Page:Plunder (Perlman).djvu/40

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34

Asia were the fault of Asians, as if the Europeans had never come. . .

MOKSA

Ah, Indio. You truly do not understand.

INDIO

I do, father! You said the poor farmers can think of nothing but debts and taxes, as if those were their favorite thoughts. But if it weren't for the moneylenders picking like hungry vultures at their dying flesh, they wouldn't think of debts, and if it weren't for the tax-collectors who are paid to take the food and shelter of Indians and ship it to England, they wouldn't think of taxes. If it wasn't for the English we wouldn't have these debts.

MOKSA

Perhaps the English had something to offer, perhaps we were unwilling, or unable, to integrate it into our spirit.

INDIO

Whatever it was, they certainly didn't offer it! They made us run it for them so the English rich could go shooting animals. I've just been reading about South American Incas. There you can really see what the Europeans had to offer.

AMONG AUDIENCE

(Cecil returns to theater with a ledger. He tiptoes to Edward and whispers.)

CECIL

I found something Ed.

EDWARD

(loudly)

You what?

American scientists dug up some remains--they probably didn't know what it meant, how it brought

CECIL

Here in the book. October 3, 1943. There's a note about an