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Tapuzi, which in the Tagal language, signifies "end of the world," is a little village, situate in the interior of the mountains, nearly twenty-five leagues from Jala-Jala.
These nocturnal interviews having led me to mention Tapuzi, I cannot refrain from dedicating a few lines to this remarkable retreat, where men, when proscribed by the law, live together in a sort of accord and union of a most extraordinary kind.
We soon reached the long wished-for object of our journey the village of Tapuzi. It lies at the extreme end of a plain, composed of about sixty thatched huts, similar to those of the Indians. The inhabitants were all at their windows, to witness our arrival. Our guides conducted us to their chief, or Matanda-sanayon, a fine old man, from the look of his face about eighty years of age.
I clearly saw that we were not in a very agreeable position, and against which, if the Tapuzians should consider us as enemies, we could oppose no defence. But we were involved in it, and there was no means of retreating, it was absolutely necessary to go to Tapuzi.
A few hundred steps further on all would have been destroyed; there would no longer have existed a single person in Tapuzi: but a part of the population was not injured, and came and settled themselves where the village now is. Since then we pray to the Almighty, and live in a manner so as not to deserve so severe a chastisement as that experienced by the wretched victims of that awful night."
Death of my Brother Robert Our Party at Jala-Jala Illness and Last Moments of my Friend Bermigan Recovery and Departure for France or Lafond Joachim Balthazard: his Eccentricity Tremendous Gale of Wind Narrow Escape in Crossing the Lake Safe Return to Jala-Jala Destruction of my House and the Village by a Typhoon Rendezvous with a Bandit Ineffectual Attempts to Reform Him His Death Journey to Tapuzi Its Inaccessibility Government of the Tapuzians Morality and Religious Character of their Chief Their Curiosity at Beholding a White Man Former Wickedness and Divine Punishment We bid Adieu to the Tapuzians, and Return to Jala-Jala.
I then proposed to him to go to Tapuzi, a place where the bandits, when hotly pursued, were enabled to conceal themselves with impunity. You can do nothing for me, adieu!" He then pressed my hand, and we separated. Some days afterwards, a hut in which he was seen, near Manilla, was surrounded by the troops of the line.
My lieutenant had just told me: "Look, master, above your head. None but the inhabitants of Tapuzi know the paths which lead to the top of the mountains. All along the length of the ravine they have placed enormous stones, that they have only to push to throw them down upon those who should come to attack them; a whole army could not penetrate among them, if they wished to give any opposition."
The conversation and society of this old man I might say the King of Tapuzi was most interesting to me. But I had already been four days absent from Jala-Jala. I ordered my lieutenant to prepare for our departure. We bid most affectionate adieus to our hosts, and set off. In two days I returned home, quite pleased with my journey and the good inhabitants of Tapuzi.
For two days we walked in the midst of mountains, by paths almost impracticable. The third day we reached a torrent, the bed of which was blocked up by enormous stones. This ravine was the only road by which we could get to Tapuzi; it was the natural and impregnable rampart which defended the village against the attack of the Spanish troops.
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