Pastwatch- The Redemption Of Christopher Columbus - By Orson Scott Card Page 0,141
of Mesoamerica, and given them a high enough technology to be able to resist the Europeans whenever they come.
Yet even as he congratulated himself, Hunahpu felt a wave of homesickness sweep over him. Let Diko be alive, he prayed silently. Let her do her work with Columbus and make of him a bridge between Europe and America, so that it never comes to bloody war.
* * *
It was suppertime in the Spanish camp. All the officers and men were gathered for the meal, except for the four men on watch around the stockade and the two men who watched the ship. Cristoforo and the other officers ate apart from the others, but all ate the same food -- most of which was provided by the Indians.
It was not served by Indians, however. The men served themselves, and the ship's boys served the officers. There had been serious difficulties over that, beginning when Chipa refused to translate Pinzyn's orders to the Indians. "They're not servants," said Chipa. "They're friends."
In reply, Pinzyn had started beating the girl, and when Pedro tried to intervene, Pinzyn knocked him down and gave him a solid beating, too. When the Captain-General demanded that he apologize, Pinzyn gladly agreed to apologize to Pedro. "He shouldn't have tried to stop me, but he is your page and I apologize for punishing him when that should be left to you."
"The girl, too," Colyn had said.
To which Pinzyn had replied by spitting and saying, "The little whore refused to do what she was told. She was insolent. Servants have no business talking to gentlemen that way."
When did Pinzyn become a gentleman? thought Pedro. But he held his tongue. This was a matter for the Captain-General, not for a page.
"She is not your servant," Colyn said.
Pinzyn laughed insolently. "All brown people are servants by nature," he said.
"If they were servants by nature," said Colyn, "you wouldn't have to beat them to get them to obey. It's a brave man who beats a little child. They'll no doubt write songs about your courage."
That had been enough to silence Pinzyn -- at least in public. Ever since then, there had been no attempt to get the Indians to give personal service. But Pedro knew that Pinzyn had not forgiven or forgotten the scorn in the Captain-General's voice, or the humiliation of having been forced to back down. Pedro had even urged Chipa to leave.
"Leave?" she had said. "You don't speak Taino well enough yet for me to leave."
"If something goes wrong," Pedro had told her, " Pinzyn will kill you. I know he will."
"Sees-in-the-Dark will protect me," she said.
"Sees-in-the-Dark isn't here," said Pedro.
"Then you'll protect me."
"Oh, yes, that worked so well this time." Pedro couldn't protect her and she wouldn't leave. It meant that he lived with constant anxiety, watching how the men watched Chipa, how they whispered behind the Captain-General's back, how they gave many signs of their solidarity with Pinzyn. There was a bloody mutiny coming, Pedro could see it. It awaited only an occasion. When Pedro tried to talk to the Captain-General about it, he refused to listen, saying only that he knew the men favored Pinzyn, but they would not rebel against the authority of the crown. If Pedro could only believe that.
So this evening Pedro directed the ship's boys in serving the officers. The unfamiliar fruits had grown familiar, and every meal was a feast. All the men were healthier now than at any time before in the voyage. From outward appearances everything was perfectly pleasant between the Captain-General and Pinzyn. But by Pedro's count, the only men that Colyn could count on his side in a crisis were himself, Segovia, Arana, Gutierrez, Escobedo, and Torres. In other words, the royal officers and the Captain-General's own page. The ship's boys and some of the craftsmen would be on Colyn's side in their hearts, but they wouldn't dare to stand against the men. For that matter, the royal officers had no personal loyalty to Colyn himself. Their loyalty was simply to the idea of proper order and authority. No, when the trouble came, Colyn would find himself almost friendless.
As for Chipa, she would be destroyed. I will kill her myself, thought Pedro, before I let Pinzyn get his hands on her. I win kill her, and then I will kill myself. Better still, why not kill Pinzyn? As long as I'm thinking of murder, why not strike at the one I hate instead of the ones I love?