left her. When Manoel’s preliminary studies were finished, he had
taken up the subject of medicine. He had a passionate taste for that
noble profession, and his intention was to enter the army, toward
which he felt himself attracted.
At the time that we saw him with his friend Benito, Manoel Valdez had
already obtained his first step, and he had come away on leave for
some months to the fazenda, where he was accustomed to pass his
holidays. Well-built, and of distinguished bearing, with a certain
native pride which became him well, the young man was treated by Joam
and Yaquita as another son. But if this quality of son made him the
brother of Benito, the title was scarcely appreciated by him when
Minha was concerned, for he soon became attached to the young girl by
a bond more intimate than could exist between brother and sister.
In the year 1852–of which four months had already passed before the
commencement of this history–Joam Garral attained the age of
forty-eight years. In that sultry cliimate, which wears men away so
quickly, he had known how, by sobriety, self-denial, suitable living,
and constant work, to remain untouched where others had prematurely
succumbed. His hair, which he wore short, and his beard, which was
full, had already grown gray, and gave him the look of a Puritan. The
proverbial honesty of the Brazilian merchants and fazenders showed
itself in his features, of which straightforwardness was the leading
characteristic. His calm temperament seemed to indicate an interior
fire, kept well under control. The fearlessness of his look denoted a
deep-rooted strength, to which, when danger threatened, he could
never appeal in vain.
But, notwithstanding one could not help remarking about this quiet
man of vigorous health, with whom all things had succeeded in life, a
depth of sadness which even the tenderness of Yaquita had not been
able to subdue.
Respected by all, placed in all the conditions that would seem
necessary to happiness, why was not this just man more cheerful and
less reserved? Why did he seem to be happy for others and not for
himself? Was this disposition attributable to some secret grief?
Herein was a constant source of anxiety to his wife.
Yaquita was now forty-four. In that tropical country where women are
already old at thirty she had learned the secret of resisting the
climate’s destructive influences, and her features, a little
sharpened but still beautiful, retained the haughty outline of the
Portuguese type, in which nobility of face unites so naturally with
dignity of mind.
Benito and Minha responded with an affection unbounded and unceasing
for the love which their parents bore them.
Benito was now aged twenty-one, and quick, brave, and sympathetic,
contrasted outwardly with his friend Manoel, who was more serious and
reflective. It was a great treat for Benito, after quite a year
passed at Belem, so far from the fazenda, to return with his young
friend to his home to see once more his father, his mother, his
sister, and to find himself, enthusiastic hunter as he was, in the
midst of these superb forests of the Upper Amazon, some of whose
secrets remained after so many centuries still unsolved by man.
Minha was twenty years old. A lovely girl, brunette, and with large
blue eyes, eyes which seemed to open into her very soul; of middle
height, good figure, and winning grace, in every way the very image
of Yaquita. A little more serious than her brother, affable,
good-natured, and charitable, she was beloved by all. On this subject
you could fearlessly interrogate the humblest servants of the
fazenda. It was unnecessary to ask her brother’s friend, Manoel
Valdez, what he thought of her. He was too much interested in the
question to have replied without a certain amount of partiality.
This sketch of the Garral family would not be complete, and would
lack some of its features, were we not to mention the numerous staff
of the fazenda.
In the first place, then, it behooves us to name an old negress, of
some sixty years, called Cybele, free through the will of her master,
a slave through her affection for him and his, and who had been the