly fled with her children from the village, but was always traced by 

 her Christian countrymen. At length the friar, after causing her to be severely 

 beaten, resolved to separate her from her family, and sent her up the Atabipo 

 towards the missions of the Rio Negro. Ignorant of the fate intended her, but 

 judging by the directions of the sun, that her persecutors were carrying her far 

 'from her native country, she burst her fetters, leaped from the boat, and swam 

 to the left bank of the river. She landed on a rock, but the president of the 

 establishment ordered the Indians to row to the shore and lay hands on her. 

 She was brought back in the evening, stretched upon the bare stone (the Piedra 

 de la Madre), scourged with straps of manatee leather, which are the ordinary 

 whips of the country, and then dragged to the mission of Javita, her hands 

 bound behind her back. It was the rainy season, the night was excessively 

 dark, forests believed to be impenetrable stretched from that station to San 

 Fernando over an extent of eighty-six miles, and the only communication be- 

 tween these places was by the river; yet the Guahiba mother, breaking her 

 bonds and eluding the vigilance of her guards, escaped under cover of night, 

 and on the fourth morning was seen at the village, hovering round the nut 

 which contained her children. On this journey she must have undergone dan- 

 gers, hardships, and privations from which the most robust man would have 

 shrunk. And the result of all this courage and devotion was her removal to 

 one of the missions on the upper Orinoco, where despairing of ever seeing her 

 beloved children, and refusing all kinds of nourishment, she miserably perished 

 a victim to the barbarity and bigotry of wretches calling themselves Chris- 

 tians Humboldfs Travels.'] 



AMIDST the rich banana trees, 



Within the verdant shade, 

 Where sun-bright palms a canopy 



Of gorgeous beauty made ; 



The Indian mother's palm-thatch'd hut, 



In rustic beauty stood, 

 Shelter'd o'er head by quivering leaves, 



Screen'd by the neighb'ririg wood. 



Within her quiet, happy home, 



Three cherub children dwelt ; 

 High swell'd with joy the mother's heart, 



When at her feet they knelt. 



Shrieks shrieks wild shrieks are in the air, 



Fierce, fast devouring flame, 

 Is scorching up that Eden bower, 



Its joys its loves its name. 



Fiercer than elemental war 



Man's passions stalk behind ; 

 High rings the stern unpitying shout, 



" Kill, kill, or firmly bind." 



