Free The Haitian Trilogy: Plays: Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours, and The Haytian Earth by Derek Walcott Page A

markets and controls the state
    And sets up barriers that obscure that view
    Where now the admiral achieves his degradation.
    PACO
    And that is why the admiral looked for these islands?
    QUADRADO
    You must ask him yourself. Here, keep the coin,
    Since my own people taught you of its value,
    See how it dims in the bewildering dusk,
    But though you take it, please remember this,
    That gold outlasts the wearer. Here, keep our God.
    PACO
    I thank you, my officer, I shall keep it always.
    QUADRADO
    Also, Paco, until this mutinous vessel reaches Spain,
    Think of me not as your officer but as your father.
    Now, go fetch the admiral his supper, go.
    ( Exit PACO ; enter FERNANDO .)
    FERNANDO
    I have brought the lantern. It will be a rough night.
    It will be different for them as cannot sleep.
    But I say envy no man anything but his gold.
    QUADRADO
    Take up the lantern, where’s Bartolome?
    BARTOLOME ( Singing in hold. )
    There is a fount in Paradise,
    A much distasteful place,
    So high indeed that fountain jets,
    It touches the far lunar sphere.
    I can’t see a damn in this wet hellhole, move, move.
    Here comes the prince of purgatory with his lanterns.
    GARCÍA
    Be careful with that fire, and plug your bung.
    ( BARTOLOME appears. )
    FERNANDO ( Climbing steps to COLUMBUS .)
    I have brought thee a lantern, grizzle gut,
    And there’ll be food soon for your stomach.
    And a sea high enough to quench the stars.
    BARTOLOME ( Hanging hammock. )
    O come with me, across the seas,
    To where the gold flown is Cathay …
    What’s in that darkened mind of yours, García?
    GARCÍA
    Gold is the lamp that leads us all to hell.
    I saw the remorseful officer, Quadrado,
    Give the mestizo a coin, his wealth to the poor.
    FERNANDO ( Descends, sets blankets on deck. )
    Well, God rest us all, and wake us for the watch.
    Lower the tongue of the lantern, good Bartolome.
    BARTOLOME
    And God give us all good rest, and spare us envy,
    And too much rattling of chains.
    FERNANDO
    When you pray, friend,
    Turn your sour breath away from the wind.
    ( They settle. GARCÍA lounges on steps, awake. )
    QUADRADO ( Alone )
    Now I am left to walk the deck alone.
    The wind is high, the guards are at their poles,
    And on this minute, the ship boy should sing out.
    BOY’S VOICE
    One glass is gone and now the third floweth.
    More shall run down, if my God willeth.
    QUADRADO
    These fellows sleep like brutes without a past.
    Murders and theft, they shake them off as horses
    Twitch flies from flesh, with a quick shudder.
    García, Fernando, and Bartolome. And the admiral.
    Only our two remorseful souls are vigilant.
    You there on the watch, how is the passage?
    LOOKOUT
    An open passage, high seas, please God, Lieutenant.
    QUADRADO
    There are flies on the cordage, flies, flies on these dead.
    And when I halt I hear their moans again.
    FERNANDO ( Whispering. )
    Bartolome, look, Quadrado …
    QUADRADO
    All of my nights I sweat beads for the slain,
    Treading this deck as to a gallows tree.
    The frightened moon has scurried into her cave.
    The cold quicksilver sweat of fear breaks out
    And ghosts creep from the deep slime of the sea.
    ( MUSIC : figures of slaughtered Indians emerge from the shadows. )
    COLUMBUS
    Light! Light!
    QUADRADO
                            Who cried out there?
    Look, now they come, O Mother of God, prevent them,
    As rotten leaves are whirled in a black wind,
    I hear the spectres of these slaughtered men
    Wail in the wind, the autumn of their race.
    One walks there like Sebastian, branched with arrows.
    One brings his lantern like a bleeding head.
    Mother of God.
    ( The ghosts descend through a trapdoor. )
    BARTOLOME
    Mother of God, this is most strange, preserve us.
    GARCÍA
    Get back to sleep. The moon is beautiful.
    PACO ( Running up from hold. )
    My officer, my officer, what is it?
    QUADRADO
    Nothing, nothing. I was at my prayers, a custom
    You can put down to nothing and the troubled night.
    Is that the admiral’s supper? Take it