The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899

29. Changes in Dakura, 1890s

29 Changes in Dakura, 1890s Hermann Kluge, Die Nacht ist Vergangen: Aus der Geschichte von Dakura. Missionar Gebhardt nacherzählt von H. Kluge [Night Is Passing: From the History of Dakura] (Herrnhut: Missionsbuch, 1899). Hermann Kluge states that the details of this story derive from the notes of missionary Ernst Gottlieb Gebhardt. Born in Germany in 1860, Gebhardt came to Mosquitia as a missionary in 1888. Along with the Jamaican schoolteacher John A. Fischer, Gebhardt co-founded the missionary station of Dakura in 1893, where he remained until 1897. Although most of the events described here presumably relate to Gebhardt’s five-year period in Dakura, many of the details were already described in Schneider’s Kaisa!, the earlier account of missionary Siebörger’s visit to Dakura in 1886 (see no. 16). Several individuals from Siebörger’s account, including Kuka Tara (Kuka Monika), Yul Siksa, and John Thomson, appear here in similar roles. Although Gebhardt’s residence at Dakura overlaps directly with the important developments surrounding Nicaragua’s 1894 takeover of the Reserve, none of the events are herein described or even mentioned. We include this account primarily because it contains events not described by Siebörger and Schneider. Yet, readers should view this document more as an example of Moravian literature from the period than as an ethnographic text. 1. Evil Fruits Approximately ten to twelve miles south of the Central American promontory of Cape Gracias a Dios—so named by Columbus, the discoverer Changes in Dakura | 323 of the Americas—there lies in Nicaraguan territory the large Indian village of Dakura.1 Until some eighteen years ago the night of darkest heathendom reigned completely uninterrupted here. It is hard to grasp the full meaning of this fact, but we will endeavor to provide a small glimpse into the situation in those days, and to describe in some degree the “evil fruits” that ripened there in abundance, before the Gospel was proclaimed and changes wrought. To be certain, many have imagined that the heathens are inoffensive, innocent, and happy children of nature. But they are no such thing. Or in any event the Dakura Indians are not thus. On the contrary, they were known as a savage and unruly people in those parts and were generally feared by their own countrymen. And what is more, the earlier Moskito kings could not conquer these proud Dakurans, and the latter murdered one of the first of the kings who attempted to subjugate them.2 Hot-tempered and vengeful , they lived in this place, given to all manner of depravity, and above all to intemperance. The following narrative provides a few examples of their vindictiveness, whereby in spite of all their volatile passions they waited cold-heartedly until a favorable opportunity to carry out their devilish deeds. A man by the name of Yulsicksa (“Black Dog”) had offended numerous people of Dakura and had reason to fear their vengeance. A notorious scoundrel, he lived in his hut in a small village named Sikia, which lay separated from Dakura through a small branch of the lake, the so-called lagoon. Here, eternally vigilant, he hoped to be safe from enemy attacks. Years passed without it occurring to the Dakurans to exact their revenge upon Yulsicksa. But they did not give up their plans. Who knows how often they set out on the road to Sikia, fully an hour’s journey, then waded and swam across the Dakura lagoon of some four to five hundred feet in width—but always in vain, for they consistently found Yulsicksa closed up in his house with his father-in-law.3 These two often had friends with them as well, and in addition to that, all of them armed to the teeth. Without success the Dakuran people returned unobserved every time. But finally they had a stroke of luck. One night they came upon Yulsicksa alone at home with his father-in-law, and on this occasion, suspecting no danger, the quarry attempted to leave home unarmed. Coming out of their ambush, his enemies threw themselves upon him. There followed a brief if frightful struggle in the dark of night, and Yulsicksa, pierced through by countless 324 | Changes in Dakura spear and dagger wounds, fell to his bed and gave up the ghost. His fatherin -law hastened to help him, but was himself wounded in the foot in the same melee, and became...