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In my long trip to Nicaragua I made progress in my reading: Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson. In the Spanish edition the title is Azogue. But I’m assuming that you are not a Spanish speaker. Here is a small fragment (in English) I found there:

“You must remember that the planters are short-sighted. They’re all desperate to get out of Jamaica—they wake up every day expecting to find themselves, or their children, in the grip of some tropical fever. To import female Neegers would cost nearly as much as to import males, but the females cannot produce as much sugar—particularly when they are breeding.” Daniel had finally recognized this voice as belonging to Sir Richard Apthorp—the second A in the CABAL.

It’s a bit embarrassing when I discovered myself realizing where the word cabal comes from. And I’m posting this as a head-up for everyone who know there is no cabal in Debian; but they don’t know which is the origin of the word cabal.

Stephenson changed the name of the historic cabal, a group of high councillers of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland, in 1668. In the novel, they are: John Comstock (Earl of Epsom), Louis Anglesey (Duke of Gunfleet), Knott Bolstrood (Count Penistone), Sir Richard Apthorp and Hugh Lewis (Duke of Tweed). In the real world they had been:

Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1630-1673).	Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (1618-1685).	George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1628-1687).	Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley of Wimborne St Giles (1621-1683).	John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale (1616-1682).

This group shared the effective power in a royal council rather than the King.