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GEORGIA HKn PIONEER.
’ IE ■
TERM S,
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. Thi*.PJQwßßw wiO lbt) pabliahed
All ADVhiIIISEtfENTS will be
No su ascription taken for less than a
year,and do paper discontinued till ah
oues are paid, except at the option oi
the Editors. < .
All commanicatiwu to receive atten
jipu must be postpaid.
POETRY.
■I f H," i , ?
IBanners of Abe Free.
>Y H. C. DIAXIW. '
There are murmur from the shore
Boroe of the ocean’s idling waves,
There’s a deep and'sullen roar
From the mountain arid its caves;
Louder than fromrock or sea
Boils the voice of Liberty!
Hark! the stirring, lofty call!
Heroes! from toe dust arise,
Berni the Srlteh, shattered pall,
From the grave of Victories’.
Over them with eagle eye, ■
Float the banners of the free!’
Borne upon the. thunder gales,
: Patriot spirits, lo! behold!
.wtewu
Tales of blood and vidtonT r
On the banners of the free*
£f dk 4* I - *
*■ Wag'll £ i?
to wash out tneir stain,
Then on high shall proudly wave
Banners of the free and brave!
War shall bio whertrum pet-breath,
Swords shall flash arid lances flame,
Poised with the spear of death,
In that struggle’s awful game!
Battle’s but a briefer road
For a slave to seek bis God:
Are those,banners now unfurled?
Float they on the thunder air?
Offspring of a cauching woild,
Lo! they’re blazing proudly there.
By those banners’of the brave,
Tyranny shall find a grave!
Lo! the golden orbed shield
Freedom flames before the van ;
Sons of slavery to th field,
Foot to foot, and man to man!
As to-day the evening clouds,
Let those banners be your shrouds.
Shrouds of crimson steeped in blood,
Bold of freemen in the fight;
Let him live a slave who would,
Fetters are a coward’s right;
Let him veil his eyes to see
Banners of the brave and free!
Front to front, and hand to band,
Shield to shield, and glave to glave;
Dauntless breast, and lightning brand,
Here is life and there the grave,
Let thine own hand close the strife,
Death is but a leap of life!
What is blood that’s not thine own,
Fevered by* tyrant’s toils?
What are lips that have no tone ,
But for fetter’d beauty’s smile?
What’s affection that is dursed
For an offspring chained and cursed?
There is thunder on the heaven—
Hark! it coils from shore to shore!
Thunders by a nation given,
Despotism’s reign is o’er.
Chains are riven, fetters flee
From the man who would be free.
Sons of Lusitania read,
Read the record proud and high;
Learn like freemen once to bleed,
Or like freemen learn to die.
Learn to die with patriot glee,
’Neath the banners of the free.
Dfc IWAXCU.
From /Ac London New Monthly Maga
zine.
FRANCIA, THE DICTATOR.
Concluded,
Nothing can be more clearly indica
tive of the penetration, management,
and resolution by which Francia has
subdued iqto slavish fear the people o
ver whom he rules, than the fact that,
- : ■ •• < - s r - -n ‘ — u ~~- .t. j
Cassville, Ga. Friday Evening, July 24, 1835.
though they are 300,000 in number,
his whole regular military force does
not exceed 3000 men*. 11 1
But the same system of discipline,
founded upon the great agitating prin
ciples of our nature—hope and feai
which he introduced iutu his sriiall re
giment of guards, he diffused over the
whole community. He dispensed with
all assistance in his government, ex
cept what was merely mechanical, and
could be rendered by the very lowest
members, of the community. He was
his own Minister of Finance Secretary
at War, Collector of Customs, and
Keeper of the strong box of the State.
No petty commandant of a petty vil
lage could pay his drummer and fifer
without an express order from the Dic
tator. < He was the very axis upon
which every-pieceof the Stafe-machin- j
ery turned, —at once the centre of at
trattion towards which everything gra-1
vitated, rind the point from which all j
public matters, great and small, were
made to emanate. At the same time,
he professed ever to be.looking out for
agents and assistants; and the lowest
man "about him was allowed to enter
tain the hope that he might become
his minister or secretary. As the
hopes of those about him were excited,
so, on the other hand, was their fear e
qually alarmed, lest, in having places
under the Governmenjt, they might ode
day find themselves in a prison, or on
the scaffold.
He once imprisoned a man,for whom
an individual, favour,
ventured to intercede- •. “Sir,” said
the t -Dictator, “I made you my friend,
not because you deserved it, but be
cause I choose it. You now pretend
to dictate to me, and by implication to
impugn my judgment, by speaking in
favor of a person who you kpow that
judgment has condemned. You thus
negatively advocate Lis cause, and sup
port his principles. Go where he is.”
And without a word more, he despatch
ed him to a solitary dungeon, contigu
ous to that in which lay -confined the
individual for whose liberation he had
so imprudently and so fruitlessly plea
ded.
A lieutenant, presuming upon the
fancied partiality for him,
disobeyed his captain, and gave it as a
reason for his doing so, that he was
more a favourite of the Dictator’s than
the captain himselfi The Dictator
heard this*—said not a word to the lieu
tenant; but ordered a muster of the
Quarteleros, or Guards, he went up to
the officer, and pulling him autos the
ranks, he addressed him in this way:
•‘I found you a begger, and madeyju
an officer: I now find you an ill-behav
ed officer, and send you back to be a
well-behaved beggar: for if you are
*ln an article, in the last number of
the “New Monthly Magazine,” on Dr.
Francia, the population of Paraguay is
stated at 300,000; but this includes the
migratory and other tribes of Indians
on the west bank of the river Paraguay
or Great Chaco; and many of these,
though, strictly speaking, in Francia’a
territory, can in no sense be said to be
under his control. The river forms
the greet dividing barrier between
between them and that part of the
province which lies on the east side of
it. The morasses and almost impervi
ous brushwood of the Chaco form and
almost insuperable obstacle to any at
tempt at conquest there,even were that
desirable.
The Indians referreed to in the pre
sent article are the Guarani Indians,
originally found on the east side of the
river, settled in small townships by the
Jesuits, and now, in a great measure,
amalgamated with the descendants of
the Spaniards.
The militia in Paraguay are stated,
in Mrs. Norton’s article at 2Q,0Q0 men.
At one time (about 1812) there might
have been about half that number;
but since Francia called in the musk
ets blunderbusses, and pistols scattered
ovei the country, and in the hands of
the straggling militia force, their exer
cise has been discontinued, and even
the mustering of them at all; they
cannot, therefore, now, be considered
as a military body. Francia early
became jealous of them, and took in
stant steps to curtail their power of ev
er rising against him.
not that, I shall put you in the stock
or a worse place.” Hereupon, he had
j the officer stript.ofhis uniform clothed,
in, garments suited .to a beggar, and
drummed out of the regiment.
i In the yriqr 1814, an event happened,
to myself, whicfi, a s developing in it.®
progress and rmrTK mum oTbotli tht
policy and character of Dr. Francia; 1
shall here relate.
I Before he discovered himself lo be
the ambitious despot and cruel tyrant
which he afterwards proved, 1 was in
habits of great intimacy and personal
friendship with him; and I had.derived
much pleasure, as well as information
on matters connected with South A
merica, in bis society. Being almost
the only foreigner in the contry, Dr.
i Francia had calculated, through me,
jon providing himself with what he
[ might require in the shape ol warlike
I stores, without interference on the part
j of Buenos Ayres to prevent their transit
io Paraguay; and anticipated that
even if such a disposition should be
manifested, our naval commanu-ers on
the station would not permit it to be
carried into action. The province of
Paraguay was at thjs time at peace
with all the others of the.river Plate. On
leaving Paraguay,accordingly, with an
intention to return, shortly, Dr. Fran
cia commissioned me to bring him, if
possible, some muskets.
; I shipped them, with the consent of
the , pupnos Ayres Government, in a
vessel of my own, and proceeded up
the river Plate off my voyage, the third
I had now made to Paraguay. J had ;
left a brother there, in managefnent of
my rather extensive concerns, during
myabsence. One beautiful evening
I wi£bt out in a boat to shoot pheasants,
which abound along the banks of the
river; The schooner was moored to a
tree, the wind not being strong enough;
to enable’us to stem the -current, and
the labourious work of dragging the
vessel up by ropes being, for the day,
nt an end.
On my retnrn, what were my horror
and surprise to discover that a party
of soldiers had taken possession, of her
and were pointing their muskets into
the boat a serjeant, apparently in com
mand of the party, called out to me to
stop, and presently sent his own boat
to mine, with a number of fierce look
ing and tattered men-at-arms. They
tied my hands behind my back, and in
wpful plight conveyed me on board of
my own ship. Here I found all myste
ry and confusion. I could get no ex
planation of the outrage committed,
nor of the power or party by whose au
thority it was done, but I found my
cabin completely ranscaked—every
one of the soldiers intoxicated—one
man with my watch, another with a ’
coat, a third with a pair of boots; my
whole wardrobe was already distribut-!
ed among these Philistines, and the
place, which two hours before I had
left a picture of comfortand neatness,
was converted literally into a den of
thieves and robbers. They stripped
me of every article of clothing, leaving;
me,in lieu of my own dress, one of their
very scanty great-coats and an old i
soldier’s cap. After beating me with
their swords, & threatening with point
ed pistols & brandished sabres to take
my life, they thrust me, bound as I was
with thongs, Into the hold of the vessel.
Here I lay, in horror and in darkness,
the whole night. 1 could hear nothing
but the yells and carousals of this troop
of brigands—except that, ever and
anon, one or other of their number
would lift up the hatchway or covering
of the hold, and cry aloud tpme, “Pre
parese a morir!”—-(Prepare to die.)
At length the morning dawned upon
me; and a search was commenced into
every corner of the vessel—packages'
were upturned and broke open amid
oaths & execration?, boisterous threats,:
and fiend-like looks. The muskets
& sabres were found; but the men were
persuaded there must be money on
board, which, having discovered, they
thought I had determined to conceal.
Hereupon they landed,and carried me
into the wood; 1 could give them no
money, for they had taken all. They
tied me to a tree, and being drawn up
by their serjeant. were ordered to level,
their muskets and fire. At this mo
ment one of their ovyn band—a robust
swarthy Indian—interceded. He claim-,
ed a right,.he said, to ask a favour —'
and that favour, to, my no small joy and
gratitude—wag,; “that my .life should
oe spared.” It was so. Lwasagaim
carried on board of my vessel l -^—again
P,U t into tliA llAld?- iho ««STnr, lie Illg
ordered to get under weigh, we were
turned in a. direction contrary to that
of our intended voyage, and carried
down the, river qt a rapid rate, both,
wind and current being with ug. 1
was now informed that the men in pos
session of the. ship and property, as
well as of my person, were a party of
soldiers belonging to the famous chici
Artigas; and that they had been des
patched from a place called the Baxada
of Santa Fe, for the express purpose
of ovei taking and seizing the ship, In
formation, it seems had been lodged
with the commandant of that place by
one of the sailors, who had left her on
the outward voyage, that there weie
arms on board; and this functionary,
without further ceremony or pretext,
had sent out the party on their coih
mission of robbery, which, but for the
interference of my Indian friend, would
have been, consummated by murder.
As we sailed down the river, and my
rough companions perceived my unob
trusive acquiescence in what was be
yond my control, they relaxed a little
in their severity, fegave.me occasional
ly a glass of my own wine,. ,One day
they laid their hands upon a double
flageolot, and after much expression of
wonder at the combination of two flutes
or pipes into one, they insisted upon it
that I should play them a tune. I was
not, as you may conceive, gentle reader
in the best frame of mind to. indulge
in music; but the reiterated, and new
rather stern orders to proceed, made
me change my note. “Toca la flauta,”
said the seijeant; “Vamos, hombre
toca la flauta,” said my Indian friend;
“ Poca, le digo,’- insisted afierce-look
ing corporal,—till, rather frightened by
their threats than yielding to their
solicitations, I did literally sit down;
and a prisoner, on the stern of the ves
sel, in my miserable habiliments and
total uncertainty as to the fate which
awaited me—surrounded, too, by an
audience far from indulgent or com
placent, I tuned my flageolot. I pray
that no one who condescends to read
this may everina similar predicament,
be constrained as I was “tocar la flauta,”
(to play the flute;) and the sequel will
show that I was constrained to do much
harder thirgs.
Having reached the Baxada, I was
landed from the vessel under a feu de
joieof musketry.in token of returning
for the victory achieved, and the brave
troops who had made so brilliant a
prize in so undaunted a manner, march
ed me up the hills which leads from the
■harbor to the town. With my arms
[ pinioned, my soldier’s coat and cap,
and a pair of old shoes being most literal
ly my only habiliments, was I escorted
along in a strange land, and without
the slightest chance, according to
. human probabilities, of communicating
! even to my friends at Buenos Ayres the
predicament in which I was placed.
. We were separated by a distance of
320 miles, with only two or three
small intervening towns, and mud-huts
at intervals offive leagues each, for the
relay of horses.
At this critical moment, and as des
pair almost was puite overpowering
hope, I met, coming out of the town, a
red-haired Englishman named Manuel,
who had been a servant of mine.
As the party, under whose escort 1
was, passed him, I had just time to im
plore him “for God’s sake go to and re
port to my friends what he had seen,
and what he could furtner learn of my
imprisonment.” Five minutes after
-1 wards I was marched into the public
prison. Il consisted of but one large
apartment totally unfurnished, unless
bullocks’skulls,occupied by so
many pr isoners, as seals, could he called
furniture. I was received by the savage
inmates of (his charnel-house with a
frightful yell of CQmmingled welcome
and derision. They struck their hands
in rapid succession their mouths
and shouted forth the fiendish screams
ata pitch so, discordant and so loud,
that 1 felt as if I had at once been
ushered into Dante’s hell, oi Milton’s
pandemonium. It was towards evening
, & the flickering embers of a fire in the 1
IX (U 4.
middle of the prison, at which the half
naked and swarthy .wretches had been
cooking UiQir day’s meal, sent Up, enve
loped in smoke, a few feeble ray s,wkich
-frh&ylntf on their ferocious cuunten
ances, acldea - ror t o
the general gloom of the place. The
prises in South America team with m
mates guilty of. every species of crime,
out chiefly of the crime of murder.
Every one of the lower classes there
carries a knife in his girdle, and their
orgies at the gin-shops, or “pulparies,”
the ure of the knife is invariable resort
ed to as the only legitimate arbiter of
their quarrels. You are constantly
shocked, as you pass one or other
church-door in any of the larger town#
by theexhibition ofsomestabbedcorpse
laid out by order of the clergy to excite
the compassion of the beholders, and
through this compassion, to extort from
them the means to defray the expense
of burying the murdered man. Thus,
even murder, there, constitutes no in
considerable part of the Church’s gain.
W ith this class of prisoners, was I
now constrained to live in commons
they insisted upon my treating them to
a bottle of spirits, assuring medhat it
was an invariable, indeed immemorial
practice, thus to drink the health of
every new lodger at his own expense.
They added, that if I were not shot
before the next lodger came, I should
then parlicipaMjin common with them
in the enjoyment of this well-known
right and ancient privilege of the
prison. I had no money—not a quar
-tilloleft me: and so—-not to infringe
-this -traditional and long-respected
privilege—they stripped me of my cap
and old shoeey’Md them feT a *agWr»
diente” fthe spirit of the country,) and
pledged me, as they insisted upon it
thatl should pledge them, in a draught
of the nouseous beverage,handed round
to the company in a filly bullock’a
horn.
1 relished the second edition of“toca
la flauta,” as little as the first: but not
to shock or detain you by a detail of
the tedious and varied misery which,
day after day, and night after night, I
experienced in this wretched abode, I
shall simply add, that almost over
borne by the weight of calamity and
woe which pressed upon me, I sought
the last refuge of the wretched—sleep;
and 1 found it—found it even upon the
cold, dark floor of the Baxada Prison,
and amid the yells and the carousal*
of the inmantes of it. Nine long days
and longer nights did I pass there; and
1 heard,during that time, my execution
spoken of by the other prisoners as a
thing quite settled. They went out to
work in their chains every day, and
heard, and repeated to me, the report*
on this subject; as quite matter of noto
riety.
Frequently was I taken, under an
escort, to the governor’s house, to be
examined on the various crimes and
mi?demeanors— allot course supposi
tious—that were alleged against me;
and each time was I fully persuaded,
that instead of being called out for ex
amation, I was wanted for execution.
It is alleged that a schock of joy is
often more fatal than a schock of grief;
and I believe experience has shown it
to be necessary to announce, to even
the hardest felons, the news of a re
prieve from sentence of death with
great circumspection. Possibly how
ever, as much circumspection might be
wanted to announce to an ardent, lov
ing husband the q lite unexpected
death of a dear and doating wife.
How the theory of this comparative vi
olence of sudden and unexpected emo
tions of pleasure and of woe might turn
out really to be, if closely and analyti
cally 1 am not at present
prepared to say; but you shall require
no theory to persuade, gentle reader,
of the joy unspeakable, the heartfelt
delight, with which I received his Ex
cellency the Goveruor, when; on the
ninth evening of my confinement, he
came in, and with an air of awkward
condescension, which spoke volumes to»
me, announced that he had received,
articles from General Artigas to set
me at liberty. Not an antelope boun
ding on the Andes—not a= frisking;
fawn skipping in buoyant j'i>y before
its darn—not a horse that, “pawetbjiJi
the yaUeAc,<lfc.nejoiccth in bis steenin’*
Sec last page.
