{"id":"01KG6YHAB7D4MX7QC6SVEGARNH","cid":"bafkreifbl3jxypcmxjqudoanvrdrpe7rogk56n4lqsovgud3o6qedfu6xi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7713,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":7652,"text":"sticks into a tree, contrives to free himself from his handcuffs.\r\n\r\nBrooding among the ruins of his hut, and the desolate clinkers and\r\nextinct volcanoes of this outcast isle, the insulted misanthrope now\r\nmeditates a signal revenge upon humanity, but conceals his purposes.\r\nVessels still touch the Landing at times; and by-and-by Oberlus is\r\nenabled to supply them with some vegetables.\r\n\r\nWarned by his former failure in kidnapping strangers, he now pursues a\r\nquite different plan. When seamen come ashore, he makes up to them like\r\na free-and-easy comrade, invites them to his hut, and with whatever\r\naffability his red-haired grimness may assume, entreats them to drink\r\nhis liquor and be merry. But his guests need little pressing; and so,\r\nsoon as rendered insensible, are tied hand and foot, and pitched among\r\nthe clinkers, are there concealed till the ship departs, when, finding\r\nthemselves entirely dependent upon Oberlus, alarmed at his changed\r\ndemeanor, his savage threats, and above all, that shocking blunderbuss,\r\nthey willingly enlist under him, becoming his humble slaves, and\r\nOberlus the most incredible of tyrants. So much so, that two or three\r\nperish beneath his initiating process. He sets the remainder—four of\r\nthem—to breaking the caked soil; transporting upon their backs loads of\r\nloamy earth, scooped up in moist clefts among the mountains; keeps them\r\non the roughest fare; presents his piece at the slightest hint of\r\ninsurrection; and in all respects converts them into reptiles at his\r\nfeet—plebeian garter-snakes to this Lord Anaconda.\r\n\r\nAt last, Oberlus contrives to stock his arsenal with four rusty\r\ncutlasses, and an added supply of powder and ball intended for his\r\nblunderbuss. Remitting in good part the labor of his slaves, he now\r\napproves himself a man, or rather devil, of great abilities in the way\r\nof cajoling or coercing others into acquiescence with his own ulterior\r\ndesigns, however at first abhorrent to them. But indeed, prepared for\r\nalmost any eventual evil by their previous lawless life, as a sort of\r\nranging Cow-Boys of the sea, which had dissolved within them the whole\r\nmoral man, so that they were ready to concrete in the first offered\r\nmould of baseness now; rotted down from manhood by their hopeless\r\nmisery on the isle; wonted to cringe in all things to their lord,\r\nhimself the worst of slaves; these wretches were now become wholly\r\ncorrupted to his hands. He used them as creatures of an inferior race;\r\nin short, he gaffles his four animals, and makes murderers of them; out\r\nof cowards fitly manufacturing bravos.\r\n\r\nNow, sword or dagger, human arms are but artificial claws and fangs,\r\ntied on like false spurs to the fighting cock. So, we repeat, Oberlus,\r\nczar of the isle, gaffles his four subjects; that is, with intent of\r\nglory, puts four rusty cutlasses into their hands. Like any other\r\nautocrat, he had a noble army now.\r\n\r\nIt might be thought a servile war would hereupon ensue. Arms in the\r\nhands of trodden slaves? how indiscreet of Emperor Oberlus! Nay, they\r\nhad but cutlasses—sad old scythes enough—he a blunderbuss, which by its\r\nblind scatterings of all sorts of boulders, clinkers, and other scoria\r\nwould annihilate all four mutineers, like four pigeons at one shot.\r\nBesides, at first he did not sleep in his accustomed hut; every lurid\r\nsunset, for a time, he might have been seen wending his way among the\r\nriven mountains, there to secrete himself till dawn in some sulphurous\r\npitfall, undiscoverable to his gang; but finding this at last too\r\ntroublesome, he now each evening tied his slaves hand and foot, hid the\r\ncutlasses, and thrusting them into his barracks, shut to the door, and\r\nlying down before it, beneath a rude shed lately added, slept out the\r\nnight, blunderbuss in hand.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBWBP27MZM102JNCMSXJ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAB7W1F9APGA1ZKVQN82","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAB7E953SNE84XMBFB9A","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:57.479Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:07.435Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}