16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'In the first place General Mendoza is dead.
His horse threw him and he was picked up
dead. He was one of the most popular men in
the army, particularly among the Creoles, and
he might well have carried half the officers
with him. In the second the Archbishop is now
– I hardly like to use the word senile about so
good a man and so outspoken an abolitionist:
but we are deprived of the full force of his
support. In the third place Juan Muñoz has returned
to Spain, and he has been replaced as
far as governmental enquiries, secret service
and unavowable activities are concerned by
García de Castro, too timid to be equally corrupt
and in any event wholly unreliable: clever
perhaps but oh so weak – terrified of the new
Viceroy, terrified of losing his place. He is not
a man to have anything to do with, near or
far.'
'The absence of Muñoz disturbs me,' said