Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon | Page 4

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CHAPTER IX.
THE SECOND ATTEMPT
CHAPTER X.
A CANNON SHOT
CHAPTER XI.
THE CONTENTS OF THE CASE
CHAPTER XII.
THE DOCUMENT
CHAPTER XIII.
IS IT A MATTER OF FIGURES?
CHAPTER XIV.
CHANCE!

CHAPTER XV.
THE LAST EFFORTS
CHAPTER XVI.
PREPARATIONS
CHAPTER XVII.
THE LAST NIGHT
CHAPTER XVIII.
FRAGOSO
CHAPTER XIX.
THE CRIME OF TIJUCO
CHAPTER XX.
THE LOWER AMAZON

PART I
THE GIANT RAFT

CHAPTER I
A CAPTAIN OF THE WOODS
_"P h y j s l y d d q f d z x g a s g z z q q e h x g k f n d r x u j u g I o c

y t d x v k s b x h h u y p o h d v y r y m h u h p u y d k j o x p h e t o z l
s l e t n p m v f f o v p d p a j x h y y n o j y g g a y m e q y n f u q l n m
v l y f g s u z m q I z t l b q q y u g s q e u b v n r c r e d g r u z b l r m x
y u h q h p z d r r g c r o h e p q x u f I v v r p l p h o n t h v d d q f h q s
n t z h h h n f e p m q k y u u e x k t o g z g k y u u m f v I j d q d p z j q
s y k r p l x h x q r y m v k l o h h h o t o z v d k s p p s u v j h d."_
THE MAN who held in his hand the document of which this strange
assemblage of letters formed the concluding paragraph remained for
some moments lost in thought.
It contained about a hundred of these lines, with the letters at even
distances, and undivided into words. It seemed to have been written
many years before, and time had already laid his tawny finger on the
sheet of good stout paper which was covered with the hieroglyphics.
On what principle had these letters been arranged? He who held the
paper was alone able to tell. With such cipher language it is as with the
locks of some of our iron safes--in either case the protection is the same.
The combinations which they lead to can be counted by millions, and
no calculator's life would suffice to express them. Some particular
"word" has to be known before the lock of the safe will act, and some
"cipher" is necessary before that cryptogram can be read.
He who had just reperused the document was but a simple "captain of
the woods." Under the name of "Capitaes do Mato" are known in
Brazil those individuals who are engaged in the recapture of fugitive
slaves. The institution dates from 1722. At that period anti-slavery
ideas had entered the minds of a few philanthropists, and more than a
century had to elapse before the mass of the people grasped and applied
them. That freedom was a right, that the very first of the natural rights
of man was to be free and to belong only to himself, would seem to be
self-evident, and yet thousands of years had to pass before the glorious
thought was generally accepted, and the nations of the earth had the
courage to proclaim it.
In 1852, the year in which our story opens, there were still slaves in
Brazil, and as a natural consequence, captains of the woods to pursue

them. For certain reasons of political economy the hour of general
emancipation had been delayed, but the black had at this date the right
to ransom himself, the children which were born to him were born free.
The day was not far distant when the magnificent country, into which
could be put three-quarters of the continent of Europe, would no longer
count a single slave among its ten millions of inhabitants.
The occupation of the captains of the woods was doomed, and at the
period we speak of the advantages obtainable from the capture of
fugitives were rapidly diminishing. While, however, the calling
continued sufficiently profitable, the captains of the woods formed a
peculiar class of adventurers, principally composed of freedmen and
deserters--of not very enviable reputation. The slave hunters in fact
belonged to