The Master Of Monterey: A Novel

Capítulo V

Capitulo V While the officers and midshipmen began to brush off their fancy dress blue uniforms which they had not worn since leaving Hampton Roads, preparing to celebrate a victory that would no doubt advance their careers, and that had the added good quality of not having caused them to risk their lives, William Waxdeck lay belowdecks and struggled to compose the proclamations that the Commodore was to read. The first steps of the conqueror upon the land were to be celebrated with music and dancing and games and feasting, and Waxdeck had to prepare a speech in which the Commodore both proclaimed himself conqueror over the land and established that the land had always expected him, that his presence merely fulfilled a potential already inherent in the land. Waxdeck was still sick, even with the gentle rocking of the National Intention at anchor, and had not even been topside to see California. Yet he knew, according to the epic tradition, that what he needed was a sign that the gods favored and recognized the American possession of California. Best of all, of course, would be theophany, in which God Himself, or perhaps Louisa Darling, would actually show up and speak, but Waxdeck didn't think he should anticipate that occurring when +~ 129 -+ he crafted his speech. More common was some event that would be recognized as a sign of divine sanction, as when Aeneas and his son ate lunch in Italy and thus founded the Roman Empire. But Waxdeck thought that Virgil had it easy, since he was writing eight hundred years after the fact, whereas Waxdeck had to write a speech in which the sign was recognized , before the sign had even manifested itself. He finally decided to leave it to the discretion of the Commodore to recognize the sign, and merely wrote in parentheses (refer to the manifest sign that indicates superiority ofAmerican ideals and rightness ofAmerican possession). Waxdeck called for more paper, and yeoman Keyes brought it up gladly. Although he was involved in selling off as much of the ship's store as possible to Mister Lurkin's smugglers, paper and ink were two items of which he still had a nearly limitless supply. Keyes, his face round and red, looked with interest over the speech that the young midshipman was penning. Although he was convinced he was contributing to the ship's mission by despoiling the ship of its stores, he thought it might not be bad to have some warrant for his activity immortalized in word from the Commodore's own lips. - Have you put anything in the speech about commerce? he asked insinuatingly. The land is a ripe field for the American merchant. - It's true, Waxdeck said. Nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit. Keyes didn't have the least idea what Waxdeck was talking about, and in fact had harbored a grudge against him ever since +~ 130 -+ he had been forced to offioad barrels of salt pork in favor of paper and ink - a grudge well justified, he now thought, due to his inability to market paper and ink. Salt pork, on the other hand, could always find a buyer. But as rancor was not marketable either, and the young midshipman had the Commodore's ear, Keyes simply backed out humbly. - Just a suggestion, Mr. Waxdeck. - Pecunia regimen est rerum omnium, Waxdeck said. - Aye, Mr. Waxdeck. Waxdeck let a string ofgreen bile spill from the corner of his mouth into the bile bucket, and he gnawed on his pen. He wondered whether Keyes was right, whether commerce would provide the sign that indicated superiority of American ideals and rightness of American possession. If every product of the land could be bought and sold freely, if the land itself was constantly exchanged for more and more money, wouldn't that show that the Commodore's advent fulfilled a potential already inherent in the land? Waxdeck scratched out a few lines in the speech and was writing something about free land and the market when the door opened and Captain Rafael Rafael entered. Rafael Rafael was already dressed to go ashore, in blue with gold epaulettes and a sword at his side, and he gravely entered the midshipmen 's noisome quarters, looking for Waxdeck through the thick air flavored by the smell of bile. Waxdeck was too weak to rise to his feet, but he tried to salute and...