This estate had, in former years, belonged to Don Lazaro, a wealthy Spaniard, connected with the government of the governor-general. During his time of power, he had purchased this estate then one of the most fertile in Cuba, and in a high state of cultivation. The mansion which was upon it he enlarged and converted it into an abode rivaling that of the quinta of the governor-general himself. Here Don Lazaro passed his leisure, and here he plotted on conspiracy against the government. It was defeated, however, before maturity by a change of administration, which deprived him of that influence with his party which he had held, and healed those political differences, which otherwise would have burst out into revolutionary flame. The part Don Lazaro took in the abortive conspiracy could not be concealed, and he was condemned to perpetual banishment to his estate on the South side of the island and compelled to maintain a guard of soldiers who were placed by the government to watch his conduct, and also to paint the tower he had erected the color of vermilion, as the mark of a traitors habitation to all the country round. The exile was married to a charming Spanish woman of high rank,and,was the father of two lovely children. The eldest, who was a boy, at the the time of his banishment was six, and the youngest, Anita, three years of age. He felt less his disgrace on his own account, when he reflected upon that of his children, whose rightful position in society he had forfeited. He was a man of education and intelligence and thought much of his proud Castillian lineage.
Four years passed in this exile, when the government saw fit to withdraw its soldiers, fearing nothing further from the ambition of the exile. Inspired with hope of restoration to favor by this seeming act of clemency, addressed a respectful petition to the governor-general, entreating to be permitted to reside in Havanna for the education of his two children To this petition he oblined no reply. He addressed a second to which he received the following answer from the chief:
`If Señor Marial is tired of living he may visit Havanna; for he may be assured that if he is found beyond his estate his head shall answer for his temerity.'
This missive destroyed all hope of reconciliation. He internally resolved to plot in secret against the government. His wealth and tact aided him in his plans, and he had secretly raised a party among the dissatisfied cavaliers who from time to time visited him The governor-general, however, kept a vigilent eye upon him; and sent a spy among them: Don Lazaro was taken at a Quinta a league beyond his own and conveyed prisoner to Havana, where he was shot in the public square. The Señora de Marial received shortly after a message from the governor-general, that justice was sufficiently satisfied in having the forfeited life of her husband; and that she should be permitted to enjoy unmolested his estate, and transmit it to her children. She was however commanded to keep the tower painted vermilion, and to pay a thousand pesos annually into the public treasury
The Señora Maria, who had been as warm a conspirator as her husband, was not a little surprised at this clemency; for she had expected the estate would have been confiscated and herself and offsprings banished from the island. Left with these two children exiled from the world, she resolved to cease all communication with the world and devote her life to educating them. Insensibly she inculcated in the braast of Bazilo, the boy, his father's sentiments, and he grew up with the deepest hatred of the government which had shed his father's blood. These feelings were shared, but in a less degree, by his sister. In this state of seclusion, with but a few faithful slaves and the old man José, whom Don Lazaro had taken into his confidential service, she lived until Bazilio reached the age of seventeen. Up to this period he had no intercourse with the world. The roads to the `Traitor's Tower' had been suffered to grow up with trees and the forest to close around it an impassible barrier; so that the place was shut out save by the sea from all the world. This was Bazilio's world. The Bay was the scene of all his amusements. He early became a skilful boatman and oarsman, and when but twelve years of age with his sister by his side, he would stretch far out to sea till the blue shores of the island seemed blent with the sky; and then, only at her entreaty put back to land. It was his daring ambition to go out in his light skiff where he could behold only the sky and sea; and to fly before the storm like the winged sea-bird escaping to its nest.
When he reached his seventeenth year, he exchanged his skiff with its single sail for a small lugger of three or four tons which José, assisted by the slaves, constructed for him. It was a light, beautiful craft, and sailed like the wind. In this, which he called the Eagle, he used to make long excursions of two or three days up and down the coast, with Diego for his mate and three of his ebony slaves for a crew. Sometimes, Anita, who was scarcely less sailor than himself, would accompany him; and once he run to an island twelve leagues distant, the rocks near which he found inherited by fishermen, a bold, resolute class of men, who made an impression upon his mind that grew with his growth, and in time matured to a definite result.
La Señora Mariae suffered these excursions of Bazilio, for she could not control them. Her influence extended over Anita only. This maiden to a disposition at once fond and yielding, united a superior mind, and a spirit full of generosity and goodness. She was fearless in danger, bold in action and faithful in all things. She was devoted to her brother who was no less attached to her.
Thus they lived together mother and children, forming a world of their own. Bazilio as he advanced into manhood evinced a quick and fiery temper and a spirit of reckless daring. His affection for his mother did not bind him to any kind of submission to her will. His nature was as free as the waves over which his light bark bounded. Though willful and independent in his conduct, he was neither vicious nor lawless. His bosom was the abode of honorable and manly feelings; but a cherished hatred to the government of the island, and sentiments hostile to it he deemed no part of dishonor. He had been taught by his mother to live its deadly foe! And the spirit of determined hostility to the murderer of his father, as he bitterly denounced the government filled his bosom and influenced his early life and character.
In the possession of his little vessel, the Eagle, he almost makes it his home. He soon got several of the fisher's lads of his own age from the islands, to whom he paid wages to act as his crew and over whom he exercised the most absolute sway. He was educating them to his service; for he cherished in his soul a plan that he had not breathed even to his sister; a scheme over which he had meditated even in his boy-hood, and which deepened and interwove itself with his existence. In the Eagle he made long bold excursions, and became familiar with every inlet, creek and lagoon along the whole South side of the island. In some of these excursions he had discovered the haunts of pirates, and once fell in with them and was urged to join them; for they admired his daring and free spirit. But he scorned the proposal and when they would have seized him and his boat, he fought his way from their hold and escaped with the party of eight Spanish youths forming his crew
Such was the character, education and pursuits of Bazilio de Marial until he reached his twentieth year, when he resolved to put the plan so long chershed in his heart into execution.
Footnotes
[1] Steel Belt.
CHAPTER V.
The adventures of Don Basilio and his goleta.— The progress of the plot.—The Governor General visits the vessel—The stratagem— The cannonading—Don Basilio's subsequent scheme aided by Donna Elena .
The plan which the young Basilio had in view was to seize the person of the Governor General and avenge his father's death! To this end he had been training the lads he had obtained from the Fisher's Rocks, and to this purpose devoting all his own energies. Up to the time when he had reached his twentieth year he had not travelled into the interior, or visited any of the distant Quintas' visible from the tower. All his excursions were taken upon the water along the coast. He now resolved to visit Havana secretly, and there ascertain what difficulties lay in the way of accomplishing his object, and to see how he should best surmount them. On the pretence of going on a voyage to the Fish
er's Islands, he took leave of his mother and sister, without communicating to them any thing of his wishes or plans. He was now twenty years of age, tall, noble-looking, and striking in his air and carriage. His complexion was a glowing brown; his eyes dark and piercing; his teeth brilliant; his smile like sunlight; his voice deep and musical; while his whole countenance beamed with intelligence and boldness. Never was a young man better fitted for a hero in personal appearance, or better adapted by education, courage and deep feeling of filial retaliation, to head a conspiracy.
He embarked in his little vessel of only two sails and thirty feet in length, and sailed out of the bay. He coasted along the land a few leagues and then ran into a creek near which was a small village. Here he left his lugger, with orders to his men to be there that day two weeks to meet his return, and in the meanwhile to visit their native islands; for he did not wish them to return to the Bay without him. He then took his way to the village, and boldly entering the Posada, for he was clad in the dress of a muleteer, he purchased a horse, and started on his journey. The distance was sixty miles to Havana. After various adventures he reached the capital. His emotions were deep and sorrowful on entering the place where his father fourteen years before had been executed.
He remained ten days in Havana, and by means of money of which he had unlimited command, and no little address, he was able to obtain all the information he required. He also saw the Governor General, by whose order his father had been executed. He stood in his presence thrice, unsuspected as the son of Don Lazaro the Conspirator, himself no less a conspirator than his father!
He formed his plan of action, and then prepared to put it, when fully rife, into execution. In the disguise of an African trader, he contracted for, and ordered to be built, a vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, of which he furnished the model. She was to be one hundred and fifty-five feet in length, polacca rigged, with three masts; with a large capacity for burden, yet with an eye primarily to speed. Having left these instructions, he returned across the island to his lugger after two weeks absence. Remaining a day or two at home he set sail for the Fisher's Rocks, and came to at night in a little inlet where they were in the habit of congregating with their shallops. He was hailed with great pleasure, for he had got to possess an influence over them that a lord of a hundred vessels might envy him. They were about two hundred in number, men, women and children; and he had succeeded in obtaining over them the most supreme authority, receiving from them in return the most devoted attachment.— Among the young men were at least thirty that from time to time had been with him in his shallop; for he would every few months change his crews, returning one and taking another. Though a fierce, untractable race of men, and regarded as lawless and little better than buccaneers, young Basilio had made good sailors and faithful adherents of those who had been attached to his shallop; while the older men were ready to do his bidding to the death. To have succeeded in wielding such authority without the exertion of force or discipline of fear over a colony of wild fishermen, savage in appearance, who obeyed no laws, was proof of great tact, courage of character, and of the possession of great qualities of the heart and head.
Basilio was received like a lord returning to his affectionate dependants. He told them briefly that he had come to ask their aid.— That his father had been slain (he did not say when or how) and that he had determined venegeance upon his assassins.
`I want fifty of the young men!' he said, `who will follow me and do my will!'
Every fisherman, boy and man, cast their caps in a shower at his feet, in token of their submission to his wishes!
`I thank you all, generous friends, I want only those who have been my companions in the last four years.'
`We are fifty-three in all,' answered one of the youths who was called Isidore, and whom Basilio had heretofore made next to himself in command; bold, handsome, dark-eyed young man of twenty, with a spirited expression of features, with long, flowing locks, that a maiden might covet. `None will be left behind, senor!'
`Then let all come with me! Senoras, I will leave you gold for your sons services while away,' he said to the women. `They will also return rich to you once my end is accomplished! In two, or three months at the farthest, I shall be here with a new vessel now building for me. It will hold all my tried friends. She will be armed, and I will have on board arms for you all. I now leave you in the shallop with its crew, who will be enough to enable me to bring the vessel here for the rest of you. Be ready here to meet me. In the meanwhile breathe to no one you may meet what I have said, or your own intentions. My success will depend on secrecy! '
At the end of ten weeks, young Don Basilio, was once more in Havana. This time he sailed thither by doubling Cape St Antonio, disguisihg his shallop as a molasses droger, and himself and his men as her crew. He thus passed into port without notice. He found his vessel nearly completed. In a few days she was finished and ready for sea. She was the admiration of every seaman in port; and even the Governor-General visited her. To Basilio, who represented himself as a merchant of Cadiz and had built the vessel for the Mediteranean and Morrocco trade, he proposed to purchase her. But Don Basilio respectfully declined, while his heart was on fire and his eyes flashed at having before him his father's executor.
`I regret, Senor General,' he said with as sumed politeness; `that I cannot sell her to your excellency. It is my intention after I have made first a short voyage to New Orleans in her, that your excellency shall also make one!'
`You are very civil, good Senor Captain,' said the Governor-General. `I should be most happy to take a run up as far as Matanzas in her on some occasion when my duties called me there! She must sail very fast.'
`That is but sixty miles,' answered Don Basilio. `I mean your excellency shall have a longer sail in her.' And he bowed as he spoke to the Governor-General with great courtesy; and a smile on his lip covering the vengeance in his heart.
`You do me honor, Senor Captain. You deserve credit for having so fine a vessel built. It is an honor to the Island.'
`Your excellency is very kind!' answered Don Basilio, with a low bow as he escorted the Governor-General and his suit to the gang-way.
Don Basilio loaded his vessel with bags of coffee, and took out his papers for New Orleans. In a few days afterwards he set sail with his crew of eight young men besides Isidoro his first officer. This small crew with her freight of coffee lulled suspicion; for it had began to be whispered that she was a slaver or would hoist the free flag when she got on blue water. This arrangement originated in her young commander's deep policy and sound discretion.
Three days afterwards he was lying off the Fisher's Rocks in his graceful Three-masted schooner. Here he took on board the remainder of his party, and then set sail for Vermilion Tower Bay, and thence to Havana.
It would require a romance of itself to follow Don Basilio upon his bold adventure. Three weeks after he had left it he re-entered Havana harbor in ballast, having landed his coffee at Vermilion Tower, instead of New Orleans. He anchored near the quay and then waited upon the Governor-General. Previous to his conversation with this dignity, he had contemplated seizing him by force or stratagem in his palace and conveying him off by a coup de main on board his goleta, which he intended to anchor just beyond gun-shot from Moro castle, conveying his distinguished guest to the vessel in his boats. This was a bold plan and one not very likely to succeed; yet he had resolved to undertake it. He had thought also of seizing him as he came out of the theatre and aided by his fifty young men hurry off to the boats. He also thought of attacking him in his carriage as he rode out at evening upon the Alemeda. A hundred schemes had occurred to him, all of which had for their end taking the Governor-General prisoner and conveying him to Vermilion tower! He might have assassinated him in his palace, but he did not wish his life there .
This uncertainty was at once changed for decision after his conversation with his intended victim during his visit on board the goleta. The wish of the Governor-General
to purchase his beautiful craft, and his desire to run to Matanzas in her when he should take his voyage towards Cadiz, suggested to him a plan of action which promised success. When therefore he reached Havana, with a visible crew of only eight men, the remainder being concealed below, he waited on the Governor-General and offered him his vessel to take him to Havana. But business prevented him from accepting it then and Don Basilio was requested to wait a week. This was a long time to keep his men confined below, but he promised to do so. In the meanwhile he was often at the Palace, attended the theatre and other places of amusement, and was distinguished both for his noble appearance, apparent wealth and affable manners. Among the ladies whom he met, was the beautiful and only daughter of Don Patricio Garcia. With the lovely Elena the young Don Basilio became enamored. She knew him only as Don Anito Basilio, he having assumed his sister's name in the masculine terminature before his own christian name, omitting the well known name of the conspirator Marial. No one suspected his relationship with the traitor Don Lazaro. He passed everywhere as a wealthy young merchant from Cadiz. By the time the week expired Don Basilio had lost his heart to the fascinating Habanera belle. But his love did not cause him to forget his object in being in Havana. He saw the Governor-General often and won his confidence. At length his excellency said to him,
`Senor Don Basilio, I shall be ready tomorrow to take passage in your beautiful vessel as far as Matanzas. I am desirous of testing her sailing qualities; as it is my intention, if she proves what she promises to be, to construct three or four of the same size and on the same model to cruise against the pirates that begin of late to trouble us. I will dine on board with you to-morrow before sailing, with some of my staff and a few fair senoras, who desire to see your vessel; especially my friend La Senora Elena Garcia!'
Steel Belt; or, The Three Masted Goleta. A Tale of Boston Bay Page 5
