180 Unexplored Spain 
vibrant whistle of rifle-balls. Pernales managed to empty the 
magazine of his repeater, killing one guard outright and wounding 
two more. Though himself hit, he yet stood erect, and was busy 
recharging his weapon when further shots brought him to earth. 
On seeing his chief go down the Nifo de Arahal sprang to the 
saddle, but the opposing rifles were this time too many and too 
near. The bandit, fatally wounded, was pitched to earth in 
death-throes, while the poor beast stumbled and fell in its stride 
a few paces beyond. An examination of the bodies showed that 
Pernales had been pierced by twenty-two balls, his companion by 
ten. 
CACIQUISMO 
Doubtless the thought may have occurred to readers that 
some interpretation is necessary to explain how such events as 
these (extending over a series of years) are still possible in Spain— 
in a country fully equipped not only with elaborate legal codes 
bristling with stringent penalties both for crime and its abettors, 
but also with magistrates, judges, telegraphs, and an ample 
armed force, competent, loyal, and keen to enforce those laws. 
Without assistants and accomplices (call their aiders and abettors 
what you will) the Pernales and Vivillos of to-day could not 
survive for a week. The explanation lies in the existence of that 
inexplicable and apparently ineradicable power called Caciquismo 
—fortunately, we believe, on the decline, but still a force sufficient 
to paralyse the arm of the law and arrest the exercise of justice. 
Ranging from the lowest rungs of society, Caciquismo penetrates 
to the main-springs of political power. A secret understanding 
with combined action amongst the affiliated, it secures protection 
even to criminals with their hidden accomplices, provided that 
each and all yield blind obedience to their ruling Cacique, social 
and political. The Cacique stands above law; he is a law unto 
himself ; he does or leaves undone, pays or leaves unpaid as may 
suit his convenience—conscience he has none. At his own sweet 
will he will charge personal expenses—say his gamekeepers’ 
wages or the cost of a private roadway—to the neighbouring 
municipality. None dare object. Caciquismo is no fault of the 
Spanish people ; it is the disgrace of the Caciques, who, as men of 
education, should be ashamed of mean and underhand practices 
that recall, on a petty scale, those of the Tyrants of Syracuse. 
