{"product_id":"2940012308481","title":"NOSTROMO A TALE OF THE SEABOARD","description":"NOSTROMO\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART FIRST THE SILVER OF THE MINE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER ONE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the time of Spanish rule, and for many years afterwards, the town of\u003cbr\u003eSulaco--the luxuriant beauty of the orange gardens bears witness to its\u003cbr\u003eantiquity--had never been commercially anything more important than a\u003cbr\u003ecoasting port with a fairly large local trade in ox-hides and indigo.\u003cbr\u003eThe clumsy deep-sea galleons of the conquerors that, needing a brisk\u003cbr\u003egale to move at all, would lie becalmed, where your modern ship built on\u003cbr\u003eclipper lines forges ahead by the mere flapping of her sails, had been\u003cbr\u003ebarred out of Sulaco by the prevailing calms of its vast gulf. Some\u003cbr\u003eharbours of the earth are made difficult of access by the treachery\u003cbr\u003eof sunken rocks and the tempests of their shores. Sulaco had found an\u003cbr\u003einviolable sanctuary from the temptations of a trading world in\u003cbr\u003ethe solemn hush of the deep Golfo Placido as if within an enormous\u003cbr\u003esemi-circular and unroofed temple open to the ocean, with its walls of\u003cbr\u003elofty mountains hung with the mourning draperies of cloud.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn one side of this broad curve in the straight seaboard of the Republic\u003cbr\u003eof Costaguana, the last spur of the coast range forms an insignificant\u003cbr\u003ecape whose name is Punta Mala. From the middle of the gulf the point of\u003cbr\u003ethe land itself is not visible at all; but the shoulder of a steep hill\u003cbr\u003eat the back can be made out faintly like a shadow on the sky.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the other side, what seems to be an isolated patch of blue mist\u003cbr\u003efloats lightly on the glare of the horizon. This is the peninsula\u003cbr\u003eof Azuera, a wild chaos of sharp rocks and stony levels cut about by\u003cbr\u003evertical ravines. It lies far out to sea like a rough head of stone\u003cbr\u003estretched from a green-clad coast at the end of a slender neck of\u003cbr\u003esand covered with thickets of thorny scrub. Utterly waterless, for the\u003cbr\u003erainfall runs off at once on all sides into the sea, it has not soil\u003cbr\u003eenough--it is said--to grow a single blade of grass, as if it were\u003cbr\u003eblighted by a curse. The poor, associating by an obscure instinct of\u003cbr\u003econsolation the ideas of evil and wealth, will tell you that it is\u003cbr\u003edeadly because of its forbidden treasures. The common folk of the\u003cbr\u003eneighbourhood, peons of the estancias, vaqueros of the seaboard plains,\u003cbr\u003etame Indians coming miles to market with a bundle of sugar-cane or a\u003cbr\u003ebasket of maize worth about threepence, are well aware that heaps of\u003cbr\u003eshining gold lie in the gloom of the deep precipices cleaving the stony\u003cbr\u003elevels of Azuera. Tradition has it that many adventurers of olden time\u003cbr\u003ehad perished in the search. The story goes also that within men's memory\u003cbr\u003etwo wandering sailors--Americanos, perhaps, but gringos of some sort for\u003cbr\u003ecertain--talked over a gambling, good-for-nothing mozo, and the three\u003cbr\u003estole a donkey to carry for them a bundle of dry sticks, a water-skin,\u003cbr\u003eand provisions enough to last a few days. Thus accompanied, and with\u003cbr\u003erevolvers at their belts, they had started to chop their way with\u003cbr\u003emachetes through the thorny scrub on the neck of the peninsula.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the second evening an upright spiral of smoke (it could only have\u003cbr\u003ebeen from their camp-fire) was seen for the first time within memory of\u003cbr\u003eman standing up faintly upon the sky above a razor-backed ridge on the\u003cbr\u003estony head. The crew of a coasting schooner, lying becalmed three miles\u003cbr\u003eoff the shore, stared at it with amazement till dark. A negro fisherman,\u003cbr\u003eliving in a lonely hut in a little bay near by, had seen the start and\u003cbr\u003ewas on the lookout for some sign. He called to his wife just as the\u003cbr\u003esun was about to set. They had watched the strange portent with envy,\u003cbr\u003eincredulity, and awe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe impious adventurers gave no other sign. The sailors, the Indian,\u003cbr\u003eand the stolen burro were never seen again. As to the mozo, a Sulaco\u003cbr\u003eman--his wife paid for some masses, and the poor four-footed beast,\u003cbr\u003ebeing without sin, had been probably permitted to die; but the two\u003cbr\u003egringos, spectral and alive, are believed to be dwelling to this day\u003cbr\u003eamongst the rocks, under the fatal spell of their success. Their souls\u003cbr\u003ecannot tear themselves away from their bodies mounting guard over the\u003cbr\u003ediscovered treasure. They are now rich and hungry and thirsty--a strange\u003cbr\u003etheory of tenacious gringo ghosts suffering in their starved and parched\u003cbr\u003eflesh of defiant heretics, where a Christian would have renounced and\u003cbr\u003ebeen released.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese, then, are the legendary inhabitants of Azuera guarding its\u003cbr\u003eforbidden wealth; and the shadow on the sky on one side with the round\u003cbr\u003epatch of blue haze blurring the bright skirt of the horizon on the\u003cbr\u003eother, mark the two outermost points of the bend which bears the name of\u003cbr\u003eGolfo Placido, because never a strong wind had been known to blow upon\u003cbr\u003eits waters.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47163825914096,"sku":"2940012308481","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012308481_p0.jpg?v=1763554692","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012308481","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}