THE BARGAIN.
Captain Don Marcos de Niza, whom we left commanding the post of San
Miguel, and defending it against the Indians, had been a few days
previously summoned to the political and military government of the
Mineral of Quitoval, by an order that arrived from Mexico, and emanated
from the President of the Republic himself. The fact was, that during
the last few days certain events had occurred which demanded energetic
action on the part of the President. All at once, at a moment when no
discontent was supposed to exist among the Indians, the latter, after
long councils they had held together, revolted, and had, without any
declaration of war, invaded the Mexican territory at several points
simultaneously. This revolt suddenly assumed serious proportions;
and had become the more formidable within a short time, because the
revolters were the Gilenos, that is to say, the Comanches, Apaches, and
Axuas, whose dangerous country is known by the name of the Papazos.
The General commanding Sonora and Sinaloa, the two states most exposed
to the depredations of the Indians, saw that he must oppose to the
Indians a man who, through a lengthened residence on the borders, had
acquired great experience as to their way of fighting and the tricks
they employ. Only one officer fulfilled these conditions, and that
officer was Captain de Niza; he, therefore, received orders to quit the
post of San Miguel after dismantling it, and proceed immediately to the
Mineral of Quitoval. The Captain obeyed with that promptitude which old
soldiers alone can display in the execution of the orders they receive.
His first care, on reaching the Mineral, was to protect the pueblo,
as far as was possible, from a surprise, by digging a large trench,
throwing up entrenchments, and barricading the principal streets.
Unfortunately, the general commanding the provinces had but a very
limited military force at his disposal; scarce amounting to six hundred
infantry and two hundred cavalry, without field artillery. Hence, in
spite of his lively desire to give the Captain a respectable force, as
he was obliged to scatter his troops along the whole seaboard of the
two states, he found it impossible to send to Quitoval more than one
hundred infantry and fifty cavalry. In spite of the numerical weakness
of his troops the Captain did not despair. He was one of those men to
whom the performance of duty was everything; and who carry out without
a murmur the most extraordinary order.
Still, as he expected to be attacked at any moment by an army of ten
or fifteen thousand veteran Indians, amply supplied with firearms, and
who, through being accustomed to fight with Spaniards, could not be
easily terrified, he had to augment the number of his soldiers, so as
to have men enough to line the entrenchments he had thrown up round the
town. He had two means by which to obtain this result, and he employed
them. The first consisted in making the great mine owners understand
that they must participate in the defences of the pueblo, either
personally or by arming and placing under his orders a certain number
of the peons they employed; for if the Indians succeeded in seizing the
Mineral, the source of their wealth would be at once dried up.
The great owners understood the Captain's reasons the more easily
because their interests were at stake. They therefore enthusiastically
followed his advice, and raised at their common charge a corps of one
hundred and fifty Opatas--brave soldiers, thoroughly devoted to the
Whites. They placed this corps under the Captain's orders, pledging
themselves to pay and support it so long as the danger lasted. Don
Marcos thus doubled his army at one stroke. This success, which he had
been far from expecting, owing to his profound knowledge of the apathy
and selfishness of his countrymen, induced him to try the second plan.
This was very simple. It consisted in enlisting, for a certain bounty,
as many as he could of the adventurers who always swarm on the borders,
and whose neutrality is at times more formidable than declared enmity.
The sum offered by the Captain was two ounces per man, one payable on
enlistment, the other at the termination of the campaign. This offer,
seductive though it was, did not produce all the effect the Captain
expected from it. The adventurers responded but feebly to the appeal
made to them. These men, in whose hearts patriotic love does not
exist, and who only care for pillage, saw in the insurrection of the
Indians a source of disorder, and, consequently, of rapine. They cared
very little about defending a state of things which their predacious
instincts led them, on the contrary, to attack.
Thirty or forty adventurers, however, responded to the call; and these
immoral men, who were impatient at the yoke of discipline, were rather
an embarrassment than an assistance to the Captain; still as, take
them altogether, they were sturdy fellows, and thoroughly acquainted
with Indian warfare, he attached them to his cavalry, which was thus
raised to a strength of one hundred men. Don Marcos thus found himself
at the head of two hundred and fifty infantry and one hundred horse--a
force which appeared to him, if well directed, more than sufficient to
withstand, behind good entrenchments, the effort of the whole Indian
army.
We are aware that this number of men defending a town will produce a
smile of pity among European readers, who are accustomed to see on
battlefields masses of three hundred thousand men come into collision.
But all is relative in this world. In America, where the population
is comparatively small, great things have often been decided at the
bayonet's point by armies whose relative strength did not exceed that
of one of our line regiments. In the last battle fought between the
Texans and Mexicans--a battle which decided the independence of Texas,
the two armies together did not amount to two thousand men, and yet
the collision was terrible, and victory obstinately disputed. In the
actions between white men and Indians, the latter, in spite of their
indomitable valour, were almost always defeated in a pitched battle,
in spite of their crushing superiority of numbers. Not through the
courage of their enemies, but by their discipline and military skill.
The latter is certainly very limited, but sufficient for adversaries
such as they have to combat.
One night, when the Captain returned home after his usual visit to
the pueblo to assure himself that all was in order, a ragged lepero,
more than half intoxicated with mezcal and pulque, handed him with an
infinitude of bows a dirty slip of paper folded up in the shape of a
letter. Don Marcos de Niza was not accustomed to neglect anything. He
attached as much importance to apparently frivolous events as to those
which seemed to possess a certain gravity. He stopped, took the letter,
gave a real to the lepero, who went away quite satisfied, and entered
his house, which was situated on the Plaza Mayor, in the centre of the
pueblo.
After throwing his cap and sword on a table, the Captain opened the
letter. He read it at first rather carelessly; but ere long he began
frowning, and read the letter a second time, attentively weighing each
word. Then at the end of a moment he folded up the letter, and said in
a low voice--"I will go."
This letter came from Kidd. The Captain had been long acquainted with
the bandit, and knew certain peculiar facts about him which would
have been most disagreeable to the bandit, had the latter suspected
that the Captain was so thoroughly initiated in the secrets of his
vagabond life. Hence Don Marcos fancied he had no right to neglect
the overtures the other was pleased to make; while keeping on his
guard and determined to punish him severely if he deceived him. The
Captain, therefore, proceeded without hesitation to the place where the
adventurer appointed to meet him. He had waited for him for several
hours with exemplary patience, and would probably have waited longer
still, had not chance suddenly brought them face to face in the way we
have described.
When the two men had entered the house, and the door closed after them,
Don Marcos de Niza, still closely followed by the bandit, who, in spite
of his impudence, looked around him timidly, like a wolf caught in a
sheepfold, led him into a room the door of which he carefully closed.
The Captain pointed to a chair, sat down at a table, laid a brace of
pistols ostentatiously within his reach, and said--
"Now I am ready to hear you."
"_¡Caray!_" the bandit said, impudently; "that is possible; but the
point is whether I am disposed to speak."
"And why not, pray, my excellent friend?"
"Hang it, Captain," he said, as he pointed to the pistols, "there are
two playthings not at all adapted to set my tongue wagging."
Don Marcos looked at him in a way that made the adventurer
involuntarily let his eyes fall, and then leant his elbows on the table.
"Master Kidd," he then said, in a stern voice, though a certain tone of
sarcasm was perceptible in it, "I like a distinct understanding; let us
therefore, before anything establish our relative positions. You have
led a very agitated life, Master Kidd; your vagabond humour, your mad
desire to appropriate certain things to which you have a very dubious
claim have led you into a few mistakes, whose results might prove
remarkably disagreeable to you."
The bandit shook his head in denial.
"I will not dwell," the Captain continued, mockingly, "on a subject
which must make your modesty greatly suffer, and will come at once
to the motives of your presence here, and the positions we must hold
towards each other. I am commandant of this pueblo, and in that
capacity compelled to watch over its external safety as well as its
internal tranquillity, I think you will agree with me."
"Yes, Captain," the bandit answered, somewhat reassured at finding the
conversation turned away from such delicate topics.
"Very good; you wrote me this letter, appointing a meeting and offering
to sell--that is your own word--certain most important information, as
you say, for the continuance of the safety and tranquillity which I am
bound to maintain. Another man might have treated you in the Indian
fashion. After having you arrested, he would have ordered a cord to be
fastened round your temples; or your suspension by your thumbs--as you
have done yourself, if report be true, on various occasions with less
valid reasons; and have so thoroughly loosened your tongue that you
would not have kept a single secret back. I have preferred dealing with
you as an honest man."
The bandit breathed again.
"Still, as you are one of those persons with whom it is advisable to
take precautions, and in whom a confidence cannot be placed, as they
would not scruple to abuse it on the first opportunity, I retain not
only the right, but also the means of blowing out your brains if you
have the slightest intention of deceiving me."
"Oh, Captain, what an idea! Blow out my brains!" the bandit stammered.
"Do you fancy, my dear Señor," the Captain continued, still
sarcastically, "that your friends will pity you greatly, if such a
misfortune happened to you?"
"Hum! to tell you the truth, I do not exactly know," the adventurer
answered, with at attempt to jest; "people are so unkind. But, since
you accept the bargain offered to you--for you do accept it, I think,
Captain?"
"I do."
"What then, will you give me in exchange for what I shall tell you?"
"You sell; I buy; it is your place to make your conditions; and, if
they are not exorbitant--if, in a word, they seem to me fair, I will
accept them; so, speak, what do you ask?"
"_¡Caray!_ Captain; it is a delicate question, for I am an honest man."
"That is allowed," Don Marcos interrupted him with a laugh. "Name your
price."
"Fifty ounces; would that be too much?" the bandit ventured.
"Certainly not, if the thing be worth it."
"Then," Kidd exclaimed, joyfully, "that is understood, fifty ounces."
"I repeat, if it be worth it."
"Oh, you shall judge for yourself," he remarked, rubbing his hands.
"I ask nothing better but to buy, and to prove to you that I have no
intention of cheating you," he added, as he opened a drawer and took
out a rather heavy purse, "here is the amount."
And the Captain made two piles each of twenty-five ounces, exactly
between the pistols. At the sight of the gold the bandit's eyes
sparkled like those of a wild beast.
"_¡Rayo de Dios!_ Captain," he exclaimed; "There is a pleasure in
treating with you. I will remember it another time."
"I ask nothing better, Master Kidd. Now speak, I am listening."
"Oh, I have not much to say; but you will judge whether it is
important."
"Go on; I am all ears."
"In two words, this is the matter; the Papazos have not elected a
chief, but an emperor!"
"An emperor?"
"Yes."
"What do they assert, then?"
"They mean to be free, and wish to constitute their Independence upon a
solid basis."
"Do you know this emperor?"
"I have seen him, at least."
"Who is he?"
"A man who is the more formidable because he appears to belong to the
white rather than the red race; and is thoroughly conversant with all
the means hitherto employed by the Indians."
"Is he young?"
"He is sixty; but as active as if he were only twenty."
"Very good; proceed."
"Is that important?"
"Very important. But not worth fifty ounces, for all that."
"The Yaquis, Mayos, and Seris have allowed themselves to be seduced,
and have entered the Confederation. They have taken up again their old
plans of 1827--you remember, at the time of their great revolution?"
"Yes; go on."
"The first expedition the Chief of the Confederation means to undertake
is the capture of the Real de Minas."
"I am aware of it."
"Yes; but do you know, Captain, that the Indians have spies even among
the garrison; that all is ready for the attack, and that the Papazos
intend to surprise you within the next two days?"
"Who gave you this information?"
The bandit smiled craftily.
"What use my telling you, Captain," he answered, "if the information is
correct?"
"Do you know the men who have entered into negotiations with the enemy?"
"I do."
"In that case tell me their names."
"It would be imprudent, Captain."
"Why so?"
"Judge for yourself. Suppose I were to tell you their names, what would
happen?"
"_¡Viva Dios!_" the Captain sharply interrupted him. "I should shoot
them like the miserable dogs they are, and to serve as a warning to
others."
"Well, that is the mistake, Captain."
"How a mistake?"
"Why, yes; suppose you shoot ten men?"
"Twenty, if necessary!"
"Say twenty, it is of no consequence to me; but those who remain, whom
neither you nor I know, will sell you to the Indians, so that the only
result will be precipitating the evil instead of preventing it."
"Ah, ah!" the Commandant said, with an expressive glance at the bandit.
"And what would you do in my place?"
"Oh, a very simple thing."
"Well, what is it?"
"I would leave the scamps at liberty to prepare their treachery, while
carefully watching them; and when the moment for attack arrived,
I would have them quietly arrested; so that the Indians would be
surprised, instead of surprising us, and we should cheat the cunning
cheats."
The Captain appeared to reflect for a moment, and then said--"The
plan you recommend seems to me good, and for the present I see no
inconvenience in carrying it out. Give me the names of the traitors."
Kidd mentioned a dozen names, which the Captain wrote down after him.
"Now," Don Marcos continued, "there are your fifty ounces, and I shall
give as many each time you bring me information as valuable as that of
today. I pay you dearly, so it is your interest to serve me faithfully;
but remember, that if you deceive me, nothing can save you from the
punishment I will inflict on you, and that punishment, I warn you, will
be terrible."
The adventurer bounded on the money like a wild beast on a prey it
has long coveted, concealed it with marvellous dexterity in his wide
pockets, and said to the Captain with a bow--"Señor Don Marcos, I have
always thought that in this world gold was the sovereign master, and
that it alone had the right to command."
After accompanying these singular words with a smiling and almost
mocking expression, Kidd bowed for the last time and disappeared,
leaving the Captain to his reflections.