LL: Last time, you mentioned the 100% casualty rate of the Spaniards on this Entrada, due largely to the arrows used by the Mayans and the poor performance of the Spaniard's mail against them. In addition to these wounds, the Spaniards suffered 30% fatalities and were constantly short of fresh water. You write in response to these circumstances: "Any unit that maintains mobile cohesion after sustaining 100% casualties is either highly trained and seasoned--which this unit was not--or is made up of men of exceptional spirit." What else can you tell us about this spirit? Is this something that can be forged in the battle itself? Is it a product of upbringing, or their Catholic faith? What hope do we have that men will display this spirit in some coming apocalypse?
JL: Modern units are typically rotated out of enemy contact when they hit 30% casualties. Their success I attribute primarily to Cordoba’s heroism. He was not cruel to his men or the enemy and led from the front. He was one of the “good” conquistadors in a crowd where few could be found. This is why I titled the second volume Our Captain, as Diaz, as much as he admired Cortez for his brilliant mind, he loved Cordoba and it shows through in his own rough words.
For this reason, the love of a leader, American—and modernist in general—corporate culture, places the CEO as a sacrificial king at the top of a pyramid and across various industries it is taboo for the management to get their hands dirty leading by example, such as Stevens and Teddy Roosevelt did in spearheading the Panama Canal project. There is no room for leadership in a managed situation in a debt-based society, as every man is a slave.
Lynn, I want you, the readers, to think of their workplace and imagine that every member of the company was somehow stranded on a pirate-infested island during a company cruise. I guarantee you that no member of management of any large company would retain his seat. In fact, the hierarchy would immediately flip.
LL: You mentioned in Part 1, and in the book, that Florida was a disaster zone for the Spanish. The coastal natives were ferocious and the interior is and was an uninhabitable swamp. Have you written anything on this topic that we can look for?
JL: This will be covered in Yellow Negroes and White Indians. Only Soto survived Florida in the Conquistador Age and he had the equivalent of a Marine Expeditionary force, an actual main force battle unit by European standards that could have taken its place in the lineup 100 years later in the 30 Years War and done well. And again, Soto, evil though he was, was a hero, a man who led from the front.
LL: The Governor of Cassavaland includes some notes on the use of cassava as a food staple. This is not a question, I just want to brag that I can make the tasty cheese bread that is common in some parts of South America. The main ingredient is tapioca starch, which comes from cassava. It is only really good fresh, otherwise I would mail you some.
JL: I’ll eat it stale, Lynn, so mail it. Soto’s men ate stale cassava bread in North America.
LL: I'll quote from your review of Buddy Levy's Conquistador in the Appendices: "There has never been a question in my mind that the meeting of Europeans and Native Americans after a 14,000 year separation is about as close as we have gotten on this planet to an alien invasion." James, I have thought a lot about this as well, and I have come to view it as Mother Nature's sickest long form practical joke (I have a cynical view of nature and the environment, like others have towards organized religion). This joke did not merely target Homo Sapiens, I have learned recently that North America is being colonized by an Asian ladybug, very difficult to tell from a North American ladybug, that bites! One of the sweetest, most harmless insects of our childhoods is being out-competed by its more ruthless Asian cousin. This holds across animal species and plants as well, when Asian or European counterparts show up, the clock starts ticking for the American version.
Ok, that wasn't a question either. The Appendices are an extensive part of this book, they comprise James's reviews of sources and relevant references used in A Sickness of the Heart and will surely add a volume or two to everyone's ever expanding reading lists. James, you mention the Spaniards use of dogs to hunt men with, and even the use of other men as human blood hounds. You made good use of these ideas in Reverent Chandler. Have you used these elements in any of your other fiction works?
JL: In the Sunset Saga, there is a Character named Bruco, a Canary Islander from the Isle of Gomera. He is named after a real Gomeran chief. The Gomeran’s were used to defeat the natives on the Island of Palms, Fire Island and Grand Island. The two easy lowland islands fell to the French, Italians and Spanish, but nobody could break the tribesmen on the big islands. You actually had big men with sticks beating the shit out of knights and musketeers for a century.
Living across 20 miles of deep ocean from Fire Island was Exile Island, Gomera, where outcast men were made to swim to with their tongues slit so they could not speak. This is the root of the whistling system they used. This was a real bad idea and put natural selection into play in a karmic way as these guys swam back and forth abducting wives and then towing the women 20 miles through open ocean—this is a channel, not a lagoon.
They swam this channel and came back with a babe:
(Image from travel site orangesmile.com of La Gomera.)
The Spanish were trading with the Gomerans for water rights when they found out that these super, super-warriors wanted to get to their enemies and it was all downhill from there. This is how the Spaniards learned how to hunt men, with Gomeran scouts, modifying a breed of mastiff for this purpose. Although there are no records of Gomerans taking ship for America, every fleet took on water there. I had Bruco get on DaVilla’s Entrada, as some Gomerans, or at least Canary Island veterans, were on the expedition.
What happened was the Spanish took the women while their men were away and when they objected, the Spanish wiped them out. There is hardly any paternal DNA left among aboriginal Gomeran descendents.
Bruco has his own lead role in God’s Picture Maker, one of the few Sunset Saga novels I had professionally edited. You want the Dark Eyed Girl version.
LL: Thanks, James, for indulging me on this Part 2, please include any final thoughts you have. Readers, if you would like us to cover a particular book next, please let us know in the comments!
JL: Lynn, I’m glad you took an interest in this. I was loathe to give up the project, but I had no choice, as the only English translation available omitted large tracts of Diaz’s manuscript, much of it pertaining to military equipment.
(c) 2017 James LaFond & Lynn Lockhart
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