The Devil-Tree of El Dorado: A Novel

But of this nothing is known to the general public. Templemore and his friends have kept the promise he gave, and preserved the secret of Roraima. It was only a short time ago that circumstances arose that seemed to him to justify a departure from the course he had hitherto observed. This was when the dispute which has been dormant for just upon a hundred years respecting the boundaries of British Guiana suddenly reached an acute stage.

“Truly,” he said to his wife, then, “I think this is the contingency our friend Monella must have had in his mind when he intimated that in certain circumstances I was to be free to depart from the silence he had enjoined. It seems to me more than ever the case that he must have had ‘the gift of prophecy’ at that time. I cannot doubt that, if he were alive now, and saw that the future international position of Roraima was hanging in the balance, he would wish it to become permanently British territory, rather than Venezuelan. And, if he could know of the present state of indifference – or want of information – that seems to prevail in England, I feel satisfied he would wish me to do what I could to awaken the English nation to the true facts of the question that is at stake.”

And that is how it has come about that, after some years of silence, this strange story of Roraima and the ancient city of El Dorado is now given to the world.

THE END

1

The Indians of British Guiana pronounce this word Roreema.

2

Mr. Barrington Brown says the mountain can only be ascended by means of balloons (see article previously referred to on page 3); and Mr. Boddam-Whetham came to the same conclusion.

3

The Indians of British Guiana pronounce this word Roreema.

4

Since then Roraima has been visited by two or three other travellers; but their accounts have added little to our knowledge. They entirely confirm Mr. Brown’s statements as to its inaccessibility. (See Preface.)

5

This article appeared in the Spectator of April 1877.

6

This strange cry is often heard in the depths of the forests in this region, and has never been accounted for, the only explanation given by the Indians being the one stated above, viz., that it is ‘the cry of a Lost Soul.’ It is alluded to by the American poet, Whittier, in the following lines: —

“In that black forest where, when day is done,*****Darkly from sunset to the rising sun,A cry as of the pained heart of the wood,The long despairing moan of solitudeAnd darkness and the absence of all good,Startles the traveller with a sound so drear,So full of hopeless agony and fear,His heart stands still, and listens with his ear.– The guide, as if he heard a death-bell toll,Crosses himself, and whispers, ‘A Lost Soul!’”

7

A vivid account of an adventure with these formidable animals will be found in Mr. Barrington Brown’s ‘Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana,’ page 71. Very little is known about them, but they are believed to have their haunts in the unexplored mountain districts, from which they occasionally descend into other parts. Mr. Brown states that the Indians fear them above everything; and, while comparatively brave as regards jaguars and tiger-cats of all kinds, give way to utter panic at the mere idea that ‘Warracaba tigers’ are in their neighbourhood. It is said that nothing stops or frightens them except a broad stream of water – not even fire.

8

A very interesting account of the South American puma will be found in ‘The Naturalist in La Plata,’ by Mr. W. H. Hudson. He states that the puma has a strange natural liking for, or sympathy with, man; that, though ferocious and bloodthirsty in the extreme as regards other animals, yet it never attacks man, woman, or child, awake or asleep. He quotes many authorities, and gives numerous instances, of a very remarkable character, from the accounts of hunters and others whom he has himself seen and questioned.

9

See extract given in the preface (page viii.) from Richard Schomburgk’s book ‘Reissen in Britisch Guiana.’

10

Mr. Im Thurn, referring to this belief amongst the Indians, states that he has himself seen, from a distance, strange lights on the Canakoo Mountains for which he was quite unable to account. See ‘Among the Indians of British Guiana,’ p. 384.

11

See Mr. Barrington Brown’s ‘Canoe and Camp Life Among the Indians of British Guiana,’ p. 71. He says these animals hunt in packs of as many as a hundred or more.

12

See foot-note, Chapter V., p. 52.