Nostromo - A Tale of the Seaboard.pdf - Planet eBook

organizing an army, gathering malcontents, sending emissariesprimed with patriotic lies to the people, and withpromises of plunder to the wild llaneros. Even a Monteristpress had come into existence, speaking oracularly of thesecret promises of support given by ‘our great sister Republicof the North’ against the sinister land-grabbing designsof European powers, cursing in every issue the ‘miserableRibiera,’ who had plotted to deliver his country, boundhand and foot, for a prey to foreign speculators.Sulaco, pastoral and sleepy, with its opulent Campo andthe rich silver mine, heard the din of arms fitfully in its fortunateisolation. It was nevertheless in the very forefrontof the defence with men and money; but the very rumoursreached it circuitously—from abroad even, so much was itcut off from the rest of the Republic, not only by naturalobstacles, but also by the vicissitudes of the war. The Monteristoswere besieging Cayta, an important postal link.The overland couriers ceased to come across the mountains,and no muleteer would consent to risk the journey at last;even Bonifacio on one occasion failed to return from Sta.Marta, either not daring to start, or perhaps captured bythe parties of the enemy raiding the country between theCordillera and the capital. Monterist publications, however,found their way into the province, mysteriously enough;and also Monterist emissaries preaching death to aristocratsin the villages and towns of the Campo. Very early, atthe beginning of the trouble, Hernandez, the bandit, hadproposed (through the agency of an old priest of a village inthe wilds) to deliver two of them to the Ribierist authorities