by Paul Clayton
Senor Peralta nodded and Valdez hurried back outside.
Peralta turned to the men who were watching him expectantly. “Salazar, come with me. I will need you to interpret. Gregorio, bring your crossbow.
“The rest of you carry on. I want this wall finished before I go to sleep tonight.” The men went quietly back to work as Peralta and the others left.
When Peralta, Salazar and Gregorio arrived outside the gate, Father Tomas, Senor Valdez, and a group of armed men were already there. Black Snake’s arms were folded in feigned nonchalance, his bravos flanking him protectively. Peralta nodded to the priest and turned to Salazar. “Ask him if he has located the French yet.”
Salazar put the question to Black Snake.
The bravo looked at Peralta as he answered.
“No, but he says he knows we are hungry and he wants to help us.” Peralta laughed sarcastically as Valdez smiled nervously.
“Of course he does,” said Peralta. “How is he to help us?”
Salazar relayed the question.
“He says he wants to talk inside. He says you treat him poorly by making him stand out here in the sun.”
Peralta smiled at this. Only the savages could stand out here in the sun all day without suffering any side effects. They did seem to put great stock in pomp and protocol, however. He studied Black Snake’s face for a clue. The man was inscrutable. It was possible, Peralta reasoned, that some schism had developed among the tribe. It was also possible that Black Snake wanted to get inside to size up their defenses. Peralta’s smile faded. The savages might be inferior in many ways, but they possessed an animal-like cunning which one ignored at one’s own peril. He turned to Salazar.
“Very well. Tell him we will take him inside in a few moments.” Peralta turned to Father Tomas as Salazar translated. “We will confer with him in the church hut if that is agreeable to you.”
Father Tomas nodded.
Peralta turned to Valdez. “Go inside and place half the men at the ramparts with loaded weapons. Tell them to watch the tree line carefully while we are inside. Come back and tell me when they are in place.”
Valdez nodded, his face a grave mask. He ran off.
Later, inside the church hut, Father Tomas and Senors Peralta and Valdez sat in chairs. Black Snake and his men had refused chairs and stood opposite them. Salazar and Gregorio stood off to the side.
Black Snake began speaking and Salazar interpreted as he went.
“He says,” said Salazar, “that he is sorry we are hungry. He says that they are so successful at gathering and growing food that they must sometimes throw it away because they have no more room to store it. He says the Coosa are good people and would like to help the Spanish, but that the cacique Atina, the one you call the Turk, is a bad man and will not let them. He says that Atina has told them that he would have any man who gives us food killed. He says that he, Black Snake, is not afraid, however and so he will help us.”
“Hogwash!” said Peralta. “Ask him what it is he wants for the food.”
Black Snake had folded his arms and was looking with disinterest toward the entrance. Salazar put the question to him.
“He says that he does not want anything from us, but rather that he will tell us how we can help ourselves. Tomorrow morning his cacique is traveling to another village. Black Snake knows the route. He says that if we will use our thundersticks to kill Atina, then he, Black Snake, will become cacique and he will then trade with us for food.”
Peralta looked to Father Tomas.
“Absolutely not,” said Father Tomas. He touched Salazar’s sleeve. “Tell him that his plan is evil and that we cannot do what he wants.”
“Wait,” said Peralta.
Salazar looked at both men in confusion.
“Father,” said Peralta, “if the Turk will not trade with us for food, it will come to a fight anyway. Killing the old scoundrel would be a far better solution than losing many of our men in an attack.”
Father Tomas’s voice lost all its usual warmth. “If you kill the cacique, or any other of these people for no reason, I will see to it that you are excommunicated, even if it takes me all my life to do it!”
Peralta blanched at the threat. Excommunication meant that one could never take the sacraments. At the moment of death he would be cast into hell for all eternity. It was the worst fate any man could suffer. Even kings feared it and there had been one who, after being excommunicated by the pope, crawled around the walls of Rome begging for forgiveness for three weeks until his knees became bloody pulp.
Peralta bridled at the injustice of the threat. “This is different,” he insisted, “by refusing to trade with us, the Indians are really making war against us. Don’t you see?” He leaned toward the priest. “I have my-- “
Father Tomas’s eyes blazed with blue fire. “Outside the church,” he said loudly, “there is no salvation! Do you understand?” Father Tomas did not wait for an answer. “Remember, if you do this thing, the moment a ship comes I will go aboard and set in motion the procedures of excommunication!”
Peralta fumed, but held his tongue. He would find a way around this priest and his Humanist leanings. Perhaps he could have him replaced. There were other priests back on the island who did not always take the side of the Indians in these matters.
Father Tomas turned to Salazar. “Tell the Indian that we will certainly not do as he suggests. Tell him that, excepting harquebuses, we have much that we could trade him for food.”
Salazar translated Father Tomas’s words. Black Snake bristled as he listened and his answer was swift and heated. “He said that we are all fools and deserve to starve. He wonders how, as fools, we were given such great medicine by our gods.”
“We do give him cause to have such low opinions of us,” said Peralta.
Black Snake spoke to Salazar.
“He says he will leave now,” said Salazar
“Very well,” said Peralta, “I will show him to the gate.”
Peralta and Valdez got to their feet and nodded stiffly to the priest who remained sitting. Gregorio joined them.
When they reached the gate, Peralta turned to Salazar. “Tell Black Snake we will walk with them a bit.”
“Senor Peralta,” said Valdez, his brow furrowing with concern, “is it wise? We are but lightly armed.”
Peralta ignored the comment as he waited for a red-faced Salazar to relay his words to Black Snake. Gregorio held his crossbow tightly.
Black Snake nodded his assent.
“Let’s go,” said Peralta.
They started out across the sun-scorched field toward the forest. Peralta called up to the astonished men on the palisade. “We will only go a little ways and then we will return. Keep a sharp eye.”
They walked halfway across the field until they were out of earshot of the men on the palisade.
Peralta said to Salazar, “tell him that we will take him up on his offer. Tell him that we could not accept it in the presence of the Black Robe, but that we will do what he wants in exchange for the food.”
Salazar’s face was wild with disbelief. “Senor, after what the priest has said, are you sure this is what you want to say to him?”
“Do as I say!” snapped Peralta.
Salazar turned and spoke with Black Snake. He turned back to Peralta. “He says you are very wise.”
“I’m glad someone around here realizes that,” said Peralta, smiling at Valdez, who also seemed not to believe his own ears. Peralta continued, “Black Snake will be full of compliments for a while. Tell him I want him to meet us tomorrow and lead us to the place where we are to intercept the Turk.”
Salazar interpreted, then relayed Black Snake’s reply. “He says that he cannot take us there, but that he will tell us where we must lie in wait. He said that he and his men must be in the village when we kill the cacique.” Salazar’s smile grew grim. “That provides them their cover.”
“It could be a trap, Senor,” said Valdez. “Th
e savages are quite clever and treacherous.”
“They have more than met their match here today,” said Gregorio.
“Shut up,” said Peralta.
“How can you do this, Senor,” said Gregorio. His face was a strained mask of fear and incredulity. “It is murder. The priest has already forbidden it.”
Peralta struck Gregorio, bloodying his nose. “Quiet.”
Gregorio made no attempt to wipe the blood from his nose.
Give me that crossbow!” said Peralta.
Gregorio’s face was grim as he handed over the weapon.
“Don’t worry,” said Peralta to Valdez. “We are not going to kill the Turk. I have something else in mind which I will tell you about when the savages leave.”
Peralta glared at Gregorio. “The priest is not the only one who knows about the roles of the Council of the Indies. One of them says that if the savages attack us, we have the right to retaliate. If even one of my men suffers so much as a bruised toe tomorrow, I will march on their village and burn it to the ground.”
Peralta turned to Salazar with impatience. “Now get the route the Turk will take and the other details.”
Salazar swallowed and addressed Black Snake. Black Snake spoke rapidly, squatting to draw a map in the sandy soil. When he finished Salazar turned to Peralta.
“Well?” said Peralta.
“It is arranged, Senor,” said Salazar. “There is a trail that we will intersect out there. He said we should follow the shadows in the morning until we reach their road that runs north and south. There is plenty of foliage there in which we can conceal ourselves.”
“Good.” Peralta smiled. “Send him on his way.”
As Black Snake and his men walked off, Peralta handed Gregorio’s crossbow to Salazar. “Escort Gregorio back to the palisade and keep him away from the others until I return. He is to talk to no one, do you understand?”
Salazar nodded, grim-faced.
Peralta went on. “If he tries anything, shoot him!”
Peralta and Valdez watched Salazar and Gregorio disappear behind the upright logs of the palisade. Peralta stroked the point of his beard.
Valdez turned a grave face to him. “Senor, what is your plan?”
Peralta watched Black Snake and his men disappear into the tree line. He turned to Valdez. “We will kidnap the Turk and hold him for a ransom of food. If we do Black Snake’s bidding and kill his cacique, we have only his word that he will be more cooperative. Now, get thirty men ready for tomorrow. In the meantime, I will deal with Gregorio.”
As they entered the palisade, men and women talked excitedly about the visit of the bravos and what it meant for the colony.
After the sun had set over the trees, a crowd of people milled about in the earthen courtyard in front of the meeting hut. Two men led Gregorio to a gibbet that had been erected in the middle of the courtyard. The people grew quiet as they tied his hands to a metal ring. Senors Peralta and Valdez came out, Peralta carrying a coiled whip in his hand.
Peralta paused before addressing the crowd.
“I have asked you all to witness the punishment of this man, Gregorio, for the crime of insubordination. The forests are full of hostile savages. Somewhere to the north the French Heretics conspire against us. We must be vigilant if we are to survive these threats. You must never question my authority.”
Peralta drew back the whip and lashed Gregorio viciously. The crowd seemed to flinch more than Gregorio, and his bravery angered Peralta. The next blow was harder struck, and as Gregorio shuddered with pain, Peralta nodded his head in satisfaction. The crowd discussed the strange dialogue now going on between the two men as Peralta struck again and again, and Gregorio kept his screams to himself. Gregorio’s shirt hung in bloody tatters from his back before he sagged unconscious. Peralta dropped the whip and walked off.
The darkness was thick with heat and humidity as Senor Peralta lay in his bed. Somewhere a mosquito buzzed as it searched for a bit of exposed flesh. Peralta thought with fondness of the whipping. He remembered the defiant look on Gregorio’s face and reveled in how quickly he had been able to change it into a look of subservience and pain. The man had not taken long to break. Peralta savored the looks on the faces in the crowd. There would be no insubordination for a long time.
Peralta groped in the darkness for his wife. Obediently, she lifted her gown for him. Without a whispered word, he rolled on top of her and forced his member inside her. As he pumped her, she began crying and he thought with some annoyance that she had been doing more of that lately. As his excitement mounted he forgot her tears and finished in a sweating fury. He rolled off.
In the after calm, Peralta again became aware of her sobs. Worried that she might wake the people in the back of the hut, he hissed at her to be quiet. He then sucked a draft of the hot muggy air deep into his lungs and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
Chapter 23
In the dim light of the waking forest, Senor Peralta positioned his men on both sides of the wide trail. Birds called and sang, tentatively at first, and then with more verve as the sun poked above the horizon. As the darkness receded, Peralta whispered to Valdez. “Pass the word. Tell them to aim over the heads of the savages to scare them off. But if they stay and fight, make short work of them.”
Valdez’s face was pinched as he nodded and crept off to the other men. They continued to wait. It did not take long for the balmy heat of the day to gather and soon the men were soaked through with sweat. Sweat ran down their noses and hung in quivering drops as they watched the trail. Black Snake and his men stayed away, as he had said they would, and Peralta was almost disappointed. He had thirty men, twenty of them armed with harquebuses, enough to blow any savages that accosted them straight to hell.
It was almost high noon when Atina and his entourage came down the trail. Atina was carried upon a litter in the middle of a column of ten Indians. At the shouted signal, the harquebuses thundered, emitting tongues of fire and clouds of acrid smoke. The bravos dropped the litter in fright, throwing Atina to the ground. Peralta and his men ran out with swords drawn, but most of the Indians had fled. The ones that remained lay on the ground, shaking in fright. Atina sat up on the ground but dared not get to his feet.
“Grab the Turk,” shouted Peralta.
Valdez and another man pulled the cacique to his feet and bound his hands behind him. The other men stood over the three Indians that remained, aiming their crossbows at them. Pedro planted his booted foot on the buttocks of one frightened Indian.
Peralta looked around. “Keep a sharp eye,” he shouted, “the ones that have run off may sneak back around to shoot their arrows at us.”
The men were nervous as they turned their crossbows and harquebuses outward into the bushes.
“Where’s Salazar?” said Peralta.
Salazar ran up, his face smeared with dirt and sweat. “Senor?”
“Tell the ones on the ground that they are to return to their village leaders with this message. ‘We are holding their cacique and will release him only when they bring one hundred baskets of corn to our fort.’”
Salazar nodded.
“And,” said Peralta, “tell them that they have two days. If we do not receive the corn by tomorrow at sunset, we will kill the Turk. Do you have that?”
“Si, Senor,” said Salazar. “I will tell them.
Father Tomas looked past the two guards at the cacique, Atina, who sat in sullen silence on the floor. Peralta was holding him in his own quarters. According to some, the cacique had, with a show of disdain, refused the comfort of the bed or the lone cane chair in the room. Behind Father Tomas, Peralta and Valdez sat across a desk from each other as men came to report or gawk at the captured cacique.
Father Tomas walked over to Peralta’s desk. Valdez was busy talking with his back to the priest. Father Tomas moved him aside, leaned over the desk, and looked at Peralta.
“I told you that Black Snake’s plan was evil and that we were not
to be a part of it!”
“His plan was to kill the Turk. As you can see, the Turk is fine.”
“Let me talk to him.”
“No, not yet. He shall not be here long, I promise you.”
Father Tomas’s face hardened. “Senor, the Laws of the Indies state unequivocally that these people are free persons, citizens of the Crown!”
Peralta assumed an air of patience. He got to his feet and pointed out the window. A crowd had gathered, hoping for a glimpse of the captured cacique. “Father,” he said, “see those people out there? We brought them over here, and now, like children, they are looking to us to provide for them and protect them. I will not let them down.”
“How dare you use them as an excuse!” shouted Father Tomas. “You put them in even greater jeopardy by doing this.”
Peralta stubbornly said nothing and Father Tomas went on. “What you did is not only despicable, but illegal. The law clearly states that nothing is to be taken from the Indians except in fair trade.”
Peralta frowned. “I think it is a fair trade.” He turned to Valdez. “It is fair, is it not?”
Valdez looked from Peralta to Father Tomas and swallowed. “Si, it is fair.”
Peralta looked back at the priest. “Anyway, as to the legality of it, well that is a matter for the letrados and their law books, and remember, these laws are constantly changing.” He pointed to the cacique. “Look at him! I have not harmed a hair on his head.”
Father Tomas shook his head. “You will not get away with this.”
Peralta drew himself up and glared at the priest. “Listen, Father. You rule in the realm of prayer, psalms, incense and ceremony, but this world of sweat and muscle is my world. You are welcome to use your priestly power to help put food on our plates, but don’t question my authority to use sword and blood to do the same. Now, get out!”
Father Tomas took a quick, worried look at the cacique and walked out.
Chapter 24
The sun had not yet risen as Black Snake and Running Wolf eyed the throng of bravos and old men around the fire in front of the council house. Everyone in the village was angry over Atina’s capture by the whites, but none more than Black Snake, although for different reasons.
