Part 1 (1/2)
The Purple Land
by W H Hudson
PREFACE
This as first issued in 1885, by Messrs Saer, and to land Lost_ A purple land lobe, and 'tis of our gains, not our losses, we keep count A few notices of the book appeared in the papers, one or two of theit (not favourably) under the heading of ”Travels and Geography”; but the reading public cared not to buy, and it very shortly fell into oblivion There it ht have remained for a further period of nineteen years, or for ever, since the sleep of a book is apt to be of the unawakening kind, had not certain otten heap and liked it in spite of its faults, or because of them, concerned themselves to revive it
We are often told that an author never wholly loses his affection for a first book, and the feeling has been likened (more than once) to that of a parent towards a first-born I have not said it, but in consenting to this reprint I considered that a writer's early or unregarded work is apt to be raked up when he is not standing by to make remarks He may be absent on a journey froly seemed better that I should myself supervise a new edition, since this would enable me to remove a few of the nuenious countenance of the work before handing it on to posterity
Besides es, the deletion of soraphs and the insertion of a fe ones, I have o the Story of a Piebald Horse, recently reprinted in another book entitled _El Ombu_ I have also dropped the tedious introduction to the for, as an appendix, the historical part, for the sake of such of my readers as land lost
W H H
_September, 1904_
[FOR THE SECOND EDITION]
CHAPTER I
Three chapters in the story of my life--three periods, distinct and well defined, yet consecutive--beginning when I had not co before thirty, will probably prove the most eventful of all To the very end they will come back oftenest to memory and seem more vivid than all the other years of existence--the four-and-twenty I had already lived, and the, say, forty or forty-five--I hope it may be fifty or even sixty--which are to follow For what soul in this wonderful, various world would wish to depart before ninety! The dark as well as the light, its sweet and its bitter, make me love it
Of the first of these three a word only need be written This was the period of courtshi+p and h the experience seee in the world, it must nevertheless have resembled that of other men, since all est of the three, occupying fully three years, could not be told It was all black disaster Three years of enforced separation and the extre which the cruel law of the land allowed an enraged father to inflict on his child and the ainst his will Even the wise may be driven mad by oppression, and I that was never wise, but lived in and was led by the passions and illusions and the unbounded self-confidence of youth, what must it have been for me ere cruelly torn asunder; when I was cast into prison to lie for longof her as also desolate and breaking her heart! But it is ended--the abhorrent restraint, the anxiety, the breedings over a thousand possible and ie If it is any consolation to know that in breaking her heart he, at the same time, broke his own, and made haste to join her in that silent place, I have it Ah no! it is no comfort to me, since I cannot but reflect that before he shatteredher from him, as his idol We are quits then, and I can even say, ”Peace to his ashes!” But I could not say it then in rief, nor could it be said in that fatal country which I had inhabited from boyhood and had learned to love like rown hateful tofrom it, I found myself once e together, and which now seemed to my distractedthe months of quietude after the storm, mostly spent in lonely rambles by the shore, theseon the suives the town its naaze by the hour on the wide prospect towards the interior, as if I could see, and never weary of seeing, all that lay beyond--plains and rivers and woods and hills, and cabins where I had rested, and many a kindly huarded me with evil eyes now appeared to have a friendly look Most of all did I think of that dear river, the unforgettable Yi, the shaded white house at the end of the little town, and the sad and beautiful ie of one whom I, alas! had made unhappy
So much was I occupied towards the end of that vacant period with these recollections that I reht had coo over it all again, and write the history of my rambles for others to read in the future But I did not atte years afterwards For I had no sooner begun to play with the idea than so which I had been like one that has outlived his activities, and is no longer capable of a new e new, affecting er to be up and doing, was nothing more than a casual word from a distance, the cry of a lonely heart, which ca it, I was like one who, opening his eyes fro star in its unearthly lustre above the wide, dark plain where night overtook hi hope, and of passion and strife and toil and rest and happiness
I need not linger on the events which took us to the Banda--our nocturnal flight fro and clandestine e in the capital and subsequent escape northwards into the province of Santa Fe; the seven to eight months of somewhat troubled happiness we had there; and, finally, the secret return to Buenos Ayres in search of a shi+p to take us out of the country Troubled happiness! Ah, yes, and reatest trouble hen I looked on her, my partner for life, when she seemed loveliest, so small, so exquisite in her dark blue eyes that were like violets, and silky black hair and tender pink and olive complexion--so frail in appearance! And I had taken her--stolen her--from her natural protectors, from the home where she had been worshi+pped--I of an alien race and another religion, without ainst the law But of this no in my itinerary where, safe on our little shi+p, with the towers of Buenos Ayres fast fading away in the west, we began to feel free froive ourselves up to the contehts before us Winds and waves presently interfered with our raptures, Paquita proving a very indifferent sailor, so that for so ti up to send us flying like a bird over those unlovely red billows, and in the evening we disee We proceeded to an hotel, where for several days we lived very happily, enchanted with each other's society; and e strolled along the beach to watch the setting sun, kindling with ives the city its na towards the shores of Buenos Ayres, it was pleasant to reflect that the widest river in the world rolled between us and those who probably felt offended at e had done
This charth in a soht, before we had been awide awake in bed It was late; I had already heard the -drawn voice of the watch out, ”Half-past one and cloudy”
Gil Blas relates in his biography that one night while lying awake he fell into practising a little introspection, an unusual thing for him to do, and the conclusion he ca a soht when in the h fro wide awake and also, in all probability, chewing the cud of reflection When I questioned her concerning that sigh, she endeavoured in vain to conceal fro to feel unhappy What a rude shock the discovery gave me! And we so lately married! It is only just to Paquita, however, to say that had I not married her she would have been still more unhappy
Only the poor child could not help thinking of father and mother; she yearned for reconciliation, and her present sorrow rose froive her I endeavoured, with all the eloquence I was capable of, to dispel these gloomy ideas, but she was firm in her conviction that precisely because they had loved her so reat offence My poor darling ht, when she said that it is toward those who have been reatest bitterness Then, by way of illustration, she told me of a quarrel between her mother and a till then dearly loved sister It had happened o, when she, Paquita, was a iven each other
”And where,” I asked, ”is this aunt of yours, of whom I have never heard you speak until this reatest sio, and you never heard of her because ere not even allowed to mention her name in the house She went to live in Montevideo, and I believe she is there still, for several years ago I heard soht herself a house in that city”
”Soul of my life,” said I, ”you have never left Buenos Ayres in heart, even to keep your poor husband company! Yet I know, Paquita, that corporeally you are here in Montevideo, conversing with me at this very otten that ere in Montevideo My thoughts andering--perhaps it is sleepiness”
”I swear to you, Paquita,” I replied, ”that you shall see this aunt of yours to-morrow before set of sun; and I ahted to receive so near and lovely a relation How glad she will be of an opportunity of relating that ancient quarrel with her sister and ventilating her rievances! I know these old dames--they are all alike”