SCENE--Twenty years or so later--the courtyard of the Governor's palace, Porto Rico. Flowers, shrubs, a coco-palm, orange and banana trees. A large, handsome fountain closely resembling that of Scene One, is at center. Two marble benches are at front and rear of fountain. A narrow paved walk encircles the fountain basin, with other walks leading from it to the different entrances. Doors to the interior of the house are at left and right. The main entrance to the courtyard, opening on the road, is at rear center.
It is in the late, languid hours of a torrid afternoon. The courtyard bakes in the heat, the fountain shimmering in the heat-waves.
Juan is seated on the stone bench in front of the basin. He is dressed in the full uniform of his authority as Governor. His face is aged, lined, drawn. His hair and beard are gray. His expression and attitude are full of great weariness. His eyes stare straight before him blankly in a disillusioned dream. The lines about his compressed lips are bitter.
Luis enters from the left, rear. He is dressed in the robe of a Dominican monk. His face shows the years but it has achieved a calm, peaceful expression as if he were at last in harmony with himself. He comes down to Juan and puts a hand on his shoulder.
JUAN--(starts--then greets his friend with a smile) Ah, it's you, reverend Father. (He accents this last mockingly.)
LUIS--(good-naturedly) Yes, illustrious Governor. (He sits beside Juan--with a laugh) You are like a sulky child, Juan. Come, is it not time, after five years, you forgave me for being a Dominican?
JUAN--(bitterly) My friend deserting to my enemy!
LUIS--(protestingly) Come, come! (then after a pause, with a sigh) You have always had the dream of Cathay. What had I? What had I done with life?--an aimless, posing rake, neither poet nor soldier, without place nor peace! I had no meaning even to myself until God awakened me to His Holy Will. Now I live in truth. You must renounce in order to possess.
JUAN--The world would be stale indeed if that were true! (after a pause--irritably) I fight the battles; you monks steal the spoils! I seek to construct; you bind my hands and destroy!
LUIS--(remonstrating) You speak of Diego and his kind.
JUAN--(frowning) Whether you convert by clemency or he by cruelty, the result is the same. All this baptizing of Indians, this cramming the cross down their throats has proved a ruinous error. It crushes their spirits and weakens their bodies. They become burdens for Spain instead of valuable servitors.
LUIS--Your army crushed them first--
JUAN--They had to be conquered, but there I would have stopped. (then irritably) God's blood, here we are arguing about this same issue--for the thousandth time! It is too late. Talk is useless. (with a weary sigh) We do what we must--and sand covers our bodies and our deeds. (with a smile) And the afternoon is too hot, besides. Tell me some news. Will the fleet from Spain make port today?
LUIS--Just now I saw them rounding the point under full sail. They should anchor inside soon. (They are interrupted by the noise of several people approaching from outside. Oviedo and Friar Quesada, a Franciscan, enter, followed by the Indian chief, Nano, who is guarded by two soldiers with drawn swords. Quesada is a thin young monk with the sallow, gaunt face and burning eyes of a fanatic. Oviedo is aged but gives no evidence of having changed in character. Nano is a tall, powerfully built Indian of fifty or so. Although loaded down with chains, he carries himself erect with an air of aloof, stoical dignity. He wears a headdress of feathers. His face and body are painted, ornaments are about his neck. He is naked except for a breechclout and moccasins.)
QUESADA--(fiercely and arrogantly) I demand justice on this dog!
JUAN--(freezing--proudly) Demand?
QUESADA--(with ill-concealed hatred but awed by Juan's manner) Pardon my zeal in the service of God, Your Excellency. I ask justice. (then defiantly) But it is not the Church's custom to be a suppliant.
JUAN--So much the worse--(sternly) What is this Indian's crime?
QUESADA--His tribe will not pay the tithes--and he himself has dared to refuse baptism!
JUAN--(coldly) I'll question him. (then as Quesada hesitates, raging inwardly--sternly) You may go.
QUESADA--(controlling his rage, bows) Yes, Your Excellency. (He goes.)
JUAN--(to Oviedo with a certain contempt) You also have a charge against this Indian?
OVIEDO--(angrily) A plea for justice! These dogs will not pay their taxes. And we who own estates cannot get them to work except by force, which you have arbitrarily curtailed. Then why not punish them by leasing their labor to us until their debt's wiped out? Thus the government will be paid, and we will have workers for our mines and fields.