From the earliest times
the Black Belt--it was so called--had been avoided by European
inhabitants, and indeed by the coloured population as well. Apart from
the malaria of the swampy ground it was infested with reptiles and with
poisonous insects of a greater variety and of a more venomous character
than I have ever known in any part of the world.
"I must explain that what I regarded as a weak point in my manager's
theory was this: Whilst he held that the native labourers to a man were
linked together under some head, or guiding influence, he had never
succeeded in surprising anything in the nature of a negro meeting.
Indeed, he had prohibited all gatherings of this kind. His answer to my
criticism was a curious one. He declared that the members of this
mysterious society met and received their instructions at some place
within the poison area to which I have referred, believing themselves
there to be safe from European interference.
"For a long time I disputed this with poor Valera--for such was my
manager's name; when one night as I was dismounting from my horse
before the veranda, having returned from a long ride around the estate,
a shot was fired from the border of the Black Belt which at one point
crept up dangerously close to the hacienda.
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