The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1848-02-10

-, ii'N Lio' hut hNNNl biOu3 "lInlh Do ICCOl
- lection. But a few weeks after the visit O
-" the good missionary, the family were awak.
:, ened at midnight by fearful shrieks and bowls
y For an instant, they supposed that lions OF
. hyenas were among their tiocks but the crash
OF firearms soon announced a human foe
In vain the poor CATERS strove to defend then
wives and children. Their humble cabins
were all ablaze, their fields of maize and mil
let trampled down, and all who were not
slaughtered, were bound hand and foot and
dragged oil toward the Sca-coast. Terrible
was the impression this scene made ON the
sensitive spirit of Marossi. To his dying
hour, he never could forget those dusky forms
struggling and bleeding in the fierce glare OF
the fire-light. When they were hurried
away, driven like a herd of cattle across the
country, he asked where was his father but
his weeping mother could not tell. Silently
and sadly, he trudgcd along by her side, hold
ing fast by her hand. But the march was
long and wearisome, and many of the paths
were rough and stony. Their feet began to
bleed, and they Jagged a little whereupon
the Christian drivers cursed them, and cut
them with their whips. They sworc they
would shoot all the small bratS, for they were
not worth the time they cost to keep up with
the drove. The CATER children did not UNI
derstand their brutal words, but they were
frightened by their looks, and clung closer to
their suffering mothers. On their route, they
passed the cabin of a Dutch boor, to whom
the slave-traders called aloud, and asked if he
wanted to buy a brat. After a brief parley,
they sold Nlarossi to him for an old jacket.
Terrible were the shrieks of mother and
child, when they were torn asunder. With
frantic energy the poor widowed one tossed
her arms in the air, and called her Youngest
and best beloved, who vainly struggled in the
strong arms of the Door The desolate child
heard the loud snap of the whip, as they drove
her away, and the sound cut deep into his
tortured soul. That night as he lay weep
ing on the mud floor Of the Dutch cabin, he
thought over the beautiful words Of the No
ravian missionary, and he could not under
stand how it was that these men believed IN
the same God.
Two wretched years he lived in the Dutch
mans service, beaten by him, and kicked by
his sons, whenever they drank too much
pcach-brandy, or met with amy accident that
rutilcd their tempers. Every seventh day
they RETAINED from work, and sometimes Il
man came among them who read from Il big
book, and talked and prayed. But Marossi
herded with the pigs and the dogs, and no no.
tlCc WAS ldhc!l VI lllIl. OlCc ~ lldI MS ears
soundly boxed for making the DOGS bark on a
Sunday, but this was all the religion he was
ever taught and certainly the fact that dogs
might bark every other day in the week, but
that Utiko did not like to have them bark on
the seventh day, was not remarkably well
calculated to enlightcn his benighted soul.
And the heart Of the orphan was starving,
even more than his mind. lie had not heard
the tones of kindness since his mother was
torn away from him. His ONLY comfort was
an antelope he had tanned, whose mild eyes
reminded him of the playmate of his early
childhood. But Che Doors son took a fancy
to the animals beautiful skin, and swore he
would have it for a jacket. When Marossi
claimed the antelope for his own, and refused .
to part with it, the old Dutchman gave him a ;
logging for his impotence. Under such in
l]luences, clouds of stupidity of course gather .
ed fast over the originally bright young soul;
but the strong affections, which were now all .
ccntered on one small animal, could not be
easily stihed. He inwardly vowed that he
would suffer anything, death itself, rather !
than see his favOrite companion cut up to ,
make the young Doors jacket. So he rose !
stcalthiIy at IN 'dnigllt, and ran away with his -,
beautiful antelope. 1t was a fearful under
taking fora boy of ten years to go forth alone
into the wilderness, where hyenas laughed in
the darkness, and lions made their lair. But
he was less afraid of lions and hyenas, than
of those Christian men, who whipped him for
claiming his own, as they had whipped him
for making a noise while the preacher talked
of Utiko, who had sent Il great prophet OH the
earth, to proclaim peace and goodwill. ,
The morning light showed stupendous
mountain ridges, the sides of which he eager
ly climbed, to avoid purSuers. The antelope
was used to such rugged passes, and sprang
lightly from rock to rock, sometimes appar.
emily lost, but always returning at her mas
ter's whistle. From the cliffs above, eagles
swoopcd round him with wild screams, and in
the ravines below, balloons peIted him as he
passed. The sharp rocks cut his weary feet,
but he was afraid to stop long, and overland
anon he walked through streams OF water, lest
the hounds of the Dutchman should get on
his track. About noon, he came among a bill
lowy chaos of huge precipices, frighttul in
their fantastic grandeur, and sklrted by dark,
dense forests, through which tramped great
herds of buffalocS and elephants. How awful ,
was the landscape to that poor Ignorant boy
Vague ideas of what his mother said Of Udali !
the Creator. and what the missionary taught
concerning Utiko, the Beautiful, fitted through
MS mlllu Wlth ShoSt-llhe' opILtSNino :"'ct''i
ty. He wondered whether UdAll lived up
there among that sea of preclpices, and whetl- I
err Utiko knew that he, the friendless child, {
was trayersing those great mountains all alone.
The elephants had forced a way for him c
through forests tangled with interlacing q
boughs and ropc-like vines. Through these I
deeply-shaded paths, the weary wanderer ,
at last in sight of a wide, drcary plain, {
where no verdurc was. A few o~striches were t
seen in the distance, and here and there a
tall Secretary-bird stalkcd awkwardly about c
in search of snakes. No rain had fallen for
time, and the country was so parched .
not even the buzz of a wild bee, or the H.,