That's your island. Queimada.
One of the hundreds of islands of the Lesser Antilles. Here, have a look.
Thank you.
You know, most of what you see here on the windward side is the wild part.
The sugar plantations and the main port are to leeward.
There's only about 5,000 whites here.
The population's mostly black or mulatto.
The blacks, of course, are slaves except for a handful
whose owners freed them for one reason or another.
"Queimada" means "burnt." In fact, the Portuguese had to burn the island
to put down the resistance of the Indians when they took it.
And since the natives were all killed, they brought in slaves from Africa
to work the cane fields.
That large, flat, white rock you see offshore is called
"Cemitério Branco dos Negros,"
because the bodies of slaves who died during the trip over were thrown there.
They say they lost nearly half of the poor beggars.
That exceptional whiteness there seems, in fact, to derive from the dust
of their bones, which have penetrated into and merged with the rocks.
No, wait! I want to control the number of cases before you unload!
English, huh?
Go.
Out of the way!
Your bag, senhor?
Yes. All right. Take them.
No, that can wait.
As you wish.
Sir William Walker?
Did you have a pleasant trip, sir?
Yes. The gray dolphins followed us all the way.
The gray dolphin, you know, has always been a friend of the mariner.
And the sailor, of course, has always been the friend of the gray dolphin.
Too late, Sir William. Santiago was caught 10 days ago with all his men.
He's locked up in the fortress.
I'm afraid it's only a question of hours for him.
Now you will see. They're even going to chop his head off.
I know.
Then they will carry it around the island as an example.
I knew of her husband.
I knew about your husband. I never met him but...
It is because of him that I have come to Queimada.
I am not Portuguese.
I am a friend.
Do you understand?
I would like to meet one of his friends. One of his real friends.
I ask nothing else.
I don't want to know anything more.
One. One only. Just one.
That's all I need.
What is needed here is someone with courage.
Someone who knows he has nothing to lose, and yet is not afraid.
Observe.
You, there! Who gave you that money?
Give it back to me!
Lmmediately!
You see?
Don't go, Mr. Walker. Without you, nothing will ever be done.
It's finished here.
I wasn't aware that anything had started.
And Santiago?
Santiago's dead.
Stinking, lying, black ape!
You filthy thief, you did steal my bags, didn't you?
- Sim. - Well, where are they now?
I don't know. I don't know anymore.
- But you did steal them, didn't you? - Sim.
- It is true, isn't it? - Yes.
No, it's not true.
You did not steal them.
You gave them to my friend, that's all. Nobody stole them. Do you understand?
Sim.
So, you did not steal them?
Then why did you say you did? Because I said you did?
Yes, senhor.
Because anything a white man says is right, isn't it?
Yes, senhor.
If I were to say that your mother was a whore,
would that be true?
Is it true?
My mother is dead.
But you knew her, didn't you?
Sim.
What was she?
Say what she was!
Go on! What was she?
Go on, say what she was!
Say it!
A whore, senhor.
Well, I was mistaken.
I thought you were someone else.
What's your name?
José Dolores.
Here you are, José. Forget about it. It was just a bad joke.
Come on. Let's go then!
Well, now I believe we have something to talk about.
Are they all here?
There are 100 million in gold reales.
All we have to do is to take them. Fifty for you, fifty for me.
Do you agree?
They call it the Bank of the Holy Spirit.
Now, it's very simple.
There's an outside gate, then a large door,
an inside gate and then the safe.
Now, you enter, you take the gold, you load it onto the cart
and you cross the island to the village of which I told you.
Now, that is the ship. Look.
So, I shall sail her to the other side of the island, then we'll go away.
Go where?
- Well, I to England. You, wherever you like. - Even Africa?
Yes, even to Africa.
But why?
No matter, you have time to think of it. Now, is the rest understood?
Yes. We walk in and take the gold. But what about the Portuguese?
At that moment, they'll have something else to do.
All right, I'll leave this map with you. I think we know where the village is.
Yes.
- That's all. - Good.
Would you like to taste some rum, senhor?
All right.
Well, I'll taste your rum, but you must try my whiskey.
Here.
To the Holy Spirit and its bank.
We drink to England.
- To Africa! - E ao mundo!
No.
- Saúde! - Salute!
There is free rum for everybody!
There is enough for all.
Why you bring rum instead of water today? Came down from heaven?
Don't worry, old man, today's a holiday.
That gold cost a lot.
What are you doing here? Where are you going?
Stop there.
What do you got in here? Come on, speak up. What is it?
Bananas, senhor. What else?
Bananas, huh?
And what's this? A case of bananas?
Very heavy bananas, huh?
Well, Portuguese die, too.
Better hurry up. I'll see to the ship.
But you be quick, Inglês.
Yes, here.
Here's the plantation roughly, and here's the path.
And it's this village here.
It's a village of ex-slaves, I believe.
Yes, a village of bandits.
Their leader, Santiago, came from just around there.
Well, in any case, it's a very wealthy village, because they bought all my goods,
you see, and then they paid for them in gold reales.
Are there many blacks as rich as that on the island?
No. Just how many were there?
Roughly, I'd...
Not more than four or five.
Why?
Because that gold has been stolen from the Bank of Queimada, senhor.
- You don't say. - Yes.
Inglês!
- There are soldiers. - Yes, I have seen them.
The boat?
It's over there, behind the soldiers.
And us?
I brought weapons. But then, we're rather few, aren't we?
I don't suppose they like the Portuguese any more than we do.
Let's see, perhaps there's some people up there
who'd be willing to help us.
No, no one will risk being killed for a dislike.
Least of all for our money.
Well, you ask them anyway. Maybe they'll help.
I am sorry, friends,
but the Portuguese are coming.
They will be here at any moment.
I am sorry it happens here,
here, in your village,
but we can't let the soldiers take us.
Don't you agree?
Maybe most of you will be better off if you went away.
Up to the sierra.
Better to hide the old ones,
the women and the babies.
But if there are
any of you who are not old,
not women,
and are really men,
someone who in life, at least once,
have thought of killing his Portuguese master,
then now is the time to act.
Portuguese can be killed.
I will prove it to you.
Can you use rifles?
First, I'll show you how to load it.
Now, a measure of powder.
Then the hemp.
A measure of lead.
Again, the hemp.
Now,
the rifle is ready.
Tomorrow, Inglês.
I like it here, it's nice.
Wait until after the festa.
As soon as they realize those soldiers aren't coming back,
they'll send others.
They won't send them in 10s or 20s.
Be a bloody massacre.
Is that why we stole the gold?
To die up here,
or to be rich
and live as free men?
What do you say, José?
Why did we steal the gold?
Like you said, to be rich and free.
And after that?
Is there any left?
José,
you're beginning to like it, aren't you?
No, rum is better.
All right, I'll call the others.
Let's go.
If we go, they will all die.
Yes, probably.
I am sorry.
You will go alone,
I'll stay here.
Gentlemen, let me ask you a question.
Now, my metaphor might seem a trifle impertinent,
but I think it's very much to the point.
Which do you prefer,
or should I say, which do you find more convenient?
A wife or one of these mulatto girls?
No, no, please don't misunderstand. I'm speaking strictly in terms of economics.
What is the cost of the product?
What does the product yield?
The product, in this case, being love.
Purely physical love,
since sentiments, obviously, play no part in economics.
Quite.
Now, a wife must be provided with a home,
with food, with dresses, with medical attention, etcetera, etcetera.
You're obliged to keep her a whole lifetime
even when she's grown old and perhaps a trifle unproductive.
Then, of course, if you have the bad luck to survive her,
you have to pay for the funeral.
No, no, it's true.
Gentlemen, I know it seems amusing but actually those are the facts, aren't they?
Now, with a prostitute, on the other hand,
it's quite a different matter, isn't it?
You see there's no need to lodge her or to feed her,
certainly not to dress her or to bury her, thank God.
She's yours only when you need her.
You pay her only for that service
and you pay her by the hour.
Which, gentlemen, is more important
and more convenient?
A slave or a paid worker?
Which do you find more convenient?
Foreign domination with its laws, its vetoes, its taxes,
its commercial monopolies or independence?
With your own government, your own laws, your own administration
and the freedom to trade with anyone you like
on terms that are dictated only by the prices on the international market...
Not only for the freedom of trade, Mr. Walker.
I believe that for many of us
there are idealistic motives which are even more important.
We are now a nation, a small nation.
Born here and forged with toil, with difficulty,
it took more than three centuries.
A nation, which originated from Portugal
but now is not a part of Portugal anymore.
And that no longer wants to be a Portuguese colony.
That's all quite correct, my dear Teddy.
We all agree on the idealistic motives.
But it's the example of the whore
that doesn't convince me as yet, Mr. Walker.
What will happen if once the Negro ceases to be a slave
and instead of wanting to be a worker, wants to be the boss?
That's exactly what will happen if we go on arguing about it.
Four months ago, José Dolores
was on the Sierra Madre with a few dozen men.
Then he reached Sierra Trinidad with four or five hundred.
Now there are thousands.
Spreading through the lowlands.
It is my view that if you don't take immediate action,
if you don't weave yourselves into this revolt,
you'll be swept away.
Then your ex-slaves, instead of becoming your workers
will not become your bosses, Mr. Prada,
but your executioners.
Now, what are my interests in the matter? And who am I?
Very simply, I represent Her Britannic Majesty.
A British agent, if you prefer.
But actually, you know, England wants the same thing that you want,
the freedom of trade and therefore an end to foreign domination in all Latin America.
But what England does not want, however,
and what I think you yourselves do not want,
are these revolutions carried to their extreme consequences.
Men like José Dolores and Toussaint L'Ouverture
are perhaps necessary to ignite a situation
but then after that, they become very dangerous as in Haiti, for example.
Yes, you certainly have got a point there.
So, gentlemen, as you can see,
I think our interests coincide, at least for the moment
and they also coincide with progress and civilization.
And for those who believe in it, it's important.
And you? Do you believe in it, Mr. Walker?
Yes, Mr. Prada, I do.
It's time.
I don't know how I'll be able to go through with it, Sir William.
Well, it always seems that way the first time
but you'll see, it's actually rather simple.
It's only a moment.
Very simple moment, and then it's over.
Come on, men. Forward, follow me!
Hurry!
Go out there, show yourself. Say something.
Long live Queimada.
Long live Queimada!
Freedom!
Inglês!
Inglês, when did you get back?
Me? I never left.
I've been here all the time.
Here? And the boat?
Never existed.
And the gold?
Back in the bank.
Sure, and I'm still a porter. It's all the same as before, eh?
If I had told you, José, to start a revolution,
you wouldn't have understood me.
To rob a bank, yes, that was possible.
First, you learned to kill in order to defend yourself.
And later you had to kill to defend others.
And the rest came by itself.
And you?
What do you get?
Nothing.
Salary from the British Admiralty.
A rather modest one.
And England, what is her part in this?
Portugal is England's enemy
and if the English ships were not in the port of Queimada,
the Portuguese would already have returned.
And how many English ships are there?
Don't be too ambitious, José.
No, I just asked.
Ramón, Pedro, Andrés, that's enough now. You dance in town.
It might be better if you camped here, José.
It would be better.
But they have fought and suffered, and they have won, Inglês.
They have a right to go to the city.
Well, they'll have plenty of time for that, all the time in the world.
Gentlemen, I would like to present General José Dolores.
Mr. Prada.
Augusto Anguilar.
Fernando Gabriella.
Allow me to present Gen. Dolores, Mr. Teddy Sanchez.
He directed the rebellion here in the capital.
It was he who killed the governor
and he is now the president of the new provisional government
whose first act it was, to abolish slavery.
General, you have our admiration.
Your help has been invaluable. Thank you.
In the name of the provisional government,
I invite you to discuss with us the proposals for a constitution.
Gentlemen, shall we?
Sim, that was the chair of the governor.
May God bless you, José Dolores.
Thank you.
Well, senhores, you wanted to talk with me?
Here I am.
Well, come forward.
Come on, senhores.
We will talk.
But, I warn you, speak plainly.
Your government is provisional.
Well, my encampment is, too.
My people won't be delayed.
No.
No. No, no, and no.
For a month you've been answering "no."
Why don't you try suggesting something, General?
Bastards!
Excuse me, General, but I must talk to you
about a very urgent matter concerning both our countries.
All of Queimada's sugar is rotting in storehouses and on the quays.
And so?
But only a commercial agreement between us can change this situation.
And so?
The temporary government no longer exists.
With whom can I negotiate?
Who will sign this agreement? I was advised to ask you.
Who advised it?
I did.
I told him.
And not even England can wait forever.
But not only England buys the sugar.
No, and not only Queimada sells it.
Not to mention the fact that in Europe,
they're already extracting it from sugar beet.
Did you know that, General?
And what if Queimada were not to sell any more sugar?
How would these people live?
You can't delay your decision, General.
Competition is getting stronger every day.
Are you familiar with the latest raw sugar market quotation?
Ten and 11 raw sugars, which up to a month ago,
were quoted at seven and five-eighths to eight cents a pound
at the last opening, had no price.
The refined, up eight and a quarter, three quarters, down by a half, more or less.
Number 12, current category, opened without firmness.
Refined, polarized at 96 degrees, and lot 60 aren't even quoted at the opening.
That's enough. Get out!
But, General...
Leave me alone.
Everything seems quite clear.
I'm particularly good at convincing my people
and you, sir, have all the necessary qualities of a responsible head of state.
Go away! And stay away!
Ramón, clear the whites out!
All of them!
Who'll govern your island, José?
Who'll run your industries?
Who'll handle your commerce?
Who'll cure the sick?
Teach in your schools?
This man?
Or that man?
Or the other?
Civilization is not a simple matter, José.
You cannot learn its secrets overnight.
Today civilization belongs to the white man
and you must learn to use it.
Without it, you cannot go forward.
But to go where, Inglês?
Is better that you, too, go away.
There's José!
I need 10 more men at the south barricade.
Pedro, you go with them. Hurry!
Fifteen armed men with me to the main gate.
You can tell the whites I am going.
Say that my men will lay down their arms
and return to the plantations.
England will rejoice, Inglês.
Not only England, José.
Have I become so dangerous?
Yes.
Even for your own people, José.
Well, I'm not now.
But you can tell the white men.
Tell your friends.
They're not my friends, José.
Well, no matter.
You tell them, "Be careful."
Very careful.
They may know how to sell sugar but we are the ones who cut the cane!
No, thank you.
No, no.
Your bag, senhor?
A general doesn't carry baggage.
But he will for a friend.
All right, José. Come on.
José, what are you going to do with yourself?
And you?
I don't suppose you ever heard of a place called Indochina.
Well, they're sending me there.
Then, to Indochina.
To those who cut the cane.
Right. Or there'd be no sugar for your tea.
And since no one in the world wants to drink their tea without sugar,
business continued to prosper for the world's leading sugar companies.
This is the London Stock Exchange. 10 years have passed.
The quotations of shares in the sugar companies continue to rise.
The companies are merging, and with the increase of their economic strength,
grow ever more powerful.
Thus, they are now able to take personal charge
of law and order on their plantations.
Naturally, their first concern is to procure for this job
the most efficient experts available.
"Empire Club."
We'll try here.
He was like another man.
Sir William?
Sir William Walker.
First, he left the navy.
And then, let's see...
Here we are.
On May 7, 1841, he was expelled from this club.
What? Expelled?
Yes.
He broke our rules.
I told you, he was another man.
How very unfortunate.
Did he leave an address, perhaps?
Yes. 21 White Dock Street.
Most unsavory district, I must say.
Would you like to continue?
Sir William Walker?
Permit me. Henry Thompson.
This is Jack Martin.
- Nice to know you, sir. - Pleasure.
You're a hard man to trace, Sir William.
We've been half way around Europe just trying to find you.
That's rather flattering.