The Haitian Trilogy: Plays: Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours, and The Haytian Earth (15 page)

(
RALEIGH
complies.
)

PACO
(
Drawing on the sand.
)

Thanks, little Christian. Well, this here’s the whale’s bath,

The great Atlantic, where a great city drowned.

Here’s a dead wealth of yellow weed, Sargasso,

And these moss-covered pebbles at my old boots,

These are the emeralds which Columbus christened

Salvador, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola,

Innumerable islands, then the Isle of Trinity,

And there, among the tangle of this seaweed,

Where I put down a gold coin in its tangle,

There is the city of Manoa, El Dorado.

(
He starts, leaps back.
)

Do you hear the barking of dogs? They’re hunting me.

They hunted us with dogs once. Go back from me.

There’s a wolf’s cry on the wind, they’re coming.

GILBERT

There are no wolves in this country. Do you fear dogs?

PACO

I’ve seen them tear men to pieces, all my flesh,

For gold. Christian dogs besides. Go back from me.

RALEIGH
(
Drawing
GILBERT
aside.
)

He is mad, cousin. Are you sick, sir?

PACO

Dying on two worn feet, son, weary from walking

Thousands of miles, all over the map of Europe.

Tamoussi, Tamoussi,
my own gods call me back.

(
Staring wildly.
)

Would you do me a favour in return, my sons?

GILBERT

So, you frighten us.

RALEIGH

So, we’ll do what you ask us, if we can.

PACO

There is an old wisdom which my tribe possessed.

To tell the season of their coming death, the Tainos,

By some scent in the wind, the altering of a feather,

Or the warm scent of the autumn-coloured fox.

This wind carries the stench of rotting flesh.

GILBERT

It’s nothing but the old smell of the sea.

PACO

It is the sea that separates me from my gods,

And brought destruction to my simple people.

Come, do you know some high place in this country?

And leave me there, before the first snow comes?

RALEIGH

I know a height, barren with sea rocks, where

You can sit quietly and watch the sinking west;

There’s nothing there.

(
PACO
removes a crucifix.
)

PACO

Then take the crucifix and the coins I gathered,

And lead me to it, for the time of the dog is here.

RALEIGH

If you look there, then climb the cleft in the rocks,

It winds its narrow path up from the sea.

There you shall find a place just as you wished.

(
He leads
PACO
to the steps.
)

PACO

Is it there? Yes, I think I see the track.

And so it goes, whatever track we take

It leads us all to the cold height of death.

I have strength enough to climb to it alone,

That is the fashion in which my people die.

Go, go back. I hear the wolf howling again.

If you go to Manoa, death will find you there.

Good night, you Christian boys, Paco is gone.

RALEIGH

Come, cousin, and take up the fragment of the vessel.

(
They go off reluctantly.
)

PACO
(
Climbing.
)

So the grey wolf of death trots after me.

O Quadrado, in all this I have learnt nothing.

(
Exit. Blackout.
)

(
The
CHORUS
enters.
)

CHORUS

Those ribs which bulwarked Spain’s imperial pride

Lie wrecked and bone-white down the English coast,

Wrenched by ungovernable winds that scattered wide

Ships, masts, and soldiers, which the Armada cost.

After twelve years’ imprisonment in the Tower,

With two great factions at an unstable peace,

The Stuart monarch, England’s James the First,

Grants Walter Raleigh conditional release

To find that fable, turreted with gold

That, like a coin, gathers the dark around it.

It is 1617 now, Guiana, night.

(
Lute music softly.
)

Stillness, a lonely lute plucks at the nerves.

The idling lanterns with their yellow light

Gild every mind from captain to mere sailor,

And now we peer into the unmapped night

Whose stars ride quietly from the anchored fleet,

The ships: the
Jason,
under Captain John Pennington;

The
Confidence,
Commander, Captain Wallastons;

The
Flying Hart,
Commander, Sir John Ferne;

The
Golden Fleece,
the ship of war;
Corentyne,

Under Commander Captain Laurence Keymis;

The
Destiny,
under Sir Walter Raleigh.

(
Exit.
)

Scene 6

1617. The search for El Dorado. The deck of the
Destiny.
Enter
RALEIGH
and
KEYMIS
.

RALEIGH

I have sent for you particularly, Captain Keymis,

Not only as my officer but a friend,

To tell you my decision concerning tomorrow.

KEYMIS

I can guess it.

RALEIGH

Come to the rail, Laurence, and try to think my thoughts.

For a good friend, here, let me lean on your shoulder;

A good friend’s mind should be chameleon-like

And take its colours from opposite affections.

KEYMIS

I find that somewhat parasitical, Sir Walter.

RALEIGH

Imagine yourself placed in my own position,

Beyond these fireflies of the anchored fleet.

You can discern the black leaves of a forest,

So far translated into no civilized tongue.

So once another admiral years ago

Saw a prone country, still with its maidenhead,

The virgin sea, through which no prow had entered,

And sealed its nuptials in the name of Spain.

Like me, his own impetuous, rebellious nature

Offended monarchs; he died disdained, obscurely.

Above my own head hangs a thirsty axe;

The King, with his limp and lily-sinewed wrist,

Can write my vein out, with a flick of the pen.

(
He starts down the steps, followed by
KEYMIS
.)

KEYMIS

The King is more concerned with bargaining with the Spaniard

Than with your nature; you are of a breed, sir,

Against his policy. Who’s left in England now?

The admirals, earls, and boisterous captains

Who shivered all the strength of Spain, her provinces,

They are buried now, some in strange parts of the sea.

RALEIGH

And do you know by what he weighs us? Gold.

He spared me for that purpose. What time is it?

KEYMIS
(
Moving towards table.
)

It must be almost eight o’clock. And so I take it,

Since we have burnt the town at Trinidad,

An act that certainly should incense the King,

And since we stand outside Guiana, full of doubts,

That tomorrow we attack the fort at San Thome?

RALEIGH

We must not fail this time to find Manoa.

I want my son to come with us tomorrow, Keymis.

I feel a dewy sweat, I have caught the fever.

If I should be too weak to go, you will command.

But it should pass. First let us study the map.

(
KEYMIS
unrolls a map on the table.
)

KEYMIS

It’s not changed much since the last time, my lord.

RALEIGH

Wait.

(
Pause.
)

KEYMIS

           What is it, Sir Walter?

RALEIGH

No. As I stood here and you unrolled the map,

With my life in the balances tomorrow,

I remembered my boyhood and an old dim sailor,

An old man with two worlds mixed in his blood,

And a strange prophecy which he made to me.

How sovereign death controls Guiana’s green,

And that my voyages there would bring me death.

(
Enter
RALEIGH’S SON
,
unobserved, with a lute.
)

I saw in my condition of this giddy fever

How the sea’s jaws swallowed Sir Humphrey Gilbert,

And bones of Spanish conquerors mixed with vines.

SON

Think of your reputation, Father.

RALEIGH
(
Turns.
)

Welcome. I heard you on the lute.

(
To
KEYMIS
)

Some days my mind is clear and crystal green,

And perfect as a summer of the sea, and then

A cloud of my uncertainty mantles it.

SON

It’s nothing but the fever, Father.

RALEIGH

Yes, but the gilding fever known as greed.

Come, study the map, boy, you go with Captain Keymis.

When I am absent, consider him your father.

KEYMIS
(
Showing
RALEIGH’S SON
.)

This lake here is the Rupununi, lying between

The river Essequibo and the Rio Branco.

There is Canelos, a land of cinnamon trees.

These are the tributaries which I charted,

And this is the fort which we assault tomorrow.

We are sure our prisoner, Governor de Berrio,

Knows something of the site of this great city.

(
The clock strikes eight.
)

It has struck eight, shall I bring in the governor?

RALEIGH

Yes, bring in the hypocrite.

(
Exit
KEYMIS
.)

You see the sad trade of conquest, study it well.

SON

                                                                  Father, are you afraid?

RALEIGH

I feel so hollow, boy. Yes, I am afraid,

But for you, too; long memories disturb me.

Know that I would not give your life, my son,

For a roomful of all the jewels in Manoa.

SON

Why should I die, my lord? Am I a bad soldier?

RALEIGH

No, you do well, you do well. And here’s the governor.

(
Enter
BERRIO, KEYMIS
.)

Señor de Berrio, my son who carries my name;

My friend and captain Laurence Keymis.

Be seated, sir, and have some Spanish wine.

BERRIO

Gracias.

(
He sits.
)

RALEIGH
(
Pacing.
)

Excellency, we will get down to business straight.

Your Excellency has for some years been governor of Trinidad,

Which is the door and gateway to the west.

It is my confirmed impression, contradict me,

That despite the pressing duties of your office

On occasions you have conducted expeditions

To find the legend that hides in the darkness there.

BERRIO
(
Smiles.
)

This is good Spanish claret, Señor Admiral.

RALEIGH

Do you recall a Captain Whiddon, Excellency?

BERRIO

Yes, I know this English soldier Whiddon.

I also know our countries are at peace,

And that he broke our compact; that English ships

Attack our provinces in these islands, against the peace.

Yes, I know Whiddon, and why you ask me that,

To explain your sacking of the town of San José

And justify the death of my own nephew.

RALEIGH

Perhaps Your Excellency might find it awkward

To recall your treacherous—pardon me—surprising

Entertainment of this English officer.

BERRIO
(
Rises.
)

Is this why I am brought before Your Excellency?

To exchange memoirs? A week ago my men were massacred,

The city I administered sacked and burnt.

RALEIGH

Much like your treatment of the Indians, señor.

BERRIO
(
Sits.
)

We all did it once. Now they do it with Negroes.

Unfortunately, that is how one starts an empire.

RALEIGH

You still consider Spain a power, señor?

BERRIO

                                                       There is no Spain here now.

It is a different thing to Europe, these are the Indies,

With a different climate and a policy that must change.

I think that despite Whiddon, whose death I sanctioned,

That I was compensated, as you might say, enough.

All that I built was burnt. We are at peace.

RALEIGH

Perhaps. But then why should I savour of an ass,

With your honourable Spanish army at my back,

When I must force my passage through Guiana?

BERRIO

Why must, señor?

RALEIGH

                                  What?

BERRIO

Why must you pursue this fable of Guiana?

Will that not mean a slaughtering of Indians?