A Voyage to the Moon

by George Tucker

  CHAPTER XVII.

  _The Brahmin's story continued--The voyage concluded--Atterley and theBrahmin separate--Atterley arrives in New--York._

  "I was not slow to follow Veenah to the city, and as had been agreedupon, had to ask the consent of her father to our union, as soon as Ihad obtained the approbation of my own. Here I met with a difficultywhich I had not expected. My partial father had formed very high hopesof my future advancement, and thought that an early marriage, though notincompatible with my profession, or a successful discharge of itsduties, would put an end to my ambition, or at all events, lessen myexertions. He first urged me to postpone my wishes, till I had completedmy college course, and had by travelling seen something of the world.But finding me immoveable on this point, he then suggested that I mightmeet with serious obstacles from Veenah's father, whom he represented asremarkable both for his avarice and his bigotry; that consequently hewas likely to dispose of his daughter to the son-in-law who could paymost liberally for her; and that the imputations which had been cast onmy religious creed, would reach his ears, if they had not already doneso, and be sure to prejudice him against me.

  "These last considerations prevailed on me to defer my application toShunah Shoo, until the suspicions regarding my faith had either diedaway, or been falsified by my scrupulous observance of all religiousduties. My excellent mother, who at first had entered into my feelingsand seconded my views, readily acquiesced in the good sense of myfather's advice.

  "My next object was to communicate this to Veenah. I accordingly satdown, and wrote a full account of all that had occurred, and folding upthe packet, hurried to the opposite quarter of the town where ShunahShoo lived. It was then in the dusk of the evening, and I was fearful itwas too late for me to be recognised; but after I had taken two or threeturns in the street, I saw the white amaranth I had given Veenah,suspended by a thread from the lattice of an upper window. I immediatelyheld up the packet, and soon afterwards a cord was let down from thesame lattice to the ground. To this I hastily fastened the paper, andpassed on to avoid observation. The next evening you may be sure I wasat the same spot. The little amaranth again announced that I wasrecognised; and as soon as we were satisfied that no one was observingus, the cord let down one letter and took up another. Veenah's pen hadgiven an expression to her feelings, that her tongue had never venturedto do before. She moreover commended my course--besought me to beprudent--and above all, to do nothing to offend her father.

  "The first letter which a lover receives from his mistress, is a new erain his life. Again and again I kissed the precious paper, and almostwore it out in my bosom. We afterwards improved in this mode ofintercourse, and, by various preconcerted signals, were able to carry onour correspondence altogether in the night. Not a day passed that we didnot exchange letters, which, though they contained few facts, and alwaysexpressed the same sentiments, still repeated what we were never tiredof hearing. To the moment at which I was to receive a letter fromVeenah, my thoughts were continually and anxiously turned: and it nowseems to me as if our passion was inflamed yet more by this sort ofintercourse, than by our personal interviews. I am convinced it wroughtmore powerfully upon our imaginations. In the mean time I continued mydaily attendance at college, though my studies were utterly neglected,one single object absorbing all my thoughts and feelings.

  "I know not whether the evident change in my habits induced my oldenemy, Balty Mahu, to observe my motions. But so it was, that onemoonlight night I thought I was watched by some person; and on thefollowing night an individual of the same figure, and whom I nowsuspected to be Balty Mahu, came suddenly from a cross street, andpassed near me. A few evenings afterwards, instead of a letter, Ireceived a scrap of paper from Veenah, on which was written thefollowing words:--

  "We are discovered. Balty Mahu, who is my relative and your enemy, hasbeen here. He has persuaded my father that you are an unbeliever. I amdenied pen and ink. If you cannot convince my father of his error, O!pity, and try to forget, your unhappy VEENAH."

  "This writing was indistinctly traced with a burnt stick, on a blankleaf torn out of a book. In the first moment of indignation, I feltdisposed to seek Balty Mahu, the great enemy of my life, and wreak myvengeance on him for all his persecutions; but the conviction that sucha course would extinguish the last spark of hope, restrained me. I thendetermined to see Shunah Shoo, and endeavour to remove his prejudices. Iaccordingly called on him at his own house: but after he had heard myvindication, (to which he evidently gave no credit,) he coolly told methat he meant to dispose of his daughter in another way. The words felllike ice upon my heart. I expostulated; and, offensive as was hishaughty air, even had recourse to entreaty. But he, in a yet harshermanner, told me that he must be permitted to manage his own affairs inhis own way; and added, that he did not wish to be longer prevented fromattending to them. I was compelled to retire, with my heart almost asfull of hatred for the father, as of love for the child.

  "On the same night, I again betook myself to the street in which ShunahShoo lived, but not by the ordinary route. I cautiously approached hishouse. All was stillness and quiet: no light appeared to be burning inVeenah's room, nor indeed in any other part of the house. I henceconcluded that they had now deprived her of light, as well as of pen andink. I continued in the street until near morning, straining my eyes andears in the hope of catching something that would give me intelligenceconcerning her. Often, in the course of that painful suspense, did Ifancy I heard a noise at the lattice in Veenah's apartment, or in someother part of the mansion; and once I persuaded myself I saw a light:but these illusions served only to aggravate my disappointment. The nextmorning, before I had left my room, my father informed me that ShunahShoo, with his family, had left Benares early the preceding evening; butwhither they had gone, he had not learnt.

  "I rose, and immediately set about discovering their course; but all Icould learn was, that they had embarked in one of the passage-boatswhich ply on the Ganges, and that Shunah had taken his palanquins andmany of his servants with him: and, as Balty Mahu had suddenly absentedhimself from college at the same time, I did not doubt that he had aidedin executing the plan which he had also probably formed. My father, whosaw what I suffered, spared no pains to discover the place of theirretreat; but our endeavours were all ineffectual.

  "At the end of three months, in which time my anxiety increased ratherthan diminished, the mystery was dispelled. It was now trumpeted throughthe city, that Shunah Shoo had returned to Benares in great pomp,accompanied by a wealthy Omrah of a neighbouring district, to whom hehad given, or rather sold, his daughter. The news came upon me like aclap of thunder. My previous state of suspense was happiness comparedwith what I now felt, when I knew she was in the arms of another. In thefirst transports of my grief and rage, I could have freely put to deaththe father, daughter, husband, and myself. I was particularly desirousof seeing Veenah, and venting on her the bitterest reproaches. Unjustthat I was! Her sufferings were not inferior to mine; but she had not,like me, the privilege of making them known. I soon found thatHircarrahs, in the pay of Balty Mahu, watched all my motions; and if Ihad attempted any scheme of vengeance, its execution would have beenimpracticable.

  "After my first transports had subsided into deep and settled grief, mylove and tenderness for Veenah returned in full force. I endeavoured toget a sight of her, and thought I should be comparatively happy if Icould converse with her, as formerly, though she was the wife ofanother. After a short time, my uncle's family came to Benares, on avisit to my father and to Shunah Shoo. By the aid of my indulgentmother, who was seriously alarmed for what she saw I suffered, I wasable to see Fatima, and to make her the bearer of a letter to Veenah,complaining of her breach of faith, and soliciting an interview. Sheverbally replied to it through Fatima; and stated, in her justification,that she was hurried from Benares to a town on the river, whence she wasrapidly transported to the castle of Omrah, who had not long before losthis wife, and who was more than four times her age. That notwi
thstandingthe notions of filial obedience in which she had been brought up, andthe severity with which her father had ever exercised his authority, shehad resisted his commands on this occasion, and would have preferreddeath to marrying the Omrah--nay, would have inflicted it on herself;but that finding her unyielding after all their exertions, they hadeffected their purpose by a deception which they had practised on her,wherein it seemed that I had unconsciously concurred; for, by means ofan intercepted letter of mine to Fatima, in which, hopeless of learningthe place of Veenah's retreat, I had expressed an intention of visitingEngland; and, by the farther aid of some dexterous forgeries, calculatedto impose on more experienced minds than hers, they succeeded inpersuading her that I had actually set out for Europe, with an intentionof never returning. That entertaining no doubt of this intelligence--hopeless of ever seeing me again, and indifferent to everything besides, she had been led an unresisting victim to the altar.

  "Such was the vindication which she considered it just to make me. Butall the entreaties of Fatima--all my letters, impassioned as they were,appealing at once to her generosity, humanity, and love,--could notprevail on her to grant me an interview.

  "'Tell him,' said she, 'that heaven has forbid it, and to its decrees weare bound to submit. I am now the wife of another, and it is our duty toforget all that is past. But if this be possible, my heart tells me itcan be only by our never meeting!'

  "In saying this, she wept bitterly; but at the same time exacted apromise from Fatima, that she would never mention the subject to heragain. Finding her thus inexorable, I fell into a settled melancholy,and my health was visibly declining. The Europeans consider the nativesof Hindostan to be feeble and effeminate; but the soul, that whichdistinguishes man from brutes, acts with an intensity and constancy ofpurpose of which they can furnish no examples.

  "How long I could have withstood the corrosive effects of my hopelesspassion, irritated as it was by my being in the vicinity of itsobject--by hearing perpetually of her beauty, and sometimes catching aglimpse of it,--I know not; but the Omrah, after a few months spent withhis father-in-law, returned with his bride to his castle in the country.Yielding now to the wishes of my anxious parents, I consented to travel.I was at first benefited by the exercise and change of scene; but aftera while, my melancholy returned, and my health grew worse. Thoughindifferent to life itself, and all that it now promised, I exertedmyself for the sake of my parents, especially of my mother, who sufferedso acutely on my account: but I carried a barbed arrow in my heart, andthe greater the efforts to extract it, the more they rankled the wound.

  "After spending more than a year in travelling, first through themountainous district of our country, and then along the coast, andfinding no change for the better, I determined to try the effect of asea voyage. I accordingly embarked at Calcutta, in a coasting vesselthat was bound to Madras. At this time I had wasted away to a mereskeleton, and no one who saw me, believed I could live a month. Such,indeed, were my own impressions. In the letter which I wrote to myparents, I endeavoured to prepare them for the worst. When, after a longvoyage, we reached Madras, my health was evidently improved; but a pieceof intelligence I here received, had perhaps a still greater effect Ilearnt that Balty Mahu, who had kept himself concealed from me before Ileft Benares, had lately visited Madras, on a travelling tour. This newsoperated on me like a charm. The idea of avenging myself on the authorof all my calamities, infused new life into my exhausted frame, and fromthe moment that I determined to pursue him, I felt like another man.

  "You must not, however, suppose that I even then entertained the purposeof taking away my enemy's life. No, I could not bring my mind exactly tothat; but I had a vague, undefined hope, that if we met, some newprovocation on his part would afford me just occasion for avengingmyself on all; so ingenious, my dear friend, is the sophistry ofthe passions.

  "I lost no time in setting out on the track of Balty Mahu, and, ere manydays, overtook him at a small town which he had left just as I enteredit, but not before he had received, through his servant, notice of myarrival. My wary enemy, who had little expected to see me here, and whohad travelled as much to keep out of my way as to see the country,conjectured my purpose, from the consciousness of what he had done toprovoke it. Thus, while we both appeared to others to be merely making atour of Hindostan, it was soon known to both of us, that my chiefpurpose was to pursue him, and his to elude my pursuit. In the ardour,as well as exercise of the chase, my health mended rapidly, but I was nonearer the object of my pursuit; for, although I travelled somewhatfaster than Bally Mahu, as he wished to avoid the appearance of flyingfrom me, he sometimes contrived to put me on a wrong track. In this wayI was once led to travel towards the coast, while he proceeded in anopposite direction to Benares, where he considered he would be most safefrom my vengeance, and where the restraints both of religion and lawwould be more likely to operate on me than in a foreign district.

  "My usual practice, on arriving at any town, was to endeavour to learnif Balty Mahu had passed through it; if so, when and in what direction;and to get the information, if possible, without seeming to seek it. Onone of these occasions, I heard from a party of merchants that the OmrahAddaway, whose health had been declining for some time, had gone toBenares, for the benefit of medical advice; that his disease, however,had become more serious; and that it was generally thought it would soonoccasion his death. What a train of new thoughts, hopes, and desires,did this intelligence excite in me! At first, influenced by the customof my country, which prohibits widows from marrying again, I thoughtonly of the pleasure of Veenah's society, which I should, of course, bepermitted to enjoy, when duty no longer forbade it; but my imaginationkindling in its course, I soon pictured her to myself as my wife. Theusages which stood in the way of our union, appeared to me barbarous andabsurd, and I thought that, banishment from my country, with Veenah,would be infinitely better than any other condition of life without her.These new-born visions so entirely absorbed me, that Balty Mahu wasentirely forgotten, or remembered only as we think of an insect whichhad stung us an hour before. I travelled on at a yet more rapid ratethan I had done; and, without stopping on the road to make inquiries, Iheard enough to satisfy me that the Omrah could not long survive. Whenwithin something more than ten leagues of Benares, I called, abouttwilight, at a small inn, and meant, after refreshing myself with a fewhours' rest, to proceed on my journey. Two travellers were there, whohad just left Benares, and had taken up their quarters for the night.They soon fell into conversation about the place they had left, when themention of Shunah Shoo's name excited my attention.

  "'What a shame,' said one, 'that he should have sacrificed thatbeautiful young creature to the rich old Omrah, when she had so good anoffer as Gurameer, the Brahmin Gafawad's only son.'

  "'And is it not strange,' said the other, 'that a woman so young andbeautiful, should be content to follow to the grave one who is oldenough to be her grandfather, and whom she once loathed? But I supposethat that old miser, Shunah Shoo, is at the bottom of it; and, as hedeprived her of the man she loved, he has compelled her to sacrificeherself to the one she hates, that he may have her jewels and wealth.'

  "'For that matter,' said the first, 'though Shunah Shoo is bad enoughfor any thing where money is in the way, yet it is said that Veenah goesto the funeral pile of her own accord. She has never seemed to set anyvalue on life since her marriage; and after she heard of Gurameer'sdeath, she has never been seen to smile. Poor young man!'--And here theylaunched out into a strain of panegyric, which is often bestowed on thedead; but I heeded only the first part of their discourse. Had it notbeen nearly dark, they must have discovered the force of the feelingswhich then agitated me. I trembled from head to foot, and, thoughburning with impatience to obtain from them farther particulars, it wassome moments before I could trust myself to speak. At length I askedthem when the Suttee would take place; and was answered by one of them,that it would certainly be performed on the following day; and that hehad seen the funeral pile
himself. Without any farther delay, I set outimmediately for the city, and reached it in as short a time as a jadedhorse could carry me.

  "I came in sight of Benares the next morning, from a hill whichoverlooks it from the east. The sun was just rising, and pouring a floodof light ever the city, the river, and the surrounding country. Neverwas contrast greater than between my present feelings, and those whichthe same spectacle had formerly excited. I now sickened at the prospect,which once would have set my heart bounding with joy. I pressed on indesperate haste, scarcely, however, knowing what I did, being at onceoverpowered with fatigue, loss of sleep, and harassing emotions. I stillhad to travel a circuitous course of some two or three miles; and when Ireached the city, its crowded population was already in motion: a greatmultitude of women, of the lower order, with alarm and expectationstrongly depicted in their faces, were to be seen mingling in the crowd,and pressing on in the same direction. I would have proceededimmediately to my father's house, but for the fear of being too late.Alighting, therefore, from my horse, I gave him in charge to my servant,whom I sent to inform my parents of my arrival, and to request my fatherto meet me at the Suttee. I then joined the mixed multitude, which nowthronged the streets. Occupied, as my thoughts were, with the scene Iwas about to witness, and with fears for its issue, they were ofteninterrupted with remarks made in the crowd, in which Veenah's name ormine were mentioned--some lamenting her cruel fate, others pitying mine;but all condemning and execrating Shunah Shoo. Fortunately I was notrecognised by any whom I saw. When we reached the spot selected for thesacrifice, the crowd that had there assembled, was not so great as toprevent our getting near the funeral pile; but the numbers continued toaugment, until nothing could be seen from the slight eminence on which Istood, but one dense mass of heads, all looking one way, and expressingthe intense interest they felt. At length a murmur, like that of distantthunder, ran through the crowd: a passage was, with some difficulty,effected through the multitude by the officers in attendance, and thewretched Veenah made her appearance, supported by her own father on oneside, and an uncle on the other--pale enough to be taken for anEuropean--emaciated indeed, but still retaining the same exquisite beautyof features and symmetry of form. She moved with the air of one who wasutterly indifferent to the concerns of this world, and to the awful fatewhich awaited her. She turned her head on hearing the sound of my voice,and, seeing me, shrieked out, "He lives! he lives!" but immediatelyafterwards fainted in the arms of her supporters: at the same moment Iwas forcibly held back by some of the attendants, and a number of thebystanders rushed in between us, and intercepted my view. I heard myname now repeated in every direction by the multitude--some calling outto the priests to desist, and others to proceed. I struggled toextricate myself, and passion lent me momentary strength; but it wasinsufficient. After a short interval, I distinctly heard Veenahimploring them to spare her. I called to the Brahmins who held her, toleave her to herself. I endeavoured to rouse the multitude; but theytook the precaution to drown our voices, by the musical instrumentswhich are used on these occasions. Four of these monsters I sawprofaning the name of religion, by forcibly placing their victim on thepile, under the show of assisting her to mount it; and there held herdown, beside the dead body of her husband, until, by cords provided forthe purpose, she was prevented from rising. I besought--I threatened--Iraved;--but all thoughts and minds were engrossed by the premature fateof one so young and beautiful, and I was unheeded.

  "Among the relatives who pressed around the funeral pile, I saw BaltyMahu; and indignation for a moment got the better of grief. The pile wasnow lighted, and in a moment all was hidden in smoke. I sickened at thesight, and was obliged to turn away. Even then I heard, or thought Iheard, the dying shrieks of the victim, amid the groans and cries, andthe thousand shouts that rent the air! The pile and its contents beingnow enveloped in flame, my keepers set me free, when, by an impulse offrenzy, I rushed' to the pile, to make a last vain effort to rescueVeenah, or to share her fate; but was stopped by some of the bystanders,who called my act a profanation.

  "'Yes,' said Balty Mahu, 'he has always been a scoffer of our religion.'As soon as these words reached my ears, with the quickness of thought Isnatched a cimeter from the hands of one of the guards, and plunged itin his breast. Of all that happened afterwards, my recollection is veryconfused. I was rudely seized, and hurried to prison. My father wascoming to meet me, when he was informed of the fatal deed. I rememberthat my coolness, or rather stupor, was in strong contrast with theviolence of his emotion. He accompanied me to prison, and continued withme that night.

  "It is not easy to take the life of one of my caste in India; and, bydint of the exertions of my friends, in spite of the influence of ShunahShoo, and the family of the Omrah, I was pardoned, on condition of doingpenance, which was, that I should never live in a country in which thereligion of Brahmin prevailed, and should not again look at, or conversewith, any woman for two minutes together. Ere this took place, myexcellent mother, unable to withstand the shocks she had received frommy supposed death, my misfortunes, and my crime, died a martyr tomaternal affection. Wishing to conform to the sentence, and to be asnear my father as I could, I removed to the kingdom of Ava, where, youknow, they are followers of Buddha. Here I continued as long as myfather lived, which was about six years. In this period, time had soalleviated my grief, that I began to take pleasure in the cultivation ofscience, which constituted my chief employment.

  "After my father's death, I indulged a curiosity I had felt in my youth,of seeing foreign countries; and I visited China, Japan, and England.During my residence in Asia, I had discovered lunarium ore in themountain near Mogaun; and this circumstance, many years afterwards, whenI determined to rest from my labours, induced me to settle in thatmountain, as I have before stated. I have occasionally used the metal tocounterbalance the gravity of a small car, by which I have profited, bya favourable wind, to indulge the melancholy satisfaction of lookingdown on the tombs of my parents, and of the ill-fated Veenah:approaching the earth near enough, in the night, to see the sacredspots, but not enough to violate the religious injunctions of my caste;to avoid which, however, it was sometimes necessary for me to go acrossHindostan to Arabia or Persia, and there wait for a change of windbefore I could return: and it was these excursions which suggested tothe superstitious Burmans that my form had undergone a temporarytransformation. When such have been the woes of my life, you can nolonger think it strange, Atterley, that I delayed their painful recital;or that, after having endured so much, all common dangers andmisfortunes should appear to me insignificant."

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  The venerable Brahmin here concluded his narrative, and we both remainedthoughtful and silent for some time; he, apparently absorbed in therecollections of his eventful life; and I, partly in the reflectionsawakened by his story, and partly in the intense interest of revisitingmy native earth, and beholding once more all who were dear to me.Already the extended map beneath us was assuming a distinct and variedappearance; and the Brahmin, having applied his eye to the telescope,and made a brief calculation of our progress, considered thattwenty-four hours more, if no accident interrupted us, would end ourvoyage; part of which interval I passed in making notes in my journal,and in contemplating the different sections of our many-peopled globe,as they presented themselves successively to the eye. It was my wish toland on the American continent, and, if possible, in the United States.But the Brahmin put an end to that hope, by reminding me that we shouldbe attracted towards the Equator, and that we had to choose betweenAsia, Africa, and South America; and that our only course would be, tocheck the progress of our car over the country of greatest extent,through which the equinoctial circle might pass. Saying which, herelapsed into his melancholy silence, and I betook myself once more tothe telescope. With a bosom throbbing with emotion, I saw that we weredescending towards the American continent. When we were about ten ortwelve miles from the earth, the Brahmin arrested the progress of thecar,
and we hovered over the broad Atlantic. Looking down on the ocean,the first object which presented itself to my eye, was a smallone-masted shallop, which was buffeting the waves in a south-westerlydirection. I presumed it was a New England trader, on a voyage to somepart of the Republic of Colombia: and, by way of diverting my friendfrom his melancholy reverie, I told him some of the many stories whichare current respecting the enterprise and ingenuity of this portion ofmy countrymen, and above all, their adroitness at a bargain.

  "Methinks," says the Brahmin, "you are describing a native of Canton orPekin. But," added he, after a short pause, "though to a superficialobserver man appears to put on very different characters, to aphilosopher he is every where the same--for he is every where moulded bythe circumstances in which he is placed. Thus; let him be in a situationthat is propitious to commerce, and the habits of traffic produce in himshrewdness and address. Trade is carried on chiefly in towns, because itis there carried on most advantageously. This situation gives the tradera more intimate knowledge of his species--a more ready insight intocharacter, and of the modes of operating on it. His chief purpose is tobuy as cheap, and to sell as dear, as he can; and he is often able toheighten the recommendations or soften the defects of some of thearticles in which he deals, without danger of immediate detection; or,in other words, his representations have some influence with hiscustomers. He avails himself of this circumstance, and thus acquires thehabit of lying; but, as he is studious to conceal it, he becomes wary,ingenious, and cunning. It is thus that the Phenicians, theCarthagenians, the Dutch, the Chinese, the New-Englanders, and themodern Greeks, have always been regarded as inclined to petty frauds bytheir less commercial neighbours." I mentioned the English nation.

  "If the English," said he, interrupting me, "who are the most commercialpeople of modern times, have not acquired the same character, it isbecause they are as distinguished for other things as for traffic: theyare not merely a commercial people--they are also agricultural, warlike,and literary; and thus the natural tendencies of commerce are mutuallycounteracted."

  We afterwards descended slowly; the prospect beneath us becoming morebeautiful than my humble pen can hope to describe, or will even attemptto portray. In a short time after, we were in sight of Venezuela. We metwith the trade-winds, and were carried by them forty or fifty milesinland, where, with some difficulty, and even danger, we landed. TheBrahmin and myself remained together two days, and parted--he to explorethe Andes, to obtain additional light on the subject of his hypothesis,and I, on the wings of impatience, to visit once more my long-desertedfamily and friends. But before our separation, I assisted my friend inconcealing our aerial vessel, and received a promise from him to visit,and perhaps spend with me the evening of his life. Of my journey home,little remains to be said. From the citizens of Colombia, I experiencedkindness and attention, and means of conveyance to Caraccas; where,embarking on board the brig Juno, captain Withers, I once more set footin New York, on the 18th of August, 1826, after an absence of fouryears, resolved, for the rest of my life, to travel only in books, andpersuaded, from experience, that the satisfaction which the wanderergains from actually beholding the wonders and curiosities of distantclimes, is dearly bought by the sacrifice of all the comforts anddelights of home.

  THE END.

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