Der Schatz der Sierra Madre by B. Traven is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in Mexico, it follows the down-and-out American drifter Dobbs as he hustles for meals, seeks work around oil fields, and navigates the rough edges of port-city life. The story probes poverty, luck, and the lure of quick wealth on a volatile frontier. Early on he pairs with another drifter, Barber, and crosses paths with
a hard-bitten contractor, hinting at larger ventures to come. The opening of the novel places Dobbs penniless in a Mexican port, cadging coins from strangers, renting a cot in the squalid Oso Negro, and surviving on cheap coffee, bread, and chance. He teams up with Barber to hunt work in the oil districts, riding ferries amid tankers and refineries, scrounging a shipboard meal, and tramping through bush and villages while being dogged by a fearful Indian who clings to them for safety; a tense night in a tree ends farcically when their “tiger” proves a tethered donkey. After failing to find jobs in the camps, they return; Dobbs does brief loading work, then, by luck, is snatched up at the ferry by contractor Pat McCormick to help rig a new camp. A brisk, detailed sequence follows: clearing and hauling, throwing up barracks and a derrick, laying pipes and pumps, dragging in boilers and engines, and switching on electric light that banishes the jungle night. The section closes with the reminder that oil is a gamble—fortunes boom and bust—and Dobbs, raw from the labor, asks his contractor about his pay. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
