A hint that material progress travels the same road as imperial conquest, and will create the same slavery.

There is a mastery of revising layers here. At a first reading we see with Mrs Gould's eyes, in which the Indians are burderened by the conditions of current Costaguana, and raise their eyes to the cavalcade with hope. At a second reading, alive to the symbolism of the road, we realize that their "sad" glance at the cavalcade is a condemnation.