THE MAYFLOWER
(FLOR DE MAYO)
A TALE OF THE VALENCIAN SEASHORE
BY
VICENTE BLASCO IBÁÑEZ
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH
BY
ARTHUR LIVINGSTON
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE
COPYRIGHT 1921
BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All Rights Reserved
First printing March, 1921
Printed in the United States of America
| CONTENTS | |
| I. | The Widow's Tavern |
| II. | "Siñá" Tona's Family |
| III. | A Family Enterprise |
| IV. | Mary and Jesus Meet |
| V. | Two Women Quarrel |
| VI. | The Smugglers |
| VII. | The Naming of the Boat |
| VIII. | The "Mayflower" Puts to Sea |
| IX. | "Proofs! Proofs! Rosario!" |
| X. | "And Still They Say Fish Combs High!" |
CHAPTER I
THE WIDOW'S TAVERN
The morning of that day—it was a Tuesday of the Lenten season—couldnot have dawned more promisingly. The sea, off the Cabañal, was in flatcalm, as smooth as a polished mirror. Not the slightest ripple broke theshimmering triangular wake that the sun sent shoreward over the lifelesssurface of the water.
The fishing fleet had headed, bright and early, for the grounds off theCabo de San Antonio; and all the seines were out to take full advantageof the perfect weather. Prices on the market of Valencia were runninghigh; and every skipper was trying to make a quick catch and get backfirst to the beach of the Cabañal, where the fisherwomen were waitingimpatiently.
Toward noon the weather changed. An easterly wind came up, the dreadlevante, that can blow so wickedly in the gulf of Valencia. The sea atfirst was lightly wrinkled; but as the hurricane advanced the placidlooking-glass gave way to a livid menacing chop, and piles of cloud cameracing up from the horizon and blotted out the sun.
Great was the alarm along shore. In the eyes of those poor people,familiar with all the tragedies of the sea, wind from that quarteralways meant one of those storms that bring sorrow and mourning to thehomes of fishermen. In dismay, their skirts whipping in the blow, thewomen ran back and forth along the water's edge, wailing and praying toall the saints they trusted. The men at home, pale and frowning, bitnervously at the ends of their cigars, and, from the lee of the boatsdrawn up on the sand, studied the lowering horizon with the tensepenetrating gaze of sailormen, or nervously watched the harbor entrancebeyond the Breakwater on whose red rocks the first storm waves w