{"id":"01KG6YHAB5EB2WTPCBKB86MDGQ","cid":"bafkreihyrw3u623e74iek2srb3fwrtlp4dr4q2n3hhhbgdnltesgalsuyy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7604,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":7545,"text":"his whole aspect and all his gestures were so malevolently and\r\nuselessly sinister and secret, that he seemed rather in act of dropping\r\npoison into wells than potatoes into soil. But among his lesser and\r\nmore harmless marvels was an idea he ever had, that his visitors came\r\nequally as well led by longings to behold the mighty hermit Oberlus in\r\nhis royal state of solitude, as simply, to obtain potatoes, or find\r\nwhatever company might be upon a barren isle. It seems incredible that\r\nsuch a being should possess such vanity; a misanthrope be conceited;\r\nbut he really had his notion; and upon the strength of it, often gave\r\nhimself amusing airs to captains. But after all, this is somewhat of a\r\npiece with the well-known eccentricity of some convicts, proud of that\r\nvery hatefulness which makes them notorious. At other times, another\r\nunaccountable whim would seize him, and he would long dodge advancing\r\nstrangers round the clinkered corners of his hut; sometimes like a\r\nstealthy bear, he would slink through the withered thickets up the\r\nmountains, and refuse to see the human face.\r\n\r\nExcept his occasional visitors from the sea, for a long period, the\r\nonly companions of Oberlus were the crawling tortoises; and he seemed\r\nmore than degraded to their level, having no desires for a time beyond\r\ntheirs, unless it were for the stupor brought on by drunkenness. But\r\nsufficiently debased as he appeared, there yet lurked in him, only\r\nawaiting occasion for discovery, a still further proneness. Indeed, the\r\nsole superiority of Oberlus over the tortoises was his possession of a\r\nlarger capacity of degradation; and along with that, something like an\r\nintelligent will to it. Moreover, what is about to be revealed, perhaps\r\nwill show, that selfish ambition, or the love of rule for its own sake,\r\nfar from being the peculiar infirmity of noble minds, is shared by\r\nbeings which have no mind at all. No creatures are so selfishly\r\ntyrannical as some brutes; as any one who has observed the tenants of\r\nthe pasture must occasionally have observed.\r\n\r\n“This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother,” said Oberlus to himself,\r\nglaring round upon his haggard solitude. By some means, barter or\r\ntheft—for in those days ships at intervals still kept touching at his\r\nLanding—he obtained an old musket, with a few charges of powder and\r\nball. Possessed of arms, he was stimulated to enterprise, as a tiger\r\nthat first feels the coming of its claws. The long habit of sole\r\ndominion over every object round him, his almost unbroken solitude, his\r\nnever encountering humanity except on terms of misanthropic\r\nindependence, or mercantile craftiness, and even such encounters being\r\ncomparatively but rare; all this must have gradually nourished in him a\r\nvast idea of his own importance, together with a pure animal sort of\r\nscorn for all the rest of the universe.\r\n\r\nThe unfortunate Creole, who enjoyed his brief term of royalty at\r\nCharles’s Isle was perhaps in some degree influenced by not unworthy\r\nmotives; such as prompt other adventurous spirits to lead colonists\r\ninto distant regions and assume political preeminence over them. His\r\nsummary execution of many of his Peruvians is quite pardonable,\r\nconsidering the desperate characters he had to deal with; while his\r\noffering canine battle to the banded rebels seems under the\r\ncircumstances altogether just. But for this King Oberlus and what\r\nshortly follows, no shade of palliation can be given. He acted out of\r\nmere delight in tyranny and cruelty, by virtue of a quality in him\r\ninherited from Sycorax his mother. Armed now with that shocking\r\nblunderbuss, strong in the thought of being master of that horrid isle,\r\nhe panted for a chance to prove his potency upon the first specimen of\r\nhumanity which should fall unbefriended into his hands.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBWBP27MZM102JNCMSXJ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAB7T7AVDAQZP565C6KV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAB7W1F9APGA1ZKVQN82","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:57.477Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:07.484Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}