Capataz

“ Or, perhaps, we have no souls—like dogs."
"There was Decoud, too, with his plan," the doctor reminded him again.
"Si! And the rich man in San Francisco who had something to do with that treasure, too—what do I know? No! I have heard too many things. It seems to me that everything is permitted to the rich."
"I understand, capataz," the doctor began.
"What capataz?" broke in Nostromo, in a forcible but even voice. "The capataz is undone, destroyed. There is no capataz. Oh no! You will find the capataz no more." ”

“ But this is the idlest of dreams; for I did understand perfectly well at the time that the moment the breath left the body of the Magnificent Capataz, the Man of the People, freed at last from the toils of love and wealth, there was nothing more for me to do in Sulaco. ”

“ If the chief says so, it must be true; he is too experienced a warrior to be deceived. What is to be done?"
"We have nothing to fear from fire here," the capataz observed.
"We have not," Don Louis quickly exclaimed; "but the inhabitants of the hacienda?"
"Not more than we," Belhumeur replied. "See all the trees have been cut down, and rooted up to too great a distance from the colony for the fire to reach it; it is only a stratagem employed by the Indians to arrive without being counted."
"Still I am of this caballero's opinion," the capataz said; "we should do well to warn the hacienda." ”

“ I am truly devoted to you, but I have also a fondness for my skin."
"I will give you twenty-five ounces for every slit it receives; is that enough?"
"Come, I see that your excellency wishes me to be cut into mincemeat!" the capataz exclaimed joyously.
"Then that is agreed?"
"I should think so, excellency; at that price a man would be a fool to refuse."
"But about horses?"
"We have at least ten or a dozen in the corral."
"That is true; I did not think of that," the general exclaimed, striking his forehead; "have seven lassoed at once." ”

“ The capataz, with his arms crossed on his chest, pale forehead and eyebrows contracted almost till they met, looked at him with an expression of gentle and sympathizing pity.
"Don Martial," he at length said, in a sharp and imperative voice.
"What do you want with me?" the Tigrero asked, looking up with surprise.
"I want you to listen to me, for I have not said all yet."
"What more can you have to tell me?" the other asked sadly.
"Arouse yourself like the man you are, instead of remaining any longer crushed beneath the pressure of despair, like a child or a weak woman. ”

“ He had done it, betrayed as he was, and saving by the same stroke the San Tome mine, which appeared to him hateful and immense, lording it by its vast wealth over the valour, the toil, the fidelity of the poor, over war and peace, over the labours of the town, the sea, and the Campo.
The sun lit up the sky behind the peaks of the Cordillera. The Capataz looked down for a time upon the fall of loose earth, stones, and smashed bushes, concealing the hiding-place of the silver.
“I must grow rich very slowly,” he meditated, aloud. ”

“ At last, after twenty or twenty-five minutes, someone threw a zarapé over his face, most likely with the intention of preventing any recognition of his assailants; he was lifted from the ground with a certain degree of precaution, and two men carried him in their arms to some considerable distance.
The situation became more complicated every moment. In vain the capataz racked his mind to divine the intentions of his captors. The latter uttered not a word, and glided over the ground with light and noiseless steps, as if they were spectres. The generality of Mexicans are fatalists. ”

“ Streaming from head to foot, with his hair and whiskers hanging lank and dripping, and a lustreless stare fixed upon the bottom boards, the capataz of the Sulaco cargadores resembled a drowned corpse come up from the bottom to idle away the sunset hour in a small boat. The excitement of his adventurous ride, the excitement of the return in time, of achievement, of success, all this excitement centred round the associated ideas of the great treasure and of the only other man who knew of its existence, had departed from him. ”

“ Their drivers, crouching under the hide covering of the galeras, urge them on with long goads, slung over their heads, with which they can easily reach the leading oxen of the team.
A capataz, or major-domo,—a resolute man, thoroughly acquainted with the Pampas,—commands the caravan, having under his orders some thirty peones, who, like himself, are mounted, and gallop around the convoy, watch the relief cattle, and, in case of attack, defend the travellers of every age whom they escort. ”

“ It was another of Nostromo’s triumphs, the greatest, the most enviable, the most sinister of all. In that true cry of undying passion that seemed to ring aloud from Punta Mala to Azuera and away to the bright line of the horizon, overhung by a big white cloud shining like a mass of solid silver, the genius of the magnificent Capataz de Cargadores dominated the dark gulf containing his conquests of treasure and love. ”

“ What he had heard Giorgio Viola say once was very true. Kings, ministers, aristocrats, the rich in general, kept the people in poverty and subjection; they kept them as they kept dogs, to fight and hunt for their service.
The darkness of the sky had descended to the line of the horizon, enveloping the whole gulf, the islets, and the lover of Antonia alone with the treasure on the Great Isabel. The Capataz, turning his back on these things invisible and existing, sat down and took his face between his fists. He felt the pinch of poverty for the first time in his life. ”

“ Let him do as he likes, if he only fulfils the promise he made us."
"All very well, señorita," objected the capataz; "but you must confess that we should be seriously at a loss if he takes it into his head not to come back."
"That supposition is inadmissible, Don Luciano: his horse is feeding with ours; besides, for what purpose should he commit such an unwarrantable treason."
"This man, in spite of the whiteness of his skin, is more an Indian than an individual of our colour; and, right or wrong, señorita, I distrust the redskins amazingly." ”

“ So, as soon as we had left the glen entirely and disappeared among the sand dunes, we let our horses have their heads, the capataz Gaucho riding on ahead on a splendid mule as strong as a stallion and as lithe as a Scottish deerhound.
Not long before our start for the hunting grounds men had arrived from the Chilian markets to purchase cattle. The greatest dainty to my mind they had brought with them was a quantity of Yerba maté, as it is called. It is the dried leaves of a species of Patagonian ilex, which is used in this country as tea, and very delightful and soothing it is. ”

“ What do you think of it?"
"I say that there are still four of us; that is double the number of those waiting for us down there, and we are sufficient to master them."
"Don't be too sure, my good friend, Zaragate," the capataz said with a grin; "they are men made of iron, who must be killed twice over before they fall."
The Tigrero and his companions had heard shots and seen the peons bite the dust.
"There is Valentine," said the Frenchman.
"I believe so," Don Martial replied. ”

“ The capataz, under the pretext that his wound was very painful, but in reality to give Valentine and his friends the requisite time to secure themselves temporarily from pursuit, insisted on returning to the city slowly, so that they did not reach the general's mansion till two hours had elapsed.
So soon as the peons in obedience to the hunter's orders had left the battlefield, he, on his part, gave his companions the signal to start. Don Martial had hurried to reassure the ladies, who were standing more dead than alive at the spot where the chief had concealed them. ”

“ She seemed then fairly calm and resigned, but the scoundrel in those ten minutes or so has done or said something which seems to have driven her into despair. You know,” went on the doctor, hesitatingly, “women are so very unaccountable in every position, and at all times of life, that I thought sometimes she was in a way, don’t you see? in love with him—the Capataz. The rascal has his own charm indubitably, or he would not have made the conquest of all the populace of the town. ”

“ He begged them to keep themselves quiet. They had him for Capataz now. A man of intelligence. Had he not enticed Castro out? He had never believed there was any one else in there. He sighed. Otherwise Castro would have tried to save his life by confessing. There had been nothing to confess. But he had the means of making sure. A voice suggested that the Inglez might have withdrawn himself into the depths. These English were not afraid of demons, being devils themselves ”

“ The English character is proverbially daring; the three merchants pursued their course, regardless of the reports of the natives and the advice of friends. The great travesia was crossed, and they passed through the provinces of San Luis and Cordova in safety; but when they reached the vicinity of Cabeza del Tigre, several hundred Indians, mounted on horseback, and armed with spears, met them on the road and offered battle.
The patron ordered the carts to be formed into a square, and the peons got within its protection. The three white men and the patron and capataz fought desperately. ”

“ The Araucano bounded like a wild beast on the Mexican, and without hesitation scalped and stabbed him with the agility characteristic of the redskins, and which he himself possessed in so high a degree.
Almost at the same moment the horsemen also finished their fight. The peons had offered a vigorous resistance, but being badly supported by the capataz, who was disabled at the beginning of the skirmish by Don Martial, and seeing the Zaragate dead and three of their friends dismounted and incapable of coming to their assistance, they gave in. ”

“ I found it standing at the very entrance, and had no difficulty in seizing the bridle."
"That is indeed most singular. And did you enter the grotto, Master Carnero?"
"No, mi amo. I thought it my duty to tell you of it first."
"You were right. Well, we will enter it together. Fetch some torches of ocote wood, and show us the way. By the by, do not forget to bring weapons, for we know not what men or beasts we may find in caverns thus opening on a high road." This he said with a sarcastic air, which caused the capataz to tremble inwardly in spite of his determined indifference. ”

“ Calabasas is the name of the last station in United States territory through which we pass previous to entering Sonora. It was once an old hacienda, near which was a gold mine, but was often depopulated, through Apache raids, and knew not the blessings of peace until the advent of the railroad. This, indeed, may be said of this entire region, every presidio and village of which existed only upon sufferance, half in ruins, guarded by cowardly Mexican soldiers, who rarely ventured beyond the mud forts, and allowed the Apaches to murder and plunder with impunity. ”

“ In February, 1517, a Spanish hidalgo, Hernandez de Cordova, set sail, with three vessels, towards the adjacent Bahamas in search of slaves. He was driven by a succession of severe storms on coasts which had hitherto been unknown to the Spanish adventurers, and finally landed on that part of the continent which forms the north-eastern end of the peninsula of Yucatan, and is known as Cape Catoché. Here he first discovered the evidence of a more liberal civilization than had been hitherto known among his adventurous countrymen in the New World. ”

“ Cacamatzin, however, was a young hothead, and supported in his views by a great number of chiefs, who constantly kept urging him on to fall upon us. He, therefore, sent word to Cortes that he had already heard too much of his smooth words, and desired he would send him no more of his messages; it would be quite time enough to talk with each other when their armies stood one against the other in the field of battle. ”

“ Cabot opened to us a new source of interest and beauty. In order to begin business at once, he rode in the first caleza alone, and before he had gone far, we saw the barrel of his gun protrude on one side, and a bird fall. He had seen at Sisal, egretes, pelicans, and ducks which were rare in collections at home, and an oscillated wild turkey, which alone he thought worth the voyage to that place; and now, our attention being particularly directed to the subject, in some places the shrubs and bushes seemed brilliant with the plumage and vocal with the notes of birds. ”

“ He continued the ascent of the Paraná as far as the rapids of Apipé, and finding his course barred in this direction, he afterwards explored the river Paraguay, which he mounted as far as the mouth of the affluent called by the Indians Lepeti, now the river Bermejo. His party was here fiercely attacked by the Agaces or Payaguá Indians, and suffered severely. Cabot in his voyage had seen many silver ornaments in the possession of the Timbú and Guarani Indians. Some specimens of these trinkets he sent back to Spain with a report of his discoveries. ”

“ That night, when she retired to her chamber, Pitapat lingered behind, but presently appeared at her young mistress's room door with a large waiter on her head, laden with meat, pastry, jelly and fruit, which she brought in and placed upon the work stand.
"Why, what on the face of earth do you mean by bringing all that load of victuals into my room to-night? Do you think I am an ostrich or a cormorant, or that I am going to entertain a party of friends?" asked Capitola, in astonishment, turning from the wash stand, where she stood bathing her face. ”