Summary Thomas Mein Reed White Leader
Thomas Mine Reed
White Leader
The action takes place in Mexico in the late 18th – early 19th century. The novel opens with a description of the holiday in honor of the day of St. John in the small Mexican town of San Ildefonso. Here all the layers of society are having fun. Among the aristocrats stands Catalina de Cruces, daughter of the wealthy owner of the mines of Don Ambrosio. There is also a candidate for her hand, Captain Roblado, a serf garrison officer, and the commandant of the fortress, forty-year-old Colonel Viscarra.
The main participant in the competition, which is an integral part of the holiday, is Carlos, a buffalo hunter. He, his elderly mother, who has the glory of a sorceress, and the beautiful sister of Rosita are Americans. They are fair-skinned and fair-haired, besides they do not attend church, which is why they are called heretics, and the local population treats them without sympathy, even with apprehension.
During the holiday,
He hates Carlos and would give it dearly to take him out of the way, because he even noticed Rosita at the festival, which he wants to make his mistress. He hates Carlos and Captain Roblado, who has noticed how his beloved Catalina and the buffalo hunter exchange secret signs.
A week after the holiday, Carlos leaves to hunt buffalo. Hunting is developing successfully, as well as trade: Carlos successfully exchanges taken specifically for this purpose goods for mules from the Wako Indians. However, at night, he is plundered by an uncovered Indian detachment. Carlos sins on wako, but it soon becomes clear that his hostile waco tribe of Pan was robbed. At Carlos there is a hope to return stolen by means of wako. He goes to their camp, appears
While Carlos is hunting, Viscarra tries to win Rosita’s heart, but the girl gives him a decisive rebuff. Then Roblado offers the commandant a cunning plan: in the guise of the Indians, they kidnap Rosita, and Carlos’s house is set on fire. A miserable mother, stunned by a blow to the head, takes don Juan to her place.
Carlos returns home in the hope that now that he is rich, he will be able to marry Catalina, and Rosita – to marry don Juan. However, on the site of the house there was only one ashes. Once there, don Juan tells of the Indian raid and the courage of garrisoned lancers who have made every effort to catch them.
Carlos visits his mother, and she tells him about her suspicions. Then Carlos goes on the trail of the “Indians”, which leads him to the fortress. He decides to take revenge on Colonel Viskarra for the slandered honor of his sister and deceives him into the fortress. However, it is impossible to reckon with the colonel: Lieutenant Garcia comes to the rescue, whom Carlos has to kill for self-defense purposes. Viskarra manages to escape, and Carlos just lightly hurts him on the cheek.
As the murderer Carlos is outlawed, he is rewarded for his head. Viscarrera and Roblado are making plans to catch him, but before that they release his sister, – having invented that they beat her off from the Indians.
Rosita agrees to take home the poor girl Josef, the bride of one of Carlos’s farm laborers. On the way to their cart the rider is catching up – this is Catalina, who through Josef passes Carlos a ring with a diamond, and Josef generously gives money.
The next day in the church of Josef, Catalina transmits a note from Carlos, where he rejects the charge of murder, calling himself an avenger, and appoints Catalina a date.
In the meantime, Viscarrara and Roblado are taking every step to catch Carlos: his ranch is under surveillance, and one of the servants of Catalina, Vincent, the bride of soldier Jose, is bribed. She sends the commandant a letter from Carlos to Catalina. Roblado decides to arrange an ambush, although he does not know exactly where the meeting of lovers will take place. Just in case, he hides near the house of Catalina and at the signal of Vincennes attacks them. Carlos manages to escape, and Catalina is seized and put under house arrest.
To track down Carlos, Viscarr and Roblado seek help from two thugs who have long disliked Carlos. This is the mulatto Manuel and Sambo (the son of a Negro and an Indian) Pepe. Those willingly accept the offer, the more that they guess where Carlos is hiding, and count on the promised reward.
Villains want to take Carlos alive, as the reward for the living doubles. Finding his refuge, they wait until he leaves the cave, and then hide there to take him by surprise.
Carlos really leaves at night to meet with his farm laborer Antonio, who became his faithful friend. Antonio warns the owner of the danger, and the one before him to enter the cave, lets the dog advance. Learning that there is an ambush in the cave, he jumps into the forest. There, in the clearing, he builds a fire and dresses the trunk of a cactus in his suit. Villains take a cactus for sleeping Carlos and attack him. Carlos is easy to deal with unsuspecting thugs.
Viskarra and Roblado do not know what else to do, but it turns out that Carlos still managed to catch – thanks to the betrayal of one of his servants. At the same time, his mother and sister are thrown into prison. Honed in the cell, Carlos becomes witness to the cruel punishment to which unfortunate women are subjected: they are tied to the backs of mules, they are beaten with whips. Unable to withstand torture, Carlos’s mother dies.
Carlos has his hands and feet tied, he is guarded vigilantly, and he is beginning to despair. He even attends the idea of suicide, and, unexpectedly unknotting his belts, he tries with their help to take his own life. However, being at the window, he suddenly gets a blow to the forehead – it’s a bundle with gold coins and a knife sent by Catalina. In the attached note, the girl offers an escape plan.
At night, Carlos makes a hole in a wall made of unbaked bricks and escapes. Simultaneously, taking advantage of the absence of his father and lulling the vigilance of the guards, Catalina runs from the house. Meeting at the appointed place, Carlos with Catalina, Rosita and several loyal servants go on a long journey – to America, to the other side of the Great Plains.
A few months later, Carlos returns to San Ildefonso to take revenge. With him – five hundred Indian soldiers from the Wako tribe, who once elected him their leader. The Indians organize a terrible massacre in the fortress, leaving only Colonel Viscarrera and Captain Roblado alive-a more terrible death awaits them.
But Carlos is not satisfied with the massacre of the garrison – at one time he vowed to avenge the inhabitants of the valley. His soldiers burn San Ildefonso to the ground, allowing only Indians and a few white people, including Catalina’s father to leave.
The next day, Carlos commits an act of retribution against the Jesuit fathers, who at one time used to molest his family: the Indians tied them to the backs of mules and awarded them with whips, and then they were shot from the bow.
Even more terrible penalty is prepared for Viscarrera and Roblado: they are tied to the saddles of wild mustangs, and then they let the horses run all the way towards the gorge…
And Carlos, taking from the Indians the gold promised to him, goes to Louisiana, where on the bank of the Red River plantation. With him happily live a beautiful wife, a sister, married to don Juan, and several old servants.
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