Golconda

“ The Company were prepared to buy it, and so were the Portuguese; but a rich Mohammedan named Cassa Verona found favour with Golconda's Moslem officials, and secured the town on a short lease. Next it was leased to the Hindu Governor of Poonamallee; and then for a big price it went back again to the Portuguese. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the great Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb dethroned the lord of the soil, the King of Golconda; and, although the Portuguese were not turned out of San Thomé, it was now a part of the Moghul Empire, and was put in charge of a Moslem ruler. ”

“ Before many years had passed the Muhammadans again attacked the country. The invader this time was the first king of the new dynasty of Golconda, Qutb Shah (1512-43) , and the cause of the war was the assistance given by the house of Orissa to a rebellious feudatory of Golconda. The large forces of the Hindus were routed by the fanatical courage of the Musalmans, who took Kondapalle and won a battle in the neighbourhood of Rajahmundry. The king of Orissa sued for peace, and consented to surrender to Golconda the whole of the territory between the Kistna and Gódávari rivers. ”

“ He desired, in short, to satisfy the emperor's demands from his own treasury, and save his people from the exactions of an imperial officer who would undoubtedly regard the conquered province as his special spoil, and would, after satisfying his master's demands, bleed the people to the utmost in order to satisfy his own. He then agreed to pay to the emperor a crore of rupees for every assault that the imperial troops had made on Golconda, and a like sum for every halt that they made within the territory of Golconda, on their return to Hindustan. ”

“ In the name of humanity they miust stop and lower a boat to save the man in the sea, for the Albatross was keeping on, at unslackened speed. Dick hesitated. The Golconda was nearing the struggling figure. To stop meant that his yacht ahead would draw further away—she might so increase her distance that it would be impossible to catch up to her before dark—and then—Dick knew the chances were slim of ever seeing his craft again. Yet he hesitated only for a moment.
"Lay to, and lower a boat, captain," he said quietly. "We can't let the poor fellow drown." ”

“ This flood soon swept in a wave of men over the wide, sun-scorched plains of the glamorous North.
Many of my friends had ventured to the new Golconda, and I was fired with desire to follow the gleam. At length I met a man who, after much persuasion, consented to let me accompany him on a contemplated trip to the Vaal River. This was William Brown, who will be remembered by most old Kaffrarians. Brown was a farmer of sorts, usually squatting on Government land, and occasionally occupying a hut on the fringe of the Isidengi Forest, not far from Kabousie Nek. ”

“ The city owes none of its interest to antiquity, for it is little more than three centuries old. In 1591 Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth king of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda, grew weary of his fortress capital, which was then so overcrowded with habitations as to be both unhealthy and unpleasant as a place of residence. While hunting one day on the south bank of the river Musi he was attracted by the fresh and green appearance of the site on which the city of Haidarabad now stands, about six miles from the fortress of Golconda, and selected it as the cite of his new capital. ”

“ They all stared in wonder, for the vessel, for some reason, was swinging about in a big circle, retracing her course.
"Can we go a little faster?" asked Dick of the captain.
"Si, senor," was the reply, and the engine room telegraph clanged out an order. The Golconda leaped ahead.
As the boat, to which the gaze of all was directed, swung around, so that her stern was toward the vessel containing Dick and his chums, the young millionaire uttered a startled cry. Passing the glasses to Paul Drew, and bidding him look, Dick exclaimed:
"It's her! It's my yacht! It's the Albatross!" ”

“ This kingdom, which was then a powerful and independent state, contained an abundance of fertile lands, numerous flocks and herds, and many small lakes, which furnished inexhaustible supplies of fish. Baugnuggur, the capital (the modern Hyderabad) , vulgarly called Golconda, from the fortress of that name in the vicinity, in which the king resided, was then a city of recent construction ”

“ Human labour, and a few cattle, with a little grain and some sticks, are the only essential requisites for the foundation or reconstruction of a village.
15. Golconda was taken by Aurangzēb, after a protracted siege, in 1677. Bījāpur surrendered to him on the 15th October, 1686. The vast ruins of this splendid city, which was deserted after the conquest, occupy a space thirty miles in circumference. The town has partially recovered, and is now the head- quarters of a Bombay District, with about 24,000 inhabitants. Sivājī, the founder of the Marāthā power, died in 1680. ”

“ In a campaign against Golconda, says one of these, 'they gave the Musalmans so much trouble that, when they were at last with difficulty exterminated, a Musalman general marched against their native villages to try and root out the whole brood once for all. But the Aiyarakulu women dressed and armed themselves like men and fell upon the invaders with such fury that the latter beat a liasty retreat. The people of the caste are now cultivators and cart-owners and number 17,000, or more than in any other district. They are commonest in the Srungavarapukóta taluk. ”

“ It is chiefly for the use of this settlement that the company maintains a factory at Ganjam, the most eastern town in the province or kingdom of Golconda, situated in a country abounding with rice and sugar-canes. Still farther to the north coast, in the latitude of twenty-two degrees, the company maintains a factory at Balasore, which was formerly very considerable; but hath been of very little consequence since the navigation of the river Huguely Avas improved. At this place every European ship bound for Bengal and the Ganges takes in a pilot. The climate is not counted very salubrious ”

“ To ensure his safety in the dominions of Beajapoor, the governor of the mines had granted him a guard of six horsemen, and thus escorted he pushed on rapidly. In due time he arrived at Golconda, and going straight towards his golden kėbleh, found the chamber in which his wealth had been deposited locked, and sealed with two seals, that of the kadi, and that of the chief of the merchants, his correspondent having been dead three days. His apprehension and alarm, he now found, had all been needless ”

“ You shall be the new mistress of the Casa Gould."
And later on, in the inhabited corner of the palazzo above the vineyards, the marble hills, the pines and olives of Lucca, he also said:
"The name of Gould has been always highly respected in Sulaco. My uncle Harry was chief of the state for some time, and has left a great name among the first families. By this I mean the pure Creole families, who take no part in the miserable farce of governments. Uncle Harry was no adventurer. In Costaguana we Goulds are no adventurers. ”

“ Most of the Europeans in Sulaco were there, rallied round Charles Gould, as if the silver of the mine had been the emblem of a common cause, the symbol of the supreme importance of material interests. They had loaded it into the lighter with their own hands. Nostromo recognized Don Charles Gould, a thin, tall shape, standing a little apart and silent, to whom another tall shape, the engineer-in-chief, said aloud, " If it must be lost, it is a million times better that it should go to the bottom of the sea." ”

“ The staring heads of men blocked the doorway in an instant—mozos from stable, gardeners, nondescript helpers living on crumbs of the munificent house—and Charles Gould beheld all the extent of his domestic establishment even to the gate-keeper. This was a half-paralyzed old man, whose long, white locks fell down to his shoulders—an heirloom taken up by Charles Gould's familial piety. He could remember Henry Gould, an Englishman and Costaguanero of the second generation, chief of the Sulaco province ”

“ The emissary from Hernandez's camp pushed his horse close to Charles Gould.
"Caballero," he said, in an interested voice, "you are he whom they call the King of Sulaco, the master of the mine. Is it not so?"
"Yes, I am the master of the mine," answered Charles Gould.
The man cantered for a time in silence, then said: "I have a brother, a sereno in your service in the San Tomé Valley. You have proved yourself a just man. There had been no wrong done to any one since you called upon the people to work in the mountains. ”

“ On penetrating up the mouth of this river, that is to say, up the curve which it makes to the north-west, we arrive at a village named Gonfode; it is inhabited by the Biafares Negroes, who are tolerably civilized, and attached to commerce. To the south of the Gesves is another, to which they give the name of Goli, which is likewise inhabited by the Biafares, who trade to some extent with the Portuguese. ”

“ Because he had not the hundred men the beloved lady languished in her prison, for the brigands asked as ransom the city of Talgone which they hated. And Golgothar carried in his breast a stone image she had given him, and for very grief let no man speak her name before him.
“If I had a hundred men so strong—” said Golgothar, one day, standing on a great point of land and looking down the valley. ”

“ Simultaneously Nozdrev descried our hero and bore down upon him.
"Ah, my fine landowner of Kherson!" he cried with a smile which set his fresh, spring-rose-pink cheeks a-quiver. "Have you been doing much trade in departed souls lately?" With that he turned to the Governor. "I suppose your Excellency knows that this man traffics in dead peasants?" he bawled. "Look here, Chichikov. I tell you in the most friendly way possible that every one here likes you--yes, including even the Governor. ”

“ Don Carlos Gould, to use the suitably lofty phrase, rode like a centaur. Riding for him was not a special form of exercise; it was a natural faculty, as walking straight is to all men sound of mind and limb; but, all the same, when cantering beside the rutty ox-cart track to the mine he looked in his English clothes and with his imported saddlery as though he had come this moment to Costaguana at his easy swift pasotrote, straight out of some green meadow at the other side of the world. ”

“ You are very good. A very fierce-looking man, Don Carlos. He asked me for a cigar in a most familiar manner. What would have happened if I had not had a cigar? I shudder yet. What business had he to be talking with robbers in a lonely place?"
But Charles Gould, openly preoccupied now, gave not a sign, made no sound. The impenetrability of the embodied Gould Concession had its surface shades. To be dumb is merely a fatal affliction; but the King of Sulaco had words enough to give him all the mysterious weight of a taciturn force. ”

“ Mrs. Gould said, in a tone as if she were repelling an undeserved aspersion. "Viola, the Garibaldino, with whom he has lived for some years, calls him the incorruptible."
"Ah! he belongs to the group of your protégés out there towards the harbor, Mrs. Gould. Muy bien. And Captain Mitchell calls him wonderful. I have heard no end of tales of his strength, his audacity, his fidelity. No end of fine things. H'm! incorruptible? It is indeed a name of honor for the capataz of the cargadores of Sulaco. Incorruptible! Fine, but vague. However, I suppose he's sensible, too. ”

“ AT about that time, in the Intendencia of Sulaco, Charles Gould was assuring Pedrito Montero, who had sent a request for his presence there, that he would never let the mine pass out of his hand for the profit of a government who had robbed him of it. The Gould Concession could not be resumed. His father had not desired it. The son would never surrender it. He would never surrender it alive. And once dead, where was the power capable of resuscitating such an enterprise in all its vigor and wealth out of the ashes and ruin of destruction? There was no such power in the country. ”

“ Before the Cornet managed to seize the atamán's head by its scalp-lock and fasten it to his saddle, a savage avenger arrived.
As a vulture hovering in the sky, beating great circles with its mighty wings, suddenly remains poised in air, in one spot, and thence darts down like an arrow upon the shrieking cock quail beside the road; just so did Taras's son Ostap fly suddenly upon the kazák, and fling a rope about his neck with one cast. The Cornet's red face grew a still deeper crimson when the cruel noose pressed his throat, and he tried to seize his pistol ”

“ What will my fellows say when they come to know that the most pious man in the village is in my power?" and the devil laughed heartily at the thought of how he would tease all the long-tailed breed in hell, and how the lame devil, who was reputed the most cunning of them all for his tricks, would feel provoked.
"Well, Vakoola!" squeaked he, while he continued sitting on Vakoola's neck, as if fearing the blacksmith should escape; "thou knowest well that nothing can be done without contract." ”

“ All the people of consequence who had property in and about Gondar, who had fled to Fasil and to the provinces, from fear of Ras Michael when he returned from Tigre, had gone back upon Gusho's word, each man to his house; Gondar was full of men in arms. In Gusho's and Ayabdar's army, and depending on them, was the property of all Gondar. Ras Woodage, Gusho's father, and brother to Ayabdar, had been Ras in Yasous' time, till he died, universally beloved and regretted ”

“ The moon had risen and had begun to light up the darkness; and at last everything was bathed in light—the lake and the huts; the light of the fires was paler; the smoke from the chimneys could be seen silvery in the moonlight. Alexasha and Nikolasha flew by them, racing after each other on spirited horses; they raised as much dust as a flock of sheep.
'Oh, I really will have an estate of my own one day!' thought Tchitchikov. ”