The Hunchback of Westminster

by William Le Queux

yourfriendship and protection in the scientific and business enterprisewhich they have undertaken, in order to obtain those natural productionsand wealth which render our province a classic land in the history ofanimals and plants, no less than in the record of hardly-won gold_.

  "_Hence it comes about that in this illustrious enterprise to Tangikano,which the illustrious (elites) travellers have undertaken, I much wishthat they may find in you all that the limited resources of the placeallow, not only that whatever difficulties they encounter may beremoved, but that you may be able to render less irksome the labours andprivations which they must necessarily endure. Indeed, for men likethem, devoted to our Holy Faith, stars of knowledge, pioneers of fortuneto be used for the good of the souls of others, it must in a countrylike ours be easy to find amongst our most exquisite productions meansto gratify them_.

  "_I, therefore, hope, and above all pray, that you may be led to fulfilmy wishes in the attentions you pay to Father Thomas Bonaventure and histhree companions, and thus give me another proof of your esteem andfriendship_.

  "_So I remain, Your friend and obedient Servant, Joao (FatherProvincial), LDS_."

  "Well, there is not much in that, is there?" said Jose, with a queerlittle grimace as he finished taking down the translation from thePrior's rapid and incisive dictation.

  "No," I observed; "it only shows that the Jesuits got wind of theexistence of great wealth at Tangikano, and so, with their customarysubtlety, they fitted out an expedition to recover it under the guise ofa noble quest for science. Still, that is something, isn't it? Itproves to us the thing was thought worth doing centuries ago by men onthe spot who must have had a better knowledge of what the districtcontained than any of us to-day can have."

  "True," replied the Prior thoughtfully, passing a hand reflectivelyacross his forehead. "It shows us, too, that we are on the right track,and that their musty-looking old manuscripts may have a very realmessage about the sacred lake, so I vote that, although the night is sovery far advanced, we push on with our researches. Do you agree,Glynn?"

  "Yes," I replied at once, for my interest too was now most keenlyexcited, and thereupon we all three of us bent down to work again andtackled the next document.

  This proved to be an account of the journey of the same Father ThomasBonaventure and his three companions mentioned in the letter when theyhad passed Xingu and had drawn within a few miles of the wonderful lakeitself. It was written in the same kind of cipher as the other and inthe same florid terms. In our opinion it was put on record at theMonastery of St Stanislaus in the city of Mexico at the same time asthe Father Provincial's letter.

  Stripped of its verbiage, it related how the four explorers had dulyarrived at the village of Tangikano, and, in order not to excitesuspicion, had pretended they had come for a missionary effort whichwould last several weeks. By this means they won the entire confidenceof the settlement, the population of which consisted of about fortypersons, of whom twenty were slaves, and the remainder free Indians andnegroes in the employ of the principal resident, a Spaniard named PedroBarra, who kept them engaged attending to a large number of cattle andhorses.

  The priests, indeed, gave a very pretty picture of the state of thingsin existence on this estate. It was as follows:--

  "_The slaves appeared contented and happy, as slaves generally do.Every evening at sunset they came to bid good-night to Senhor Pedro andourselves, a similar salutation taking place when they first met us inthe morning. As a rule, the master would be seated in a comfortableeasy-chair on the verandah, and each passed with a salutation suited tohis age or station. The Indians would be generally content with `Boanoite' (good-night), the younger ones and most of the women andchildren, both Indians and slaves, would hold out their hand, saying:`Sua bencao' (your blessing), to which he would reply, `Deos te bencos'(God bless you) making at the same time the sign of the cross. Others--and these were mostly the old negroes--would gravely repeat: `Louvadoseja of nome do Senhor Jesu Christo' (Blessed be the name of the LordJesus Christ), to which he would reply with equal gravity: `Para sempre'(for ever). Children of all classes here (they went on) never meettheir parents in the morning or leave them at night without in the samemanner asking their blessing, and they do the same invariably of everystranger who enters the house. In fact, it is there the commonsalutation of children and inferiors, and has a very pleasing effect_."

  But all the time they lingered here, however, it was easy to see thatthe four Jesuits ached to be off to the sacred lake. Even when theydescribed these idyllic scenes they harked off to this one all-absorbingsubject, and recounted their conviction what fine guides these sameslaves would make, and, later, told openly how they hastened to bargainwith the Senhor Pedro Barra for the services of some of them to row themin a canoe up the river that led to the foot of the lake itself. Eventhe sight of this muddy and pestilential stream stirred in them emotionsof admiration and awe. They might have been near the Amazon itself,have gazed on the stream of this mighty and far-famed river, and havelet their imaginations wander to its sources in the distant Andes, tothe Peruvian Incas of old, to the silver mountains of Potosi, and thegold-seeking Spaniards and wild Indians who once inhabited the countryabout its thousand sources rather than the sluggish stream of Tangikano.

  "Yet this is all proof of what fabulous wealth they were sure the lakecontained," argued Casteno. "Let's bear with the laboured way theyrecount their adventures. After all, if what we have heard here inEngland is true there were riches enough ahead of them to justify alltheir impatience and enthusiasm."

  So we bent to the rather tedious work of translation again, and learnedhow at length Father Thomas Bonaventure and his companions, havingarrived at the height of the dry season, heard that at length the watersof the sacred lake were sufficiently low to justify them to travelthither on an excursion, the ostensible reason of which was to killalligators. They found that there were two ways to reach the place--overland in nearly a direct line, or by a zigzag course up the river,which way was the one they chose.

  Accordingly, they were aroused at midnight, and got into the canoe withthree negroes, who worked their craft steadily day after day, until atlength they reached the narrowest part of the stream. Hitherto they hadbeen charmed with the beauty of the vegetation, which surpassedeverything they had ever seen before. Here is the description:

  "_At the water's edge were numerous flowering shrubs, often completelycovered with convolvuli and passion flowers, whilst every dead or halfrotten tree was clothed with parasites of singular forms or bearingbeautiful flowers. Nor were there wanting animated figures to completethe picture, for brilliant scarlet and yellow macaws flew continuallyoverhead, while screaming parrots and paroquets were passing from branchto branch in search of food_.

  "_Now, however, the scenery was much more gloomy; the tall trees closedoverhead so as to keep out every sunbeam. Even the palms were twistedand bent in various contortions, so that we sometimes could hardly passbeneath, and sunken logs often lay across from bank to bank, compellingus to get out of the canoe and to use all our exertions to force ourclumsy craft over_.

  "_After some hours and hours of very hard and disagreeable work wereached the end of the navigable water. Then we left the negroes andimmediately set off on foot over an extensive plain, which was in someplaces completely bare, and in others thinly clothed with low trees.There could not have been a greater contrast than between the scene onthe river and that which we then entered upon. The one was allluxuriance and verdure, the other as brown and as barren as could be--amarsh now parched up by the burning sun and covered with tufts of a wirygrass, with here and there rushes and prickly, sensitive plants and afew pretty little flowers occasionally growing up amongst them_.

  "_In the end we arrived at the lake just as the day was fading. Theonly building there was a small reed shed, and this we promptly tookpossession of, unfastening the baggage we carried and piecing together ahand-dredger. We were now half frantic with excitement to pu
t to thetest all the wonderful stories we had heard about the bed of the lake,and so we immediately set to work on its slimy depths, and quicklypassed our net arrangement over a space of a hundred yards at a pointwhere the water seemed to have receded the most. Then we drew up andexamined our captures_.

  "_To our amazement and delight we discovered that we had, amongst otherthings of course, actually retrieved a number of golden ornaments of avery ancient pattern, including a frontlet and a tiny statue, which themost casual examination showed was wrought out of solid gold_!"

  So the information they had had was really true! The Lake of SacredTreasure was really worthy of its name, and in its slimy depths wereactually deposited the riches of countless generations of ignorant yetdevoted heathens!

  Breathless with delight, they again fitted up their apparatus. Againthey