Punishment

Isabella ordered Damas beaten for desertion. His pleas became screams, and when the beatings stopped, we were ordered to drag him to the great tree and bind him there so he would set an example. “Let him spend the night,” she said. The mutineers had long since vanished, and nine stone-covered mounds had taken their place – Isabella had finally buried them. Perhaps alive. After Damas, Ruiz came to me in the night and said that if we were to find more of our number, we were not to capture them, but instead, warn them. He said that if we found others, they would end up as the one we had found today. I told him that Isabella would surely punish us if we disobeyed, and he hissed at me that we would be punished if we followed her orders as surely as if we disobeyed them. Whatever she is, she is not our Captain, not any longer – if we do not leave, we shall end up acting as her or else we shall be executed as surely as the others we found were. - Manuel