Elements within the Catholic Church are struggling to retain their religious freedom as anticlerical Mexican administrations institute social reforms, including an 8-hour day, literacy programs and health care.

McCormick, himself a brawler, and capable of beating up the men one-on-one, mentally calculates his losses if he ends up in a hospital after a desperate bar fight against both determined workers.

Howard tells the story of La Mina Agua de Verde (the Green Water Mine), as told to him by a Harry Tilton, former mentor and fellow-prospector.

Tilton’s narrative sets forth the early history of the mine and carries an indictment of the imperial powers and profit systems that exploited its unbelievably rich and apparently inexhaustible deposits of gold.

The social history associated with the mine presents a litany of horrors, beginning with the Aztecs and proceeding to the forced labor of indigenous people by the Spanish conquerors.

A pattern of retaliatory killings escalates, until the Indian insurgents obliterate the mine and utterly transform the landscape to conceal any evidence of its existence.

The legend of the cursed La Mina Agua Verde persists nonetheless in subsequent decades, revived when the United States takes possession of northern Mexico in the 1840s.

As guests of a local priest, they secretly copy a map of La Mina Agua Verde – the Green Water Mine – found in the cleric's library.

With many oil fields beginning to shut down operation in Mexico and relocate to other countries, the two men are impelled to partner with Howard to seek gold.

Curtin is skeptical as to the old man's fitness, but Dobbs assures him that Howard is indispensable to the success of their venture, wondering if the old timer will even entertain shouldering two greenhorn prospectors.

As they anxiously watch the bandits slowly ascend the trail, Lacaud relates to them the story of Gold Hat, conveyed to him by a local nobleman, don Genaro Montereal, while visiting his estate the previous week.

The second-class carriages are crowded with working class families with children; the first-class Pullman cars carry tourists, officials and merchants.

The bandits, or rebels, as the case may be, are poor and politically ignorant agrarians who perform these deeds in struggle between the Catholic Church and the government of Mexico.

Lacaud concludes his report, informing his cohorts that the approaching bandits, led by Gold Hat, are the last surviving members of the outlaws that had joined in the deadly train assault.

Gold Hat approaches Curtin and identifies his cohorts as policia montada (mounted police), searching for outlaws who robbed a train.

Curtin brandishes his rifle and the bandits determine to lay siege to his foxhole; they prefer to take him alive so as to torture him to death for entertainment.

Before they can deploy them, a company of genuine mounted police, alerted by villagers, appear and pursue Gold Hat and his gang as they flee the encampment.

A parasitic monk, who live off the hospitality of the local villagers, promises to provide the chieftain with the method by which to restore his son’s vision, for a fee.

The chief, as instructed, makes a 1400-mile pilgrimage on foot to Mexico City in company with his wife and son, carrying all his money and jewelry as an offering to the Saint.

The fathers of the church explain that the Virgin has withheld her intervention because the chief has failed to perform the requisite number of Ave Marias, or perhaps took a sip of water in violation of the fast.

In Mexico City, he consults a doctor – a quack – named Don Manuel, who agrees to restore the boy’s eyesight, for a price, payable in gold.

The two men strike a quid pro quo: if the doctor provides his son with sight, the chief will reveal the location of a rich gold and silver mine.

The location of the mine, long concealed by his ancestors despite cruel torture by Spanish invaders, is provided to Don Manuel for his personal enrichment.

He is fearful that church leaders might spread rumors that he doubted the miracle of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, torture him and confiscate his property.

The mine, meanwhile, continues to disgorge huge amounts of rich ore. At the remote diggings, she endures privations better than her husband, and handles her poorly paid employee adroitly.

Revolutionary movements in the late 18th century in Europe destabilize the social relations in the Americas, as Spain begins to lose its grip on its colonial holdings.

The silver and gold, smelted into bars, must be carried across 1400 miles across the Sierra Madre mountains and the Tierra Caliente to reach Mexico City.

Dona Maria enlists two ex-soldiers from Spanish army to oversee the convoy, placing them in command of a detachment of armed Mestizos and a dozen Indian teamsters and 130 mules.

Expecting the worst – that they will be fined for operating an unregistered mine – the officials turn out to be medical technicians for the Health Commission vaccinating the residents for smallpox.

On the outskirts of Durango, Dobbs and his pack train stumble onto three Mestizo desperados – Miguel, Nacho, and Pablo – at a secluded site off the main road.