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

a Conquistador farmer of the pearl fishery three hundredyears ago, is perfectly silent. So is the plain between thetown and the harbour; silent, but not so dark as the house,because the pickets of Italian workmen guarding the railwayhave lighted little fires all along the line. It was not so quietaround here yesterday. We had an awful riot—a suddenoutbreak of the populace, which was not suppressed till latetoday. Its object, no doubt, was loot, and that was defeated,as you may have learned already from the cablegram sentvia San Francisco and New York last night, when the cableswere still open. You have read already there that the energeticaction of the Europeans of the railway has saved thetown from destruction, and you may believe that. I wroteout the cable myself. We have no Reuter’s agency man here.I have also fired at the mob from the windows of the club,in company with some other young men of position. Ourobject was to keep the Calle de la Constitucion clear for theexodus of the ladies and children, who have taken refuge onboard a couple of cargo ships now in the harbour here. Thatwas yesterday. You should also have learned from the cablethat the missing President, Ribiera, who had disappearedafter the battle of Sta. Marta, has turned up here in Sulacoby one of those strange coincidences that are almost incredible,riding on a lame mule into the very midst of the streetfighting. It appears that he had fled, in company of a muleteercalled Bonifacio, across the mountains from the threatsof Montero into the arms of an enraged mob.‘The Capataz of Cargadores, that Italian sailor of whom Ihave written to you before, has saved him from an ignoble