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

Worked in the early days mostly by means of lashes on thebacks of slaves, its yield had been paid for in its own weightof human bones. Whole tribes of Indians had perished inthe exploitation; and then the mine was abandoned, sincewith this primitive method it had ceased to make a profitablereturn, no matter how many corpses were thrown intoits maw. Then it became forgotten. It was rediscovered afterthe War of Independence. An English company obtainedthe right to work it, and found so rich a vein that neitherthe exactions of successive governments, nor the periodicalraids of recruiting officers upon the population of paid minersthey had created, could discourage their perseverance.But in the end, during the long turmoil of pronunciamentosthat followed the death of the famous Guzman Bento,the native miners, incited to revolt by the emissaries sentout from the capital, had risen upon their English chiefsand murdered them to a man. The decree of confiscationwhich appeared immediately afterwards in the Diario Official,published in Sta. Marta, began with the words: ‘Justlyincensed at the grinding oppression of foreigners, actuatedby sordid motives of gain rather than by love for a countrywhere they come impoverished to seek their fortunes, themining population of San Tome, etc….’ and ended with thedeclaration: ‘The chief of the State has resolved to exerciseto the full his power of clemency. The mine, which by everylaw, international, human, and divine, reverts now to theGovernment as national property, shall remain closed tillthe sword drawn for the sacred defence of liberal principleshas accomplished its mission of securing the happiness of