Page 163 - nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard

of his beloved Antonia. He accepted it in the benighted way
of men, who, though made in God’s image, are like stone
idols without sense before the smoke of certain burnt offer-
ings. He was ruined in every way, but a man possessed of
passion is not a bankrupt in life. Don Jose Avellanos desired
passionately for his country: peace, prosperity, and (as the
end of the preface to ‘Fifty Years of Misrule’ has it) ‘an hon-
ourable place in the comity of civilized nations.’ In this last
phrase the Minister Plenipotentiary, cruelly humiliated by
the bad faith of his Government towards the foreign bond-
holders, stands disclosed in the patriot.
The fatuous turmoil of greedy factions succeeding the
tyranny of Guzman Bento seemed to bring his desire to the
very door of opportunity. He was too old to descend person-
ally into the centre of the arena at Sta. Marta. But the men
who acted there sought his advice at every step. He himself
thought that he could be most useful at a distance, in Sulaco.
His name, his connections, his former position, his expe-
rience commanded the respect of his class. The discovery
that this man, living in dignified poverty in the Corbelan
town residence (opposite the Casa Gould), could dispose of
material means towards the support of the cause increased
his influence. It was his open letter of appeal that decided
the candidature of Don Vincente Ribiera for the Presidency.
Another of these informal State papers drawn up by Don
Jose (this time in the shape of an address from the Province)
induced that scrupulous constitutionalist to accept the ex-
traordinary powers conferred upon him for five years by an
overwhelming vote of congress in Sta. Marta. It was a spe-

1 Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard