Rose-colored birds were circling inquisitively over the camp. Perceiving no danger, they spiraled in wide arcs toward the sandy banks of the majestic river, finally glided down, walked leisurely on their long, thin legs as if on stilts into the slowly flowing water and began, rather solemnly, to fish.
FOR THIRTY-FIVE YEARS, from 1876 to 1911, power in Mexico was in the hands of one man, Porfirio Díaz. Mexico’s constitution had been altered to give sanction to his re-elections, which were assured by his appointment of state governors and other officials. Opposition was controlled by a ruthless federal police, called the rurales. It was a reign of peace and prosperity for the few and dire poverty for the many—half the entire rural population of Mexico was bound to debt slavery. Big landowners and foreign capital were favored as more and more Indians lost their communal lands.
In the final decade of Díaz’ rule, however, opposition strengthened, and before his last engineered re-election he promised a return to democratic forms—which after the election he gave no sign of honoring. In 1910 revolution broke out; independent rebel armies under the leadership of Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Madero and others upset the power of the landlords and eventually overthrew the Díaz regime.
In what have become known as the “Jungle Novels,” B. Traven wrote, during the 1930’s, an epic of the birth of the Mexican revolution. The six novels—Government, The Carreta, March to the Montería, The Troza, The Rebellion of the Hanged, and The General from the Jungle—describe the conditions of peonage and debt slavery under which the Indians suffered in Díaz’ time. The novels follow the spirit of rebellion that slowly spread through the labor camps and haciendas, culminating in the bloody revolt that ended Porfirio Díaz’ rule.
In the 1920’s, when B. Traven arrived in the country, peonage, although officially abolished by the new constitution of 1917, was still a general practice in many parts of Mexico. The author observed the system at first hand in Chiapas, the southernmost province, a mountainous and heavily forested region, where the jungle novels, as well as many other of his stories, are set.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 by R. E. Lujan
All rights reserved
Library of Congress catalog card number: 74-163569
eISBN 978-0-374-72257-9
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension. 5442, or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
First Hill and Wang edition, November 1971
First American Century Series edition, 1975