Argument with Caetano José Diogo
On 31st December in 1921 on the land of Santo Antônio do Rio Fundo sugar plantation, in the district with the same name, the denounced [Besouro] after an argument with Antônio [Caetano] José Diogo who was passing by on the road, attacked him, armed with a machete, causing him deep wounds which are described in the crime document, which resulted in the amputation of his little finger of the right hand.
Besouro was prosecuted in Santo Amaro, for attacking a man, in 1922.
Caetano José Diogo got a warning when he crossed the gate. The boys playing close to the gate of the Santo Antônio do Rio Fundo sugar plantation told him to go with care, if possible to even avoid that road, because further on, following that road, was a man known as Besouro. A trusted worker of doctor Zeca, he didn't permit anybody to criss his master's property to shorten the path: the order needed to be maintained.
But the man didn't listen to the boys. He had gone to Jacuípe to sell oranges on the day before and was anxious to get back home as soon as possible, in a small place called Igreja Nova - after all it was 31st December. He came on a horse, in the company of a boy called Conrado, his helper. When he got closer to the Paranaguá factory, he saw a man of "dark color, almost black, who called him".
That moment even the simple sight of Besouro's figure made him perceive the danger of the situation in which he was envolved passing the property to shorten his path. He thought at least twice about fleeing, but felt he had to return when he saw Conrado in Besouro's hands. "But at that moment the man (Besouro) lets the boy go and attacks the witness with a machete in his hand and a fight starts, from which the witness comes out with wounds that he shows, without being killed thanks to the flail handle with which he parried many strikes".
It is this way that the story appears related in the criminal process of the Santo Amaro parrish, dated in 1922, having as the defendant Manoel henrique, "commonly known as Besouro". But this is the version told by Caetano himself, who, among the wounds, lost his right hand's little finger.
In the mittle of the dust of the Municipal Archives of Santo Amaro, with letters that are difficult to decipher, written on the pages that have already gotten gold, are also the versions told by two witnesses of the case.
Cowboy José Maria da Paixão, around 4 in the afternoon, saw Besouro approaxhing Caetano and asking his to close the gate. "To what Caetano responded that he wouldn't and hit Manoel Henrique with a flail handle, who was then forced to pull a machete and hit Caetano".
Worker Francisco Alves Soares also heard the discussion. According to him, it was the "boy", Conrado, who started the quarrel, hitting Besouro on the head. "Maybe Besouro had an irritating day; maybe it was caused by the fact that he had to close the gate every time someone passed by on the path, by the orders of his master", analizes researcher Antônio Liberac in the book Bimba, Pastinha and Besouro Mangangá - three famous persons of bahian capoeira.
Besouro's version about the case must have been lost in the conversations of the port quays of Santo Amaro, in capoeira rodas, on the plantation tracks. He never appeared to give his testemony and be judged. But, for some reason, the case stayed archived in the forum of Santo Amaro da Purificação until it was closed due to Manoel Henrique's death, in 1924.
