Sir William Walker, an agent provocateur, is dispatched by the British Admiralty in 1844 to the island of Queimada—a Portuguese colony in the Lesser Antilles—where the empire hopes to unlock the island for the Antilles Royal Sugar Company. His mission is to ignite an uprising of enslaved Africans against the Portuguese regime, paving the way for a government that would be friendly to white planters and British economic interests.
Upon his arrival, he forges a bond with the charismatic José Dolores, and subtly steers him to lead the slave rebellion. Walker also influences prominent landowners to withdraw their loyalty from the Portuguese crown. Dolores’s leadership proves powerful and effective, culminating in a nighttime coup that eliminates the Portuguese governor. In the aftermath, Walker sets up a puppet regime, headed by the idealistic yet ultimately ineffectual revolutionary Teddy Sanchez, and ensures that the new government remains indebted to the Antilles Company. Dolores is persuaded to recognize this regime and, in exchange, to surrender his arms as a symbolic step toward the abolition of slavery. Having achieved his objective, Walker moves on to a new assignment in Indochina, leaving Queimada momentarily stabilized under foreign interests.
The story then moves forward to 1848, when Dolores—now disillusioned by the regime’s collaboration with the Antilles Company—rises again to challenge the lingering British influence. He aims to erase foreign control from Queimada, and his second uprising lasts six long years, shaping the island’s ongoing struggle for autonomy. In 1854, the Company returns Walker to Queimada, having located him in Plymouth, England, and collaborates with the Admiralty to suppress the renewed revolt and pacify the island. The regime led by Sanchez is toppled in a coup engineered by Walker, who installs a government that is wholly subservient to the company. British forces descend on the island, guided by Walker, and they quickly quash the rebellion and capture Dolores.
Walker, moved by a sense of guilt and the weight of his actions, seeks to spare Dolores’s life because of their shared past. Dolores, however, rejects any saving grace, declaring that freedom must be earned rather than granted. The regime condemns Dolores to hang, delivering a stark statement about autonomy and power. As Walker prepares to depart Queimada, a haunting moment returns: a man greets him in the same way Dolores once did, and then stabs him to death. In his final breath, Walker looks out over the port and is met with the accusing or resigned stares of the island’s impoverished people, a stark image of the cost of conquest and the hollow victory of control.
