When will Ayolas return, Virgen del Buen Hunger clouds his judgment and makes Aire ? When will those who went to Brazil him delirious. Now he blames the leaders in search of supplies? When will this suf- for the situation. Famine!, famine!, alas!; fering end, and depart to the region of to sink your teeth in a piece of meat. But metal and pearls? He bites his lips, but there’s none… there’s none…This very from them sprouts the terrorizing roar. day, with his brother Francisco, leaning And his murky gaze goes back to the on each other, they searched the camp. tableware where the Marqués de Santil- Nothing left to steal. His brother offered lana’s painted emblem feigns in his mis- in vain, in exchange for an armadillo, a direction a red and green fruit. snake, some leather, a bite, the single jewelry he still possesses: that silver ring Baitos, the crossbowman, imagines as with an engraved cross his mother gave well. Curled up in a corner of his tent, over him when he set sail from San Lúcar. the hard floor, thinks that the Advanced But had he offered a mountain of gold, and his captains give themselves to lavish he would have still not succeeded, for feasts, while he perishes with his insides there’s none, none. Nothing more than scratched by hunger. His hatred against to gird the womb pierced by pain, and his leaders then turns more frantic. That fold and tremble in a corner of the tent. rage sustains him, feeds him, prevents him from laying down to rot. It is a hatred The wind scatters the stench of the that justifies nothing, yet serves as a vio- hanged. Baitos opens his eyes and licks lent incentive in his unfervent life. Back his deformed lips. The hanged! Tonight is in Morón de la Frontera he detested the his brother’s turn to stand guard next to landlords. The reason he came to Ameri- the scaffold. He must be there now, with ca was he thought that both knights and his crossbow. Why not crawl to him? The villains would get rich, and then there two of them could take down one of the would be no differences between them. bodies and then… How wrong he was! Spain did not send to the Indies an army as proud as the one He takes his wide hunting knife and stag- that anchored on Río de la Plata. Every- gers out. one thought a duke of himself. In rooms and bridges they would converse as if in It’s a freezing night of June. The hag- palaces. Baitos has spied on them with gard moon pales the shacks, tents and his little eyes, half closed under the thick scarce fires. It could be said that for a eyebrows. The only one worth some- few hours there will be peace with the In- thing,for he sometimes approached dians, starving as well, for the attack has the soldierly, was Juan Osorio, and ev- been reduced. Baitos blindly looks for a eryone knows what happened: he was path among the bushes, to the gallows. killed in Janeiro. The lords murdered him It must be this way. Yes, there they are, out of fear and envy. Oh, how much he there they are, like three grotesque pen- loathes them, with their pretensions and dulums, the three mutilated bodies. They their ceremonies! As if all were not born hang, no arms, no legs… A few more the same way! And the more hateful he steps and he will reach them. His brother grows when they sweeten their manners must be nearby. A few more steps… and talk to the crew as equals. Lies, lies! He is tempted to rejoice in the disaster of the foundation, such a blow it struck on the ambitions of those false princes. Yes! Why not rejoice? t3518