The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-05-31

slept, in their passage to the deep. Never was
night and situation SO full Of charm, yet 80 full
of the awful and the terrible. Beautiful, indeed,
surprisingly beautiful and sweet was the
strange wild charm of that highly spiritual
mingling of land aud ocean that small and
lovely islet, just rising above the deep, so tho
roughly environed by its rocking pillows, shone
upon by that wilderness of stars; breathed over
by that pure zephyr, gliding in with perfume
and blessing from the South; and haunted by
unknown sounds, from strange creatures of the
sea and sky, who, in a life Of perpetual free
dom, could never know the feeling of desola.
ton or of exile. .,...5
But the wild romance and wondrous beauty
of the scene, were lost upon the man who had
no higher idea of the possessions of the intel
lectual nature than such as could be drawn
from association with his fellow. The region,
unoccupied by man, however beautiful in itself,
could bring no joy, no peace to the bosom of
the exile. Velasquez knew the real nature Of
his victim. He well knew that Lopez had no
| sympathy with the mute existences of sea and
sky; of earth and air; and of those more ex-
quisite essences, which, in such situation, the
imaginative nature would have joyed to con-
iure up from the spiritual world, he thought on
| ly with terror and reluctance. He did fancy
| that voices came to him upon the night air.
the voices of men, and in strange, unusual
language land he instantly trembled with
fears of the cannibal-the anthropophag, who
were supposed, at that period, to be the only
inhabitants of these regions.
But the night passed over in security. He
opened his eyes upon another day, in the soli-
tude of that wild abode, ere yet the sun had
warmed with his gay tints the gray mansions Of
the East. He opened his eyes upon the sea
and sky as before. The pillows were rolling
slowly away at his feet, in long, low courses,
but slightly lifted by the breezes Of the dawn.
Vainly were his eyes stretched out over the wa
terry waste, in the pathway Of the departed ves-
sell The vast plain Of ocean spread away be.
fore him unbroken by speck; and when the
sun rushed up visibly into the heavens, and laid
bare the whole bright circumference of the deep,
for many league, undarkened by an object
then the conviction of his utter loneliness-hs
life OF future loneliness-forced itself upon the
heart of the wretched youth; and flipging HIM
self once more upon the earth, he thrust his
fingers into the sands, and cried aloud in the
depth of his agony
"Jesu it is true lit is ue!-and | am left
left by my people,-to perish here alonew
We spare his lamentations,-hi entreaties,
as if there were still some human being at
hand, who might afford him relief aud consola-
tion,--to whom he might appeal for succor and
protection. Prayer he had none The name
Of the Deity. OF tue Savior, and the Virgin,
were sometimes upon his lips; but the utter.
ance was habtual, as he had been accustomed
to employ them in mere idleuess and indiffer.
ence Three days passed in which despair had
full possession OF his faculties. In this time he
lay crouching upon the beach during the day,
and gazing vacantly in the direction in which
the ship had gone. At night he retreated to
higher ground, filled with apprehensions Of
great uullstcrs OF the sea,--of the seas them
selves,-lcst rising suddenly, endued with
human or fendish will, they might gather
round him while he slept, aud hurry him off, be-
yond escape, to their gloomy abyssss. A small
clump of trees afforded him the semblance of
shelter. Here he lay from nightfall to dawn,
only sleeping in the utter exhaustion OF nature,
aid suffering, at al! other times, from every sort
of terror. The stars, looking down through the
palm leaves overhead, with their mild, sad as
poets, seemed to him SO many mocking aTd
malignant angels exulting in his condition. The
moaning of the sea, and the murmurs OF the
night wind, were all SO many voices of terror
appointed to dcride him in his dcsolation, and
impress his heart with sense of unknown
dangers. The rush OF great wings occasionally
along the shore, or the rustic Of smaller ones i'll
the boughs above hini-~perhaps OF creatures as
tmd us HIMSELF f.--kept him wakeful with con-
slant apprehensons and, at moments OF the
midnight, terrible believing, as of some sea
beast rising to tho shore, or leaving it with Il
plunge that echoed throughout the islet--
struck a very palsy to his heart, that, for the
time, seemed to silence all its vibrations. Let
us leave the miserable outcast, thus suffering
and apprehensive, while we return to the i'll
mates of the vessel by whom he was aban-
donet.
He was not wholly abandoned. Maria de
Pacheco, the woman, who, like himself, was i'll
some degree victim also to the will, if not the
tyranny, of Don Velasquez, was not the crea-
ture tamely to submit to injustice, however she
might prudently seem to do SO. We need not
ask whether there was any real attachment
between herself and the poor creature whom
we have seen "marooned" 1t is probable that
tbe deDree of rcnard which she entertained for