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

ked, carrying a bullock-hide shield, and, no doubt, a longlance, too—who knows? That he had wandered clothed inskins, seeking for proselytes somewhere near the snow lineof the Cordillera. Of these exploits Padre Corbelan himselfwas never known to talk. But he made no secret of his opinionthat the politicians of Sta. Marta had harder hearts andmore corrupt minds than the heathen to whom he had carriedthe word of God. His injudicious zeal for the temporalwelfare of the Church was damaging the Ribierist cause. Itwas common knowledge that he had refused to be made titularbishop of the Occidental diocese till justice was done toa despoiled Church. The political Gefe of Sulaco (the samedignitary whom Captain Mitchell saved from the mob afterwards)hinted with naive cynicism that doubtless theirExcellencies the Ministers sent the padre over the mountainsto Sulaco in the worst season of the year in the hopethat he would be frozen to death by the icy blasts of the highparamos. Every year a few hardy muleteers—men inuredto exposure—were known to perish in that way. But whatwould you have? Their Excellencies possibly had not realizedwhat a tough priest he was. Meantime, the ignorantwere beginning to murmur that the Ribierist reforms meantsimply the taking away of the land from the people. Someof it was to be given to foreigners who made the railway; thegreater part was to go to the padres.These were the results of the Grand Vicar’s zeal. Evenfrom the short allocution to the troops on the Plaza (whichonly the first ranks could have heard) he had not been ableto keep out his fixed idea of an outraged Church waiting