A ray of hope in the shade of the Dragon trees (Brave Azorean People I)
It's mid-September when Francisco de Bettencourt de Vasconcelos arrives on the island of Picos in the Azores. He has come to supervise the work of the overseer of his father's land during the grape harvest to make sure that everything goes well. Francisco and his family belong to one of the noble lineages that live in Faial and have become rich from exporting wine to the British. His father, the 1st Viscount of Praia, is one of the largest producers of fine white wines in the parish of São Mateus, located on the southern slope of the island of Picos. However, Francisco, his third son, is destined to live in poverty from the day he leaves his father's house because, as tradition dictates, he won't be entitled to his father's inheritance.
Francisco is a swarthy, elegant young man who is a hit with the girls on the island. However, his elegance has cost him dear, as he has run up a large debt with his tailor in Faial. Lately, this has cost him nights of sleep, as Francisco doesn't know where to get the money he needs to pay off the debt. His only possessions are a diamond ring and a pair of earrings that belong to the set. These jewels were given to him in secret by his mother, so that one day he will be able to give them to his future fiancée. Francisco, everyone in the family knows, will soon have to leave his father's house and fight for his life. His brother has fun teasing him by saying that he would do well to play up his charm with one of the daughters of the wealthy merchant families with no noble lineage who live in Faial. But Francisco is a dreamy boy, who dreams of venturing out into the world, and a wife would be a hindrance in this case.
This year the harvest will be late. It's the weather here on the islands that's to blame, as this year the summer came later than in previous years. For Francisco, coming to Picos is pure pleasure. He loves the wild beauty of this volcanic island, where the slopes are covered in ropes of fossilized lava, which descend from the peak of the volcano high above and consolidate to form the black basalt that covers almost the entire island. The island's oldest residents still remember the last volcanic explosion, which took place in 1718, just 30 years ago.This explosion destroyed the many verdelho vineyards scattered around the island and covered almost everything in molten lava.Today, just over 17,000 people live here, almost all of them peons, brave and generous people, just like the wine they produce.The harvest won't start until tomorrow.Francisco decides to take the day off to climb to the top of Piquinho, at an altitude of over 2000m, so that he can admire the view from the top. He invites Manuel, the overseer of his father's land, to come along. The two are childhood friends and used to play together freely around the island during the times when his father moved with his whole family to Picos at the end of the summer. They start climbing the mountain at daybreak to take advantage of the cooler weather. The hike is strenuous, but when they reach the top, the view they get of the island makes all the effort worthwhile. Pico Mountain, which dominates much of the island, now lies at their feet. There, the air is fresh and saturated with sulphur fumes that escape from the summit from time to time. While they rest, the two of them admire the lands of the municipality of Madalena, facing the island of Faial, all divided into squares of stacked basalt stone, forming low walls that surround the vineyards, protecting them from the inclement wind that blows in from the sea.
While Francisco admires the sun reflected in the sea like a mirror, Manuel complains about the hard work he and his peons do in the vineyards, which practically sprout from the rock."Francisco, you know that for every grapevine seedling planted, we have to dig a hole in the rock with a pick and fill it with a handful of earth brought by boat from Faial.This is slave labor, which only black people should do. Without our exhausting work, there wouldn't be the vineyards or your father's wealth, there would only be Dragoeiros on this island.
However, we are almost all dying of hunger because of the droughts. Please ask your father to do something for us!". Insensitive to Manuel's demands, Francisco is irritated by his defense of slave labor. "How can someone who is almost miserable want to defend slave labor? And then they call themselves Christians! But Pope Benedict XIV himself asked King John to end slavery in the colonies a few years ago! How many more years are we going to have to put up with this shame?" he thinks to himself as he stands up and starts shaking out his clothes, in an obvious sign that it's time for them to start the descent. "Sit down, man. I'm still out of breath. Besides, I'd like to talk to you about wine production."
However, we are almost all dying of hunger because of the droughts. Please ask your father to do something for us!". Insensitive to Manuel's demands, Francisco is irritated by his defense of slave labor. "How can someone who is almost miserable want to defend slave labor? And then they call themselves Christians! But Pope Benedict XIV himself asked King John to end slavery in the colonies a few years ago! How many more years are we going to have to put up with this shame?" he thinks to himself as he stands up and starts shaking out his clothes, in an obvious sign that it's time for them to start the descent. "Sit down, man. I'm still out of breath. Besides, I'd like to talk to you about wine production."
"I don't think wine production will be so good this year. Perhaps we'll reach a maximum of 5,000 barrels of wine, half of what we produced in previous years. This is due to the drought, which is punishing the islands this year. In addition, there is starting to be a shortage of labor.The picoeiros are fleeing hunger by boarding galleys to Brazil", continues Manuel. Francisco then notices that several of the stone corrals are abandoned.The vines planted there are dry, twisted and on the verge of death.With a sigh of indifference, he turns to his friend: "You'll have to take this up with my father, because I've decided to migrate to Brazil in search of gold. There's nothing left for me here". As he speaks, Francisco begins to unwrap his meal, before Manuel's astonished eyes. How long had it been since he had seen such delicacies to feast on? All Manuel has been able to find to feed himself and his parents these days are roots, fruit and broom flowers. But there, in front of him, Francisco is carelessly placing on the stone a pig's bladder full of red wine from the previous harvest, a fragrant sausage, a beautiful piece of cured cheese and donuts, which he has brought from his father's pantry.
Francisco gets up and walks off carrying the wine in his hands. He skirts the summit for a few meters and sets off to contemplate the "rola-pipas", a narrow path carved into the rock where the wine barrels roll down the hillside to be loaded onto merchant ships. That narrow path will be his gateway to exploring the world aboard a galley! The governors of the island region, which is currently facing overpopulation and famine, promise all those who emigrate to Brazil the chance to become rich in the promised land.
Lately, Francisco, like so many others, prays every night that the crown will soon authorize him to migrate to the colony, where a bright future awaits him. As well as gold, Francisco knows that there is brazilwood and plenty of fertile land to be cultivated in those parts.
Manuel approaches silently, afraid of disturbing his friend who is absorbed in his thoughts. But Francisco snaps out of his trance and asks: "How long has it been since we've bathed in that lake? We could spend one of these late summer afternoons there, when the grape harvest is over. That would be a good memory for me to carry in my heart and look back on in the days when I miss this land too much." The two friends then set off on their return journey. They go a little taciturn, because they know that the new times are times of change and that they may not meet again in the future.
When they finally return to the landlord's house, it's late and the last rays of sunlight are filtering through the leafy canopy of the dragon tree grove next to the house. A group of very skinny and ragged boys are working on the rough trunks of these trees, extracting their blood-colored sap, the dragon's blood, which will later be exported for the manufacture of medicines and tinctures.
Exhausted, the two boys sit in the shade of the dragon trees and admire the mist-shrouded peak from which they have just descended, when they are suddenly surprised by Francisco's younger sister, who runs excitedly towards them with a letter in her hands. "Brother, you have just received a letter from King João V, the Magnanimous!". And with a flourish and a big smile on her lips, she hands her brother the long-awaited reply.
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