THE COLLECTED POEMS
OF JOHN MASEFIELD
In One Volume. 750 pages.
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SARD HARKER
A NOVEL
By
JOHN MASEFIELD
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD.
First Published 1924
Printed in Great Britain by
THE LONDON AND NORWICH PRESS, LIMITED, ST. GILES’ WORKS, NORWICH
To
Isaline and Henry Philpot
SARD HARKER
PART ONE
Santa Barbara lies far to leeward, with a coastfacing to the north and east. It is the richest of thesugar countries. Plantations cover all the lowlandalong its seven hundred miles of seaboard, then above thelowland is foothill, covered with forest, rising to the Sierrasof the Three Kings, which make the country’s frontier.
The city of Santa Barbara lies at the angle of the coast inthe bight of a bay. The Old Town covers the southern,the New Town the northern horn of the bay: in betweenare the docks and quays.
In the northern or New Town there is a plaza or square,called Of the Martyrdoms. Until about thirty years ago,there was a block of dwelling-houses on the western side ofthis square, which attracted the notice of visitors. Thoughthe other buildings in the square were gay or smart, withflowers, colours and lights, these were always dingy, bydecree. If any asked why they were dingy, they were toldthat those were the houses of the last sighs, “las casas de lossospiros ultimos,” and that they