494 LITTLE FOOLS AND GREAT ONES. BY CHARLES MACKAY, WHEN at the social board you sit, And when in youth's too fleeting hours, And if a friend deceived you once, But in your daily intercourse, In weal or woe, be trustful still; But great ones not at all. In work or pleasure, love or drink, Your drink not maddening, but to cheer, THE PAINTER OF CHIHUAHUA. BY PERCY B. ST. JOHN. PART I. THE GOVERNOR'S daughter. In the outskirts of the city of Chihuahua, capital of the Mexican province of the same name, are a series of low and straggling huts composed of adobes, or unburnt bricks. Few houses in New Mexico are of any superior material, though in the good city of Chihuahua, many of the better sort have certainly the advantage of being cornered with hewn stone, while the doors and windows are similarly constituted. The shops or stores, as they are called by the Americans, their principal owners, are of the same material; and I have been assured by Mr. O'Hara, a merchant who resided many years in this distant mart, and whom I knew during my residence in Galveston, Texas, that the show of finery in them, particularly in the article of dress, would not disgrace a provincial town in the United States, or many a rural district nearer home. In one of the wretched adobe huts above alluded to, stretched out in all the indulgence apparently of a siesta, in a Mexican grass hammock, lay a young man, pale, gaunt, and thin, whose dark, sunburnt features, gave his pallor only a more ghastly hue. His costume was spare and scanty, being composed of mocassins, buckskin trousers, a blue check shirt, and thrown over this a Mexican poncho, or blanket. A white beaver sombrero, or broad-brimmed hat, which hung on a peg, completed his attire. Round the walls were hung a number of drawings, landscapes, architectural representations, and still more numerous, portraits of Indian men and women, of the costume of the wild and savage Comanches, Apaches, Navajóes, Eutaws, &c. Several articles of Indian dress were also scattered about the floor, while on a board that served the purpose of a table, were drawing implements-pencils, a palette, paint-brushes, and other requisites for producing the landscapes and sketches which adorned the room. Pierre Lenoir, the artist's name, was not alone. A dreadful and implacable enemy was by him, and this was hunger. Ten years previous to the day of which we speak, Pierre, then being eighteen years of age, had started from home like the enthusiastic Catlin, or Audubon, in search of natural and rare studies, visited the savage and wild tribes of Indians which crowd the borders of New Mexico and Texas. In his eager desire for new subjects, both human and inanimate, he had dwelt among the Navajóes, in the main range of the Cordilleras, on the waters of the Rio Colerado of California, with the Apaches, on the head waters of the Rio Grande del Norte, the Eutaws between Snake River and Rio Colerado, the Comanches, and other Indian tribes but little known to Americans.* During a lengthened and studious residence he had become intimately acquainted with their habits-could speak their languages-and, in many instances, had been admitted as a brother; sometimes, even had so pleased the Indians, as to be formally inducted as a chief. His artistic talents had principally served him; but his skill in the chase-his excellence as a shot-and his cool and collected courage, were also no slight recommendations to men whose existence depended on hunting, and whose amusement was war. Occasionally, Lenoir visited the border settlements, where he disposed of his paintings to men, who, in the more civilized regions of the North, obtained a large profit from their investment. Lenoir was satisfied if he procured in exchange for his clever productions, new canvas, a supply of paint and of brushes, powder and shot, and vermillion, or other articles suited for presents, of which tobacco was the most important and valuable ingredient. In the hope of finding a ready market for his artistic wares, and perhaps of gaining some employment in portrait-painting, Pierre had visited New Mexico, and after a long journey had reached Chihuahua. It very soon, however, appeared, that the New Mexicans were either deficient in taste, or in the means of gratifying it; and that the few countrymen of Lenoir (who was a French creolet from Louisiana) were far too busily engaged in money-making, to be tempted to give him a sitting. Lenoir, in the hope of thus drawing a few customers, painted a very pretty señora, gratuitously; the señora was very proud of the honour, and shewed the portrait to all her acquaintance with much satisfaction; but the only advantage which Pierre derived from the picture was, a permit from the lady's husband to live rent free in the adobe hut, now occupied by the artist. One principal cause of the great want of success experienced by Pierre, was the singular ignorance of the population; so little was, not * In the United States, "Americans" is a word applied only to inhabitants of the United States. I have fallen into this habit. Why, however, Mexicans or Canadians should not come within this denomination, is a question for brother Jonathan to resolve. This expression is applied to all of French race, born in the Southern States. a literary or artistic taste cultivated, but the mere rudiments of knowledge diffused among the people, that a curate once asked, "Whether Napoleon and Washington were not one and the same person? and whether Europe was not a province of Spain?"* Schools were rarities provided only for the very rich; and a woman who could write was looked upon in Chihuahua as quite a prodigy of talent. It is, therefore, little to be wondered at that our adventurous artist was not encouraged; indeed, a passion for dress and jewellery so completely filled the minds of the Mexican ladies, that they had little leisure to think of other luxuries. Pierre Lenoir had learned the philosophy of patience during his wanderings over the Great Western Prairies, if he had gained no other knowledge; and on making the disagreeable discovery that he was not wanted in Chihuahua, would have immediately taken up his scrip and his staff, and, shaking the dust off his feet, have permitted the city to know him no more, had it been in his power so to act. But sickness overcame him-a bilious fever rendered him utterly helpless and his last dollar, and then his last cent disappeared during the progress of his illness. This unfortunate bankruptcy had taken place some forty-eight hours previous to the moment when we seek the unfortunate artist in his adobe hut, where, free from fever, but weak, both from disease and want of nourishment, Pierre Lenoir lay ruminating on what course was best to pursue. Pierre was naturally proud, and his residence among, and assimilation with, the Indians, was in nothing more apparent than in his patience beneath suffering, and his resolute determination against revealing his wants. It was about eight in the evening, and Pierre rose from his hammock, wrapped his blanket round his person, donned his sombrero, which was covered with oil-cloth, and ornamented by a band of tinsel cord, and prepared to go forth into the open air. It was terrible to lie thus in a vain struggle with hunger; and Pierre thought, and perhaps justly, that it was more likely he should happen on a dinner by mixing among his fellows, than by lying in his wretched hut, awaiting the result of the chapter of accidents. Passing beneath a stupendous arch of the great aqueduct which supplies the town with water, and which tells of the departed glories of Spain, Pierre found himself within Chihuahua, the finest city in the interior of Mexico. Situated near the southern base of a chain of serrated and precipitous mountains, here forming a sort of crescent, the city stands in the curve, and with its large and magnificent cathedral, churches, convents, and public buildings, forms by no means an unpleasant feature in the landscape. Passing rapidly through the streets, with his blanket concealing his face, and his sombrero over his eyes, Pierre soon gained the plaza, or square, in the centre of which is an elegant fountain opposite the cathedral, said to equal in architectural grandeur anything of the kind in the republic. The other three sides were occupied by the shops of the principal native and foreign merchants, and to these our artist devoted his attention. The late-hour system appears to be universally See on this point, and all others relative to manners in this country, Josiah Gregg's very interesting work on the Commerce of the Prairies. London: Wiley and Putnam. popular in Chihuahua, since shopping-the favourite amusement of the ladies-chiefly takes place by candlelight, after the señoras have partaken of their chocolate and cigaritos. Both the streets and the shops are crowded from nine until ten, and often until a later hour, which is very disagreeable to the owners, who have great difficulty in preventing the pilfering propensities of some even of their fair visitors from being carried into effect. Pierre, pushing through the crowd, paused before the store of an American, of whom he had almost made up his mind to ask assistance. Still he paused. His hunger was great, but his pride was still greater; and it is quite probable Lenoir would have walked away ere he could have made up his mind to enter, when the aged attendant of a lady who was within advanced to the door, and judging from his appearance that he was a picaros, or loafer, loitering about in search of a job, addressed him with that politeness which is universal in Mexico between persons of every class, and inquired if the caballero would carry a parcel for her young mistress to her father's ranchero, outside the town? Pierre was about to reply somewhat indignantly, when it flashed across his mind that he might thus earn a meal, and accordingly he accepted. The old duenna returned into the shop, and soon reappeared, bearing a moderate sized parcel, and followed by a singularly beautiful young Mexican girl, in the act of adjusting her reboso over her face. Pierre, however, had time to be struck both by her extreme loveliness and by the graceful elegance of her costume. Lenoir shouldered his parcel with a grim smile, though reflecting that in a town where he was a mere stranger, the act was one which could in nowise compromise his dignity. The young señora passed on in conversation with her duenna, from whose loud talk Pierre soon discovered that his fair employer was no less a personage than the daughter of the governor of the state and town of Chihuahua. The young lady and her companion passed out of the town, and took their way along the high road to Santa Fè, on which was situated, about half a mile distant, a hacienda belonging to Don Emanuel Trias, the very excellent governor of Chihuahua. Pierre was quite incapable of keeping pace with the señora―a fact which at first raised suspicions in the mind of the duenna; but a few words of conversation having betrayed that he was a foreigner, Margharita was reassured, and hurried after her mistress. At no great distance from the hacienda, the road skirted a grove of pinon, or scrub-pine, and a path passing more directly through this, Pierre took the shorter cut. Fatigue had now almost overcome him, and crying to the old woman that he would follow in an instant, he seated himself upon his bundle, to snatch a moment of rest. At this instant his ear caught the sound of coming horsemen, and, rising, his quick and experienced eye caught sight of a party of Apache Indians in the act of surrounding the señora, whom they instantly made a prisoner, slaying and scalping the duenna on the spot. The Apache Indians live chiefly in the neighbourhood of the mountains lying between New Mexico and the States of Señora and Chihuahua-are expert horsemen-keep immense droves of those animals -and are surpassingly adroit in the use of the lance, and bow and arrow. They are a proud, independent, and brave tribe, and having had but little intercourse with the whites, are increasing in numbers, and in Indian wealth-horses, arms, and finery. They pour down upon the Mexicans with the speed of the whirlwind, and then gain their mountain fastnesses ere pursuit can be organized. In number about fifteen thousand, those on the east of the Rio del Norte, are generally known as Mezcaleros, from mezcal, an article of their food; while the rest are called Coyoteros, from their eating the coyote, or prairie wolf. They are singularly vagrant in their habits; never construct houses, but live in easily-removed wigwams. For food they chiefly depend on the sheep, and mules especially, of the Mexican haciendas. Of the latter edible they are exceedingly fond. In their depredations they spare neither California, Señora, Durango, or Coahuila; but Chihuahua receives the principal portion of their attacks. And so daring are they that small bands of three and four warriors have been known to come up within a mile of the city, make prisoners, and drive off droves of mules and horses. Of course their strength lies principally in the imbecility of their enemies. The attack on the governor's daughter and the death of her attendant were the work of a moment; and ere Pierre Lenoir had time even to think of action, the Apaches, who had not observed him, were scampering in all haste towards the hacienda of Don Emanuel Trias. To pounce upon the alarmed pueblos-to fire the outhouses, and obtain possession of the droves of mules and other cattle, which are the principal wealth of Mexican proprietors, was very shortly executed by these expert thieves, who are outdone by no roving people, not even the Arabs, in the rapidity of their movements. This done, the robbers took the highway towards Santa Fè, and were very shortly in the mountains on their way to the Rio Grande del Norte. THE COURT AND THE COURT CIRCULAR—AN BY THE AUTHOR OF MORNINGS IN BOW STREET." VIVE LA REINE D'ANGLETERRE! was the joyous cry re-echoed from ship to ship throughout the French squadron in waiting at Spithead, the other day, as the royal English steam yacht gracefully swept past them, with the standard of England floating at her mast-head, and bearing within her gilded bulwarks the fair Majesty of England and her consort. Vive la Reine d'Angleterre! And in like manner say I-"Long live Queen Victoria!" Short as her reign has yet been, its benign influence has not only in a great degree softened, and almost subdued political animosities, and the clamours of wrangling factions within this realm of ours; but it has latterly been distinguished by a revival throughout Europe of the old spirit of chivalry;-not that chivalry which boasted of its thews and sinews, and gloated upon cracked crowns and shivered lances, but that graceful chivalry of which it has been said, courtesy, honour, generosity, justice, humanity, loyalty, and pure devotedness to the fair and beautiful, were the characteristics. For her sake the kings and kaisers |