PEDRO ALVAREZ ATTACKS

Jan Smuga was awakened by a soft knock on the door of the room in which he was sleeping. Without getting up from the cot, which was covered on all sides by a mosquito net, he called out: “Enter!”
A young woman shyly looked into the room, which was dimly lit.
"Excuse me, please, I didn't want to interrupt your siesta, but a boy from the office came," she began to justify herself, "saying that Mr. Nixon sent him on a very important matter.
— You did the right thing, Natasha, to wake me up, I'm already quite rested. News may finally be received from the shores of Putumayo. Let the messenger in! Smuga reached out from under the mosquito net and took a box of tobacco from the table beside the bed. He filled his pipe and lit it. Soon a boy entered the room, with a busy air and a clever expression. He was dressed only in a long coloured shirt, which hung loose below his knees, and was girded with a coloured calico sash. He seemed to be about fourteen years of age. The reddish-brown color of his skin, the black, stiff hair cut in a circle, the slanting eyes, and the prominent cheekbones on his face clearly indicated his Native American heritage.
“Bom dia, senhor!”[18] he said in Portuguese.
“Bom dia, Gogo! Raise the blinds on the windows,” said Smuga, and added in Polish, “Nataszka, please bring me a glass of tea.”
"I'll cook it now," the young woman replied, smiling at her guardian.
The Indian lifted the blinds on the windows and opened the curtain that covered the door to the veranda. The bright light of the tropical sun burst into the room. The boy stopped next to Smuga and said,
"Senor Nixon ordered me to go to Senor Smuga." Evil people attacked the acampamento[19] of Rio Putumayo. They've killed Señor Nixon's primo[20].
Smuga pushed the mosquitera away with a sharp gesture and jumped up from the cot.
— Is it true? he asked curtly.
— A boa gente[21] from the acampamento has arrived," the Indian added.
— Then it's started! Run to Nixon and tell him I'll be there soon!
The Indian immediately left the room. Smuga took a belt with a holstered revolver from a nail, and began to load the weapon carefully.
Seeing the ominous preparations, Natasha turned pale. Since arriving in Manaus, she had been unable to shake off the feeling that misfortune awaited her here. Despite the fact that the city was teeming with life, Natasha could not get used to it and was constantly expecting misfortune. Manaus, located 1,690 kilometers from the nearest ocean coast, the eastern coast, stood on the banks of a vast, majestic, and menacing waterway: the Amazon River, whose milky-yellow, murky waters held the promise of death. Like all cities in the Amazonas and Pará states, Manaus was cut off from the rest of the country. Apart from the banks of the Rio Negro, Manaus was surrounded on all sides by primitive, swampy forests, a hotbed of malaria and leprosy, teeming with venomous snakes, pesky insects, and strange animals. In addition, there were still unconquered Indian tribes who avoided contact with white people.
Every day, ships, barges, and boats docked at the port of Manaus, bringing the sap of rubber trees, processed into black balls or slabs, from the depths of the jungle. Here, the rubber was exchanged for pure gold. As a result, the city grew and developed day by day, becoming a bustling human metropolis. Bankers, merchants, adventurers, and exhausted workers who had managed to escape the green hell with their heads and hard-earned money were seen drinking wine and champagne in third-rate taverns.
In the virgin forests of the Amazon, the law of the strongest still prevailed. In order to obtain workers, rubber speculators often organized so-called correarias, or hunts for Indian slaves. Once enslaved, the Indians were forced to remain in this state until their death. As a result, the Indians, who had initially been quite friendly towards the whites, began to retreat further and further into the wild and inaccessible areas. They developed a deep-seated hatred for the whites, who had become a symbol of violence, evil, and cruelty.
Just a year and a half ago, during an expedition to New Guinea, Natasha dreamed of settling somewhere in one of the charming exotic corners of the globe. It was then that Tomek Wilmowski's father said that idyllic corners at first glance did not really correspond to the concept of an earthly paradise. But it wasn't until she found herself in Manaus that Natasha realized how right Wilmovsky was. This noble man was not exaggerating when he revealed to Natasha the terrible truth about life in the colonies. Now Natasha was eager to leave exotic Brazil as soon as possible. The knowledge that people of her race had done so much harm weighed heavily on Natasha's mind, filling her heart with sadness.
After their successful return from their expedition to New Guinea, the young couple, Tomek Wilmowski and Sally, left for England to continue their education. Tomek's father and Captain Nowicki were in Hamburg, where they were working on a project for a new department in the ethnographic museum on behalf of Hagenbeck.
Zbyszek Karski, Tomek's cousin, had married a young Russian girl, Natasha, while still in Australia, with whom he had escaped from Siberian exile. Zbyszek dreamed of taking part in some expedition and traveling like Tomek.
It was at this time that Jan Smug