Pictures of life in Mexico/Volume 2/Chapter 27
CHAPTER XXVII.
INCIDENT AT A PUEBLO.
I ONCE prevailed upon an old gentleman with a benevolent countenance shining locks of white hair and a belief in predestination who resided at the same meson as myself, to favour me with the particulars of his past history; it was a sufficiently varied one, and may serve to illustrate a wild phase of Mexican life, such as residents in remote districts are to this day continually exposed to.
"I have no doubt, my child" (this was his favourite mode of address to all younger than himself), "that you have heard some mysterious reports about me," he said. "Perhaps you may have heard that the old alcalde is regarded as an alien and an intruder residing here without a carta del seguridad" (the card of safety or permit granted by the government); "and that I, a quiet feeble old man, am more than half suspected by the underlings in authority to be a spy upon their administration. But it was predestined: all is predestined, believe me! And now you shall hear the truth.
"It was ordained that I should be a kind of petty governor of a distant district in the neighbourhood of Zonoma, where many years of my life were spent. I lived most happily in the midst of my domestic circle, for I had a beloved wife and interesting little family. I had nothing to do among the residents of the settlement but to superintend my own hacienda (or farm), and in my own way to administer such justice—it was not much—as was required. Ah! those were indeed happy days—days of sunlight and prosperity. Our cattle and horses were healthy and abundant—Heaven smiled upon our labours; and the earth richly rewarded the little pains we bestowed upon its cultivation. Our only fears arose from the liability of the pueblo (hamlet) to be attacked and robbed by the Indians; and against this we were constantly on our guard. I had always treated them kindly, as the Virgin is witness; but treachery is their appropriate element: it is their very nature to steal—doubtless their destiny, poor creatures! and they could not help it.
"Father Pablo—a priest, whose arrival in the neighbourhood occurred shortly after my own—acted as resident priestly missionary to the pueblo: he too had a household, and a happy one; and so it might have continued, but for his avarice and ambition. Although his estate was considerable, he was continually grasping to enlarge it; and he increased his stock of cattle and horses proportionably: so rapidly did his responsibilities multiply, that at length, when one or two of his domestics fell sick, he had not sufficient herdsmen to keep his cattle and stock of all kinds properly together.
"His growing wealth and fancied security offered an undue temptation to the Indians; and, in an unlucky hour, they planned a descent upon his property. One bright moonlight night the padre was aroused by an unusual noise on the premises, and looking out, he was just in time to behold a great number of his best cattle disappearing in the distance marshalled by a company of stealthy savages. The owner was not the man to suffer this robbery with impunity; so alarming nearly the whole district and placing himself at the head of some chosen followers he sallied forth before the dawn of morning in the direction the plunderers had taken. By the middle of the day he had overtaken engaged defeated them, and recovered his missing property; which he brought back in triumph—though several of the Indians were wounded, and two killed in the skirmish.
"Had this been all, we should have had no very great reason to complain; but the Indians—in obedience to the laws of their preordained nature—were revengeful. And though we heard nothing more of them for some time, yet on the very earliest occasion when Father Pablo was absent, they returned in greater numbers, laid a great part of his domain in ruins, and, not content with driving away nearly the whole of his horses and cattle, they carried off his wife and three children in addition. This was a terrible blow to the Padre; for he had been much attached to his wife and family: especially to the youngest, a fine boy, his favourite child. The deprivation seemed to change his very nature, and to make him like the ravenous beasts. Arming himself, and pressing every available person and weapon into his service, he once more set out upon their track. The encounter that ensued was shorty fierce and decisive; and it ended in the holy father recovering his family and stock: with the exception of his favourite child who had been killed by an old Indian in revenge for the loss of his son. Three of our people were wounded in addition; many of the offending savages were slain, and seven of them were captured.
"These the padre ruthlessly ordered to be shot, and the command was carried into effect—for it was one of the things that were to be. On his return, he made arrangements for disposing of his stock and farm and immediate quitted the district, taking up his residence in the capital. He hired a house in the Plaza Mayor, where for many years—so changed had he become—he led the life of a tyrant to his family. He had always disliked his female companion since she had been carried off by the Indians; and the distaste had extended to her children, now that his favourite boy was no more. It was my fate, however, to suffer in the greatest degree from these untoward circumstances; for the Indians made a horrible reprisal upon the remaining residents for the loss of their comrades.
"Oh! how distinctly do the events of that night dwell in my remembrance. A terrible storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning, had visited us during the evening: a perfect hurricane! The rushing wind blew in such tremendous gusts, that trees were torn up by their roots, and borne away; many of our sheds were totally unroofed, and the rain descended in such torrents upon the cattle within, that the water rose to their knees as they stood; while the vivid flashes of lightning, breaking from time to time through the growing darkness, affrighted them almost to madness. As the storm continued, things became but little better indoors; for many parts of our habitation threatened to give way; and the women and children raised their cries and lamentations, in unison with the howling of the winds, the bellowing of the cattle, and the pelting of the rain. For two hours, the war without raged thus violently; and when, at length, it began to subside, we found it necessary to visit the outbuildings to make some temporary arrangements for security and comfort till the following day; so that it was not until a very late hour of the night that the members of our household, as well as those of our neighbours, could obtain repose.
"I was awoke from an hour's feverish slumber by a loud knocking at the door of my chamber. I hastily rose on hearing a voice I well knew, and unfastened it immediate; when a confidential servant entered, and almost sinking on the floor, exclaimed, 'The savages have returned in greater force that ever! Oh! Señor, we are lost! They have surrounded the buildings, and are at this moment preparing to set fire to them!
"I hastened to the window and looked out. The news was but too true: building after building echoed to the most horrible whoops and yells; clouds of smoke arose from every quarter; and already a dreadful hissing and crashing sound could be distinguished. My heart sank with me, my head drooped upon the ledge of the window at which I stooped, and for a moment I lost my consciousness.
"I was aroused by the grasp of a heavy hand upon my shoulder; and as by this time the flames without rendered objects in the apartment indistinctly visible, I thought it was my servant. 'Juan,' said I, abstractedly, 'collect all the arms in the house: we will not surrender our lives without at least an effort!'
"The Alcalde! exclaimed a deep voice behind me and at the same instant the hand tightened on my throat with sudden ferocity, 'The Alcalde! The Alcalde!'
"Turning round in the extremity of suffocation, I saw that a tall and powerful Indian was behind me, and that, while his right hand was grasping my throat with determined energy, the other was fumbling about for a knife that had fallen on the ground. Before he could regain his weapon, I sprang up, madly striving to free myself from his hold; and a desperate struggle for existence ensued between us. We tugged, and strained, and fought: but his strength held out longer than mine; and, utterly powerless, I was just on the point of yielding, when my adversary's grasp suddenly relaxed, and he staggered and fell. Much to my surprise, I perceived that he had been stabbed from behind by my wife; who, recovering from her first stupor of fear had courageously hastened to my rescue in time to save me. Snatching up the children, we rushed out as the flames began to gather round us: but we were seized by a party of our enemies in waiting below; our hands were tied, and we were dragged to the spot where the majority of our friends and neighbours were lying, in the same condition as ourselves.
"The flames behind us had by this time spread far and wide. The houses had taken fire from the out-buildings, from thence it had communicated with a group of noble trees at no great distance; and as these stood at the entrance of a deep wood, it seemed impossible to conjecture where the conflagration would end. The sight of the flames mounting and crackling, lighting up the pitchy darkness for miles around, was awful in the extreme: yet we were too much absorbed in the contemplation of our approaching fate, to pay it much attention. We were not, however, kept long in suspense.
Oh! the cruel ruin of that night! Oh! that it should have been so predestined! Alas! my poor wife and children! how could I survive you, murdered in cold blood before 
my face! For the next act of our inhuman captors was to form the prisoners into two divisions; then placing all the old men, women, and children together in a group, they put them to death without remorse. The survivors, consisting of myself and the most able-bodied of the men, they intended to carry away with them as prisoners.
"For three days and nights we were carefully bound and watched, and were obliged to accompany the Indians as they leisurely drove our cattle before them. On the fourth day, however, one of our number contrived, with the assistance of a tree, privately to loosen the cord that bound his hands; and patiently awaiting for night, was fortunately able to render the same service to a few of his companions. I was one of the number.
"When our enemies had stretched themselves upon their blankets for the night, we found means, after much scheming, effectually to silence the guard before he was able to give the alarm, and so managed to make good our escape. After innumerable fatigues, dangers, and privations, and with the loss of one of our comrades, we reached the capital and here I have since been living in great obscurity, and almost utter solitude. I was old when these misfortunes came upon me; alas! how much older has grief made me since that time! And when I tell you that I am not absolutely poor; that my wants are few; and that I am as contented as it is likely I can ever be in this world, you are in possession of nearly my whole history—such as it was pre-ordained to be."
Thus runs a translation of the old alcalde's narrative, word for word, as he related it to me.