|
|
Cornugaya Directory 08
Page 10
On the evening of October 7th, Benedicto, who was a great glutton,
prepared a huge bowl of the _mamao_ fruit stewed and sweetened with
quantities of sugar. I had obtained from Albuquerque some tins of
shrimps, lobster and salmon, butter and jam--all condemned stuff from
some ship--and I gave all my men a feast. Benedicto brought me some of
the sweet he had prepared, and it looked so tempting that, ill as I was,
I ate a quantity of it. After dinner I persuaded my men to go back to the
forest to recover the baggage they had abandoned there. Tempted by a
present of money I offered them if they would bring it back safely, they
all agreed to go.
Naturally, when one has before one the prospect of leaving this world at
any moment, and one is working under a severe mental strain, one
generally thinks deeply of one's beloved parents and relatives. Thus my
father, mother and sister were before me all the time in my imagination.
Sometimes when I was half-dazed I could see them so vividly that I could
almost believe they were so close that I could touch them. I never
thought that I should see them again, in reality, although I never
actually lost hope of doing so; but I was thinking incessantly of them,
and of the anxiety I was causing them, as I had had no possible way of
communicating with them for months and months.
|
