Columbus and Other Heroes of American DiscoveryD'Anvers, N.
History
Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery
D'Anvers, N.
America -- Discovery and exploration; North America -- Discovery and exploration
Thus far all went well, and the descent of the western slope was all
but accomplished, when it became necessary to encamp for the night.
Cozens had fallen asleep, and was dreaming of the lovely scenes he was
about to visit, when he was suddenly awakened by a hand laid on his
shoulder. He started up, revolver ready, but no one except “Jimmy,”
the Irish servant, was near, who whispered, “She is calling me!”
Thinking his servant had gone mad, or had woke up in terror from a
nightmare, the master was about to order him off to bed again, when
a low wail, like that of a child in trouble, fell upon his ear.
“Jimmy” was right. _She_ was calling him, and _she_ was one of the
mules, at that moment in an agonized struggle with a panther, whose
low, almost plaintive yell was one of triumph. Rushing forward,
accompanied by two gentlemen of his party, Cozens came up just as
the mule’s sufferings were over, and shared with them the triumph of
shooting the panther, who turned out to be one of the finest creatures
of the kind ever brought down in the neighborhood.
On the following day a slight détour was made to visit the ruins of
El Moro, one of the most stately of the old Spanish cities, bearing
traces on its walls of the engraved names of many of the old heroes
of the days when the power of the Roman Catholic Church was at its
zenith. From El Moro a ride of a few hours brought the cavalcade
to the Valley of Zuni, inhabited by a few survivors of a race
of blue-eyed and fair-skinned Indians, who are said to have been
descended from the Welsh miners who accompanied Prince Madoc on that
visit to Cibola, concerning which so hot a war has been waged among
archæologists.
Entering the town of Zuni, a ruin differing but little in general
character from that of El Moro, the travelers were courteously
received by the cacique, or chief――a fine-looking old man, with large,
intelligent, dark-blue eyes――wearing a Spanish shawl and trowsers.
He conducted them over his city, pointing out to them, among its
special features, a sacred spring, from which neither man nor beast
was ever allowed to drink, the genius of the place avenging any such
desecration by instant death.
After a careful examination of the wonders of Zuni, the ascent of the
mountain plateau on the west was commenced, and, after many a pause to
examine the strange monuments of a departed race with which its sides
and summit were strewn, the land of the blue-eyed Indians was left
behind, and that of the fierce Navajoes entered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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