It contained about a hundred of these lines, with the letters at even
distances, and undivided into words. It seemed to have been written
many years before, and time had already laid his tawny finger on the
sheet of good stout paper which was covered with the hieroglyphics.
On what principle had these letters been arranged? He who held the
paper was alone able to tell. With such cipher language it is as with
the locks of some of our iron safes--in either case the protection is
the same. The combinations which they lead to can be counted by
millions, and no calculator's life would suffice to express them.
Some particular "word" has to be known before the lock of the safe
will act, and some "cipher" is necessary before that cryptogram can
be read.
He who had just reperused the document was but a simple "captain of
the woods." Under the name of _"Capitaes do Mato"_ are known in
Brazil those individuals who are engaged in the recapture of fugitive
slaves. The institution dates from 1722. At that period anti-slavery
ideas had entered the minds of a few philanthropists, and more than a
century had to elapse before the mass of the people grasped and
applied them. That freedom was a right, that the very first of the
natural rights of man was to be free and to belong only to himself,
would seem to be self-evident, and yet thousands of years had to pass
before the glorious thought was generally accepted, and the nations
of the earth had the courage to proclaim it.
In 1852, the year in which our story opens, there were still slaves
in Brazil, and as a natural consequence, captains of the woods to
pursue them. For certain reasons of political economy the hour of
general emancipation had been delayed, but the black had at this date
the right to ransom himself, the children which were born to him were
born free. The day was not far distant when the magnificent country,
into which could be put three-quarters of the continent of Europe,
would no longer count a single slave among its ten millions of
inhabitants.
The occupation of the captains of the woods was doomed, and at the
period we speak of the advantages obtainable from the capture of
fugitives were rapidly diminishing. While, however, the calling
continued sufficiently profitable, the captains of the woods formed a
peculiar class of adventurers, principally composed of freedmen and
deserters--of not very enviable reputation. The slave hunters in fact
belonged to the dregs of society, and we shall not be far wrong in
assuming that the man with the cryptogram was a fitting comrade for
his fellow _"capitaes do mato."_ Torres--for that was his
name--unlike the majority of his companions, was neither half-breed,
Indian, nor negro. He was a white of Brazilian origin, and had
received a better education than befitted his present condition. One
of those unclassed men who are found so frequently in the distant
