Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: April 30, 2025
Unfortunately for the fazender, such formalities were no longer necessary; Joam Dacosta had been arrested, convicted, and sentenced twenty-three years ago for the crime at Tijuco; no limitation had yet affected his sentence. No demand in commutation of the penalty could be introduced, and no appeal for mercy could be received.
The products of the farm, of the forest, and of the fields, the fazender sold on the spot. He had no wish, either with thought or look, to go beyond the horizon which bounded his Eden. From this it followed that for twenty-five years Joam Garral had never crossed the Brazilian frontier, his wife and daughter had never set foot on Brazilian soil.
He commenced his apprenticeship to the trade of a fazender, which would probably one day become his own, as he was about to do that of a merchant on their descent of the river.
In taking him on board the fazender had obeyed a sentiment of humanity. In the midst of these vast Amazonian deserts, more especially at the time when the steamers had not begun to furrow the waters, it was very difficult to find means of safe and rapid transit. Boats did not ply regularly, and in most cases the traveler was obliged to walk across the forests.
A month afterward the fazender, his wife, his son, Manoel and Minha Valdez, Lina and Fragoso, departed by one of the Amazon steamers for the immense establishment at Iquitos of which Benito was to take the management. Joam Dacosta re-entered his home with his head erect, and it was indeed a family of happy hearts which he brought back with him from beyond the Brazilian frontier.
It would be, in truth, as if a part of the fazenda of Iquitos had been cut away from the bank and carried down the Amazon with all that composed the family of the fazender masters and servants, in their dwellings, their cottages, and their huts. The settlement of Iquitos included a part of those magnificent forests which, in the central districts of South America, are practically inexhaustible.
In the depths of his retreat the fazender of Iquitos heard of the change, and in it saw a favorable opportunity for bringing forward the revision of the former proceedings against him with some chance of success. He knew that the old convictions of the advocate would be still unshaken in the mind of the judge. He therefore resolved to try and rehabilitate himself.
He committed to the document all the facts relative to the crime of Tijuco, writing it first in French, which had been his mother's native tongue, and then putting it into the mysterious form we know, his intention being to transmit it to the fazender of Iquitos, with the cipher by which it could be read. Death prevented his completing his work of reparation.
A moment after Torres continued the conversation which this question of Fragoso had interrupted, with: "How did you come from Iquitos?" "From Iquitos to Tabatinga?" "Yes." "On board a raft, on which I was given a passage by a worthy fazender who is going down the Amazon with his family." "A friend indeed!" replied Torres. "That is a chance, and if your fazender would take me "
"Do you intend, then, to go down the river?" "Precisely." "Into Para?" "No, only to Manaos, where I have business." "Well, my host is very kind, and I think he would cheerfully oblige you." "Do you think so?" "I might almost say I am sure." "And what is the name of this fazender?" asked Torres carelessly. "Joam Garral," answered Fragoso.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking