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Updated: May 19, 2025
"Why," he exclaimed, "I'll be shot if it isn't the Capitan-General who is coming off to us!" "The Capitan General!" gasped Don Hermoso. "Then, depend on it, gentlemen, your movements were observed last night, and you have been informed upon. What will you do?" "Why," answered Jack, "we will wait until we have heard what these people have to say; and then be guided by circumstances. But pooh!
When you return to Havana, call upon Don Ramon Bergera, whose house is in the Calle del Ignacio, immediately opposite the mansion of the Capitan-General. He is a great friend of Don Hermoso, and although I believe quite unsuspected by the authorities an ardent sympathiser with the insurgents; he is also preternaturally clever in obtaining information of all kinds, and solving mysteries.
As Jack went hither and thither about his business, after having seen his friends off by train, he was astonished at the change that had taken place in the appearance of Havana since he had last seen it on that memorable day when the Capitan-General had visited the Thetis and persuaded or, rather, practically compelled him to lend that vessel for the purpose of attempting the capture of the James B. Potter.
The Capitan-General is a good man, and means well, I believe: but he is weak, and is moreover hampered and embarrassed to the point of helplessness by the multiplicity of impossible instructions which he receives from home; and, furthermore, he is in the hands of a number of unscrupulous, overbearing subordinates who have arrogated to themselves almost autocratic powers, and who act upon their own responsibility, without consulting him.
And where is your authority?" "My passport." "A passport such as this is only available in a time of peace. No stranger unprovided with a safe conduct from the capitan-general is allowed to travel in the province of Caracas. It is useless trying to deceive us, señor.
This was distinctly alarming news, for it was instantly recognised that if Alvaros had really contrived to get clear away, he would undoubtedly make the best of his way back to Havana and there report to the authorities the violence to which he had been subjected; and also, possibly, the rescue of the Montijos from the convict ship, though mention of the latter would probably depend upon whether their conviction had been the result of representations to the Capitan-General, or whether, as Don Ramon Bergera had surmised, it had been the work of Alvaros alone.
On the following morning the Consul called upon the Capitan-General, taking the two lads with him, and lodged a formal, but none the less vigorous, complaint respecting the outrage which had been offered to a British subject Jack, to wit by one of his officers.
Don Hermoso was of course, as might be expected, most indignant at the outrage, and was at first very strongly disposed to make a personal matter of it by lodging a formal complaint with the Capitan-General against Alvaros; but after listening to all that his son and Jack had to say he finally allowed himself to be dissuaded from taking so decisive a step, especially as he fully shared their doubts as to its effectiveness: but he cordially approved of Milsom's suggestion that the affair should be laid before the English Consul, and the final result of the talk was that Jack and Carlos forthwith rode into Pinar del Rio, and from thence took train to Havana, where they arrived rather late in the afternoon, yet still early enough to catch the Consul ere he left his office for the day.
The Capitan-General and his friend expressed themselves as perfectly willing to partake of Senor Singleton's gracious hospitality; and presently, seated at ease, and with a foaming glass of ice-cold Mumm before him, the Governor resumed his story.
The ants, which inhabit the trunk of the guarumo, or jarumo, and destroy its interior cells, seem to impede its growth. We had already made one herborization in the temperate mountains of the Higuerote in the month of December, accompanying the capitan-general, Senor de Guevara, in an excursion with the intendant of the province to the Valles de Aragua.
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