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Andrade, and picked up another army. When the tottering President
heard of this final evidence of disloyalty he boarded a gunboat at La
Guaira, taking with him a well-filled treasure chest, and went to
Trinidad. The alleged warship leaked badly and Andrade, who had a
sense of humor, sent word back to Castro by her commander to
have her repaired at once so that she might be in better shape for a
hurried departure when it should come his turn to be deposed.
By this time the people of Venezuela, ripe for a change of
administration and believing that no one could be worse than
Andrade, had begun to find out, as had Castro himself, what a
powerful person he really was, and they accepted him as their
master. He entered Caracas without opposition on October 21, 1900,
and, rejecting the modest title of Provisional President, which his
predecessors had used, proclaimed himself “Jefe Supremo” or
“Supreme Military Leader.” He filled all important posts with men
from the mountains, on whose loyalty he could rely, and as they
were able to secure plenty of graft, not one penny of which was
overlooked, he very soon had a tight hold on the country. One of his
first acts was to release Gen. Hernandez. He soon found that the old
warrior was too patriotic and too dangerous to be at large, so he
slapped him back into San Carlos, on the pretence that he was
planning an insurrection, and kept him there for years. On March 30,
1901, Castro was elected by Congress to fill out the unexpired part
of Andrade’s term and in the following February he was elected
Constitutional President. Then began in earnest his reign of robbery,
through the establishment of monopolies whose profits went to his
private purse, and his vicious anti-foreign policy which, through the
murders and injustices that were committed in its name, made the
Boxer uprising in China look like a soft-spoken protest.
I was not in Caracas to witness the advent of Castro, as I had
returned to Catalina more than two years before, immediately after
Crespo’s funeral. During my stay at the capital I had come into
possession of a block of stock in the Orinoco Company which made
it better worth my while to stay with it, and I had become infected
with the idea that if we were let alone the concession could be
developed into a very valuable property. It was soon apparent,
however, that we were not to remain undisturbed. So long as Crespo
was alive I was all-powerful at Catalina, but with his death my
influence began to wane and the rights of the company to be
trespassed upon. The natives could not see how our concession, an
integral part of Venezuela, could ever be anything but their own
property; they could not, or would not, understand that the
government had given away territory from which they could be
debarred. It was only the influence of the Jefe Civile that had kept
them in bounds before and with the death of my friend Crespo, that
official suddenly became at least lukewarm in his loyalty to the law
and to me. It naturally followed that the natives overran the
concession and did more and more as they pleased. They refused to
pay royalty on the balata gum, which they carried off in enormous
quantities, and stole everything except the headquarters building and
the iron ore, which was too heavy and not worth while. The Jefe
Civile himself violated the terms of our concession and extortions of
all sorts were winked at or openly approved. As Andrade’s
unpopularity increased my troubles grew, for the natives took sides
and began to spy on each other, with the result that false and
malicious reports were sent to Caracas as to the company’s attitude.
When the threatened revolution became a fact and Castro took the
field, Andrade assumed a much more friendly air, but it was too late
to be of any value. He sent General Marina up the Orinoco to try to
arouse enthusiasm for his cause in the east, which section furnishes
the only soldiers that can cope with the hardy mountaineers of the
west. Marina came to Catalina and asked me to do my best to hold
my district in line for Andrade, and gave me his word that if I did so
the President would grant me anything I asked for as soon as the
revolt was suppressed. At just about the moment this request was
made Andrade was fleeing from La Guaira and Castro was assuming
full control at Caracas.
Almost the first thing he did was to annul our concession, on the
ground that its terms had not been complied with, along with a dozen
others, as the beginning of his war on all foreigners. I denied his right
to cancel our grant, especially as it contained a clause which
stipulated that any disagreement between the government and the
concessionaire should be referred to the Alta Carte Federale, or
Supreme Court, for adjustment. As the case had not been brought
before that court I held there could be no legal annulment, even if
that power did rest in the executive, which I denied. This contention
was subsequently upheld by the International Court of Arbitration,
following the blockade and bombardment of the allied powers, which
decided that our concession was still in full force.
When Castro saw that we did not propose to submit to his arbitrary
annulment he undertook to drive me out of the country. He realized
that so long as I remained on the concession we could claim to be in
full possession of it, and he proceeded to harass me in every
conceivable way in the hope of making it too hot for me. Under our
contract we were to nominate and pay all of the officers within our
territory and the government was to appoint them. My old chief of
police, Abreu, was arrested and taken away on some false charge,
and a new man, Tinoco, in whose selection I had no voice, was sent
to take his place. He was, I learned, a spy and had orders to send in
reports which would make it appear that the company was stirring up
revolts and otherwise violating the terms of its concession. This I
discovered in time to induce Tinoco, with the aid of a pistol, to sign a
statement in which he denied all of his dishonest reports and gave
the company a clean bill of health. He died soon afterward.
Castro created a military district known as the Territorio Delta-
Amacuro, which took in all of our property, and made Catalina the
capital, so that the Governor and the other officials could keep me
under their eyes. They all had instructions to make the place so
uncomfortable for me that I would leave. Fortunately, when it
received its concession the company had bought the land on which
its buildings were erected. Only the fact that I was an American
citizen and held the deeds to the property restrained them from
expelling me by main force. However, I could see trouble coming, so
I dug rifle pits under the porches on the two sides of the house from
which we could be attacked. I had plenty of arms and ammunition
and about twenty men of whose bravery and loyalty I was sure.
I was prohibited from buying anything at the pulperia, or commissary,
and we were hard put to it at times for enough to eat. We caught fish
in the river and my men stole out into the woods to hunt at every
favorable opportunity, but the moment they left our property they
exposed themselves to arrest on some trumped-up charge.
Sometimes we were able to surreptitiously buy supplies from the
natives, and we managed to get along. I filed protests at Caracas,
with the Governor and with my company, but they accomplished
nothing. I was told by the officials of the company that they were
doing the best they could, with representations to the State
Department at Washington, and that I would have to do the best I
could, and I did it. The troops were continually spying on us and
annoying us with fictitious charges, but it was a year or more before
the government, angered by its failure to get rid of me, resorted to
extreme measures. A new Governor was sent down with strict orders
to remove me, by force if necessary. He advanced toward the house
with about seventy-five soldiers. I ordered my men into the rifle pits
and met the General at the gate.
“What do you want?” I demanded fiercely.
“I beg your pardon,” replied the commander, with all the treacherous
suavity of his race, “but I have orders to take you under my care and
escort you to Trinidad in order that no injury may come to you. Our
country is troubled and the government is anxious as to your safety.”
“My compliments to President Castro,” I told him, “and assure him
that I feel perfectly secure here, and quite comfortable. You can also
tell him that I propose to stay here.”
“That is much to be regretted,” responded the still overly polite
general, “for in that case I have to inform you that my orders are to
arrest you and take you to Trinidad.”
“In that case,” I said, imitatively, “I have to inform you that you will
find it impossible to carry out your orders, and I advise you not to
attempt it.”
“You mean that you will resist arrest?” he exclaimed in surprise.
“Most assuredly,” I replied. “This is my property. You have no right to
invade it, for I have violated no law of Venezuela. If you enter on it I
will fire on you.”
“But,” he almost shouted, as he waved his arms excitedly toward his
enervated patriots, “my men are here to enforce my orders. You
would be insane to resist. You do not know the Venezuelan Army,
sir.”
“You are mistaken,” I told him. “I do know the Venezuelan Army. It is
you who is ignorant. You do not know my army. It is because I know
both that I have no fear. You have not a shadow of right for seeking
to arrest me and your blood will be on your own head if you
advance.”
With this declaration which, in keeping with the comic opera custom
of the country, was delivered with all of the dramatic effect I could
throw into it, in order that it might carry greater weight, I retired to the
house.
The General could see my rifle pits, but he did not know how many
men they held nor how well those men could shoot. After a short
consultation with his staff he gave the order to advance, while he
bravely directed operations from the rear. As his men crossed the
line we fired, and eight of them fell. They continued to advance and
we fired again, dropping nine more of them, while several others
were hit. That was too much for them and they broke and ran,
leaving seven dead and ten badly wounded. They did not fire a shot,
perhaps because our men were so well concealed that Venezuelan
marksmanship would have accomplished nothing against them. The
General and his staff returned in an hour and asked permission to
remove the fallen warriors. After burying their dead they returned to
their steamer and went on up the river. In three or four days they
came back, with their force slightly increased, and the General again
called on me to surrender, under penalty of being arrested as a
disturbing factor. I gave him the same reply as before and after
thinking it over for a while he marched his troops away again.
That little encounter produced pronounced respect for the Americans
among Castro’s soldiers and they did not give us much trouble
afterward, though they continued to annoy us for a time. With the
establishment of the blockade of Venezuelan ports by the allies—
England, Germany, and Italy—in the latter part of 1902, and the
signing of the peace protocols at Washington early in the following
year, there came a cessation of hostilities against us. So far as
driving us off the concession was concerned, Castro seemed to have
given up the fight, but on account of the disturbed condition of the
country and the fact that the government was known to be inimical to
us, it was impossible to do anything of consequence toward the
development of the property. This enforced idleness eventually
became intolerable and early in 1906, the company in the meantime
having sent one of its officers to Caracas to protect its interests, I
returned to New York, after having held the fort for ten years. I came
back much poorer in pocket, but with a fund of information regarding
Venezuela and its people.
I have been in every country in South America and have studied all
of them and there is no possibility of doubt that Venezuela is beyond
comparison the richest in its natural resources. With the setting up of
a firm and civilized government, which must come in the end, under
an American protectorate if by no other means, all of the fairy stories
that were told of it centuries ago will come true, and its development
will eclipse all of the dreams that have been realized in our own
country. It is a strange fact that Cumana in Venezuela (their
respective names then being New Toledo and New Grenada), which
was the first European settlement in South America of which there is
authentic record, was founded one hundred years, less one, before
the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. In each case there was a
fervent prayer for divine aid in establishing a Christian colony and
building up a great country. Why one prayer was answered and the
other was not is a matter I will not attempt to explain.
Like her West Indian neighbors, of which beautiful isles Americans
now know so little, but of which they will know much more when their
flag flies over all of them, as it must within the life of the present
generation, Venezuela has been treated most bountifully by nature
and most brutally by man. Cursed they all may have been by the
seas of innocent blood in which they were barbarously bathed during
their extended infancy and their prolonged childhood, from which
they have not yet emerged. It seems that all the powers of darkness
have conspired to retard their growth and hold them slaves to
savagery. Accustomed from the days of the Spanish conquistadores,
and the pirates who followed them, to being plundered and
persecuted in every way that the mercenary mind of man could
devise, the Venezuelanos have grown so hardened to turmoil and
torture that it has become second nature to them to live in an
atmosphere which generates riot and robbery. Their blood is an
unholy mixture of Indian, Carib, and Spanish, with other and more
recent strains of all sorts. They are the most inconsequential,
emotional, ungrateful, and treacherous people on the face of the
earth—and yet I love them. The ambition of their leaders runs only to
graft, while the underlings yearn for war as a child cries for a
plaything. At the behest of some self-constituted chieftain, who has
strutted in front of a mirror until he imagines himself a second Simon
Bolivar, they rise in rebellion, because it gives them a chance to prey
on the country, and, if their revolt is successful, to continue and
extend their preying. But some day a real man will rise up among
them and lead them out of their blackness and butchery into peace
and prosperity, and Venezuela, with her wild wastes of wealth, will
become great beyond the imaginings of her discoverers.
This is not the full story of my life but it tells of some of the incidents
which I have enjoyed the most. My best fight was with old Moy Sen,
the pirate king, in the China Sea, and my closest call was when I
was sentenced to be shot at sunrise in Santo Domingo. These
events supplied the most delightful feasts of the excitement which
my nature has ever craved, yet I have lived well, in that respect, all
along. I have no disappointments and no regrets, except that this
existence is too short. If I had my life to live over again it would be
lived in the same way, though, I would hope, with a still greater share
of excitement, because it was for just such a life that I was created.
What the purpose of it was I neither know nor care, nor am I in the
least concerned as to what my destiny next holds in store for me. I
hope, however, that in some land with opportunity for wide activity, I
will be reincarnated as a filibuster and a buccaneer, and that I will so
continue until my identity is merged into a composite mass of kindred
souls.
THE END
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