The two deaths of Quincas Wateryell [antikvár]

I A certain amount of confusion about the death of Quincas Wateryell persists even töday. There are doubts to be explained away, ridiculous détails, con-tradictory testimony from witnesses, divers gaps in the story. Time, place, and last words are uncertain. The family, backed up by neighbors and acquaint-ances, sticks to its version of a quiet death in the morning—with no witnesses, no fuss, and no last words—occurring almost twenty hours before that other, notorious death just before dawn, when the moon faded into the océan and mysterious things took place on the docks of Bahia. Quincas's last words were sworn to nevertheless by reliable witnesses and passed on by word of mouth through steep streets and back alleys, and they meant far more to those who repeated them than a mere farewéll to the world. They were a prophétie pronouncement, a message of deep significance ( as one of our young contenîporary authors would put it). / With so many reliable witnesses around—iriclud-ing Cap'n Manuel and Wide-Eyed Quitéria, a woman 3