The Land of Bondage: A RomanceBloundelle-Burton, John
History
The Land of Bondage: A Romance
Bloundelle-Burton, John
Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction
"And, above all, is it not he who bade us go forward on the warpath
towards the home of the pale faces, telling us success should come to
us, as it has truly come?"
Once more the Indians were roused, but this time it was towards the
adoption of the chief's views. Hating ingratitude as they did, they
seemed to think now--judging by the ejaculations of many of them--that
there was danger of their testifying it to the medicine chief by
turning so suddenly against him. Poor, ignorant savages! 'Twas easy to
see that they believed, as doubtless their chief believed, that to
this mean creature was owing the fact that their crops and their
cattle had thrived so. They could not guess, their simple, unformed
minds could not tell them, that it was to their own exertions,
suggested by him, and not to his mumblings and gibberish over those
crops and cattle, that their increase and fatness was due.
But no sooner had Senamee finished than Buck, who could be neither
repressed nor subdued, lifted up his voice and, addressing him,
exclaimed, "Sir! Chief! Listen to me a spell. What this fellow has
done I taught him when he was a bought slave, as I was a transported
one, to this our young lady here, whom you call the pale face woman.
And what he can do I can do better, as I'll show you if you'll give me
the chance. You say he can make objects vanish? Why, look here"; with
which he picked up three stones from the earth, placed them on his
open palm, clenched his hand and blew upon it, and, opening it again,
showed to the astonished surrounders that it was empty. Then he
approached an Indian squaw standing near, and putting out his finger
drew each stone one by one from her long, matted hair, while her dusky
skin turned white and she shrunk away from him muttering. Then he
continued:
"Is that it? Well, 'tis simple enough--there hain't a conjuror or Jack
Pudding at Bartholomew Fair, nor any other, that can't do better nor
that, and they ain't children o' the Sun, nor more am I. No! not no
more than _he_ is"--pointing his finger at the now trembling Roderick.
"Children of the Sun, ha! ha! children born in a ditch more like; or
in a prison." Whereupon, after laughing again, he stooped down once
more and, seizing some larger stones, began to hurl them in the air
one after the other and catch them as they descended. Yet, when he had
caught them all, his hands were empty.
Doubtless the Indians understood not his strange jargon and his talk
about Bartholomew Fair. But they could witness his mysterious tricks,
at which, in truth, I was myself appalled, having never seen the like.
And while once more the simple savages veered round into denunciations
of Roderick St. Amande, muttering that he could be no god if this
other slave could do such things, and some of them turned Buck round
and made him show them his hands and open his mouth so that they might
see if the stones were there, Anuza rose again from his seat and spake
as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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