The Days of a Man 



guns I do not know, yet it is certain that the Brazilian authorities 

 made quick work of the threatened rebellion, and apparently 

 the German settlers in general had little desire to be drawn into 

 the war. How much truth there was in the Countess's story of 

 the incident it is also impossible to say, but her statements in 

 regard to Counani tally with those made to me by Brezet. 

 Moreover, the interlocking of the Tapajos and the Paraguay is 

 not a matter of general information. 



From other sources I learned that the men involved in the 

 plot were mainly adventurers who had found life in Europe 

 precarious. In Counani they built fifty miles of dummy rail- 

 road leading nowhere and running no trains, but furnishing 

 nevertheless a basis for speculation. The Brazilian government, 

 I understand, was well posted in regard to the matter. For 

 myself, I never heard of Brezet again; and he doubtless found it 

 difficult to interest either England or the United States in the 

 independence of Counani. 



In her diary the Countess further related her experiences as 

 envoy to Mexico City, whither she took the notorious Zimmer- 

 mann letter, a missive expected to fall into the hands of the 

 United States after it should bear the signature of President 

 Carranza a situation sure to embroil us in war with Mexico 

 and so keep us out of Europe. But according to her tale which 

 may or may not be true Carranza declined to receive her 

 officially, asking why the German government did not send a 

 man instead of a young and pretty woman who ought to be 

 occupied with other things. He was also not satisfied with her 

 statement that the blockade made it impossible for a man to 

 come. In the end one of Carranza's clerks, a handsome young 

 Spaniard, offered to arrange to get the president's signature. 

 For this risky business he demanded and received $10,000, 

 after which the Countess was arrested for bribing a Mexican 

 official! 



Full of righteous indignation, she went on as soon as possible 

 to Chihuahua, where she tried to put a similar proposition be- 

 fore Villa. The brigand chief would not listen, however, and 

 confined her for her own "safety" in a lonely house, whence 

 she was rescued by a so-called "German" from El Paso, really 

 an American agent of the United States Department of Justice. 

 This man advised her to leave at once for Japan, and placed her 



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