DRAKE (_deeply interested_). How kind! How good! Well, friend?
COMAGRE (_with bitter indignation_). Well! They held secret intercourse with our foes.
COMAGRE. With the very men who had doomed them to ignominious death as traitors.
COMAGRE. Betrayed the homes, the wealth, the secret paths of those who had sheltered—saved them.
COMAGRE. Well! without preparation or notice, in the darkness of the night we were attacked—robbed—massacred. The village was set on fire, men, women, and children were hurled into the flames.
COMAGRE. The morning sun rose upon calcined bones, and blackened ruins, where before was pleasure, loveliness and peace!
DRAKE (_holding up his hands and walking about in great excitement_). Horrible recital! Barbarous, unprovoked! Brutal cruelty! This is worse than the ravening of wild beasts.
COMAGRE (_with intensified rage_). Wild beasts! The rage of the most savage beast of the forest is gentleness compared with it! The boa will gorge himself and go to sleep. The ferocious puma will pounce upon a single victim and his appetite for blood will be appeased. But the ruthless fury of the Spaniard, when exhausted with slaughter, calls upon the devouring flames to aid him, and commits to senseless havoc, what his licentious appetite cannot enjoy, or his insatiate avarice carry away! (_He pauses breathless_. _Then walks about with hurried step_, _gasping and frantic with rage_.)
DRAKE. The same everywhere—Spain wars upon mankind, like fiends. The object, slavery or desolation.
COMAGRE. Give us revenge—Smite! Kill! Destroy the accursed foe! On with your devastating thunder, those iron mouths that wing their viewless death from far, that dauntless heart, that powerful arm. Come on Brother; come, Revenge. Revenge! Revenge! (_Dragging_ DRAKE _along_, _exeunt_).
_Ascent of Panama_. _The party scattered about_. _Enter_ DRAKE _and_ CHIRUCA.
DRAKE. We have heard of wonderful treasure among your people, which has escaped the rapacity of the Spaniards.
CHIRUCA. There are whole provinces, where they have never set a foot, and where every mountain stream runs gold. It may be gathered in nets and baskets. The greatest collection of such riches was in the temple of the Goddess Dobeba. Vasco Nunez projected its plunder.