The Nomadic Alternative – Page 221

West, the peoples of Europe were already conditioned for the luminous

cities of Aztec America. The printing press had everywhere diffused

a class of romantic Late Gothic novels, all of which were versions

of the beautiful hero-damsel in distress-fight the monster-reward

of the treasure theme. Amadis of Gaul and Sergas de Espandian were

the most successful titles. They were the literary expression of

that last outburst of Knight Errantry, the mock heroics of the Order

of the Golden Fleece. Emperor and clerk read them insatiably, and

though St. Theresa piously renounced them as a youthful aberration,

the peevish militancy of her later life suggests that she continued

to see herself as the active hero rather than the passive heroine.

Here, written before the discovery of America, is a description

of the hero, Sergas de Espandian, helping himself to his treasure:

"... and he alone raised the outermost glass door; the inner one

coloured sky-blue, was guarded by a lock of pure diamond stone. The

hinges were of very precious rubies, all inlaid with enormous precious

stones and a huge mother of pearl ...." And when Cortez and his

hidalgos arrived at Montezuma's capital, their eyes ranged over the

green quetzal plumes, sun-discs of gold, mosaics of turquoise,

emeralds, red coral and pearl shell, mirror-black surfaces of obsid-

ian and pyramids of fine masonry; and, like Chuang Tzu and the butter-

fly, could not decide if they were dreaming Amadis of Gaul or Amadis

of Gaul were dreaming them. "... we were amazed", wrote Diaz, "and

we said it was like the enchanted things related in the book of

Amadis because of the great towers, temples and buildings rising

from the water. And some of the soldiers even asked whether the

things we saw were not a dream ..."

A simple desire for loot cannot explain the enthusiasm which

greets colonial adventures in their initial stages, nor the persis-

tence with which they maintain them long after the riches have

evaporated. Rather the colonial outpouring is a national Road of

Trials - a flight from the grief of settlement. The apparent

stability of British civil institutions does not depend on the

depressing effect of the climate or some character for obeying laws