Buccaneer

by Dudley Pope

  “Hello, General Teffler,” Thomas bellowed, and Ned realized that he had quite deliberately made a mistake in the man’s name to throw him off his stride. “Flags at half mast, eh? The Lord Protector found the Lord finally withdrew His protection! Ah well, it’ll happen to us all.”

  “Please, please, no blasphemy.”

  “That’s not blasphemy!” Thomas exclaimed. “He was a scoundrel and his son is a ninny. Left you out on a limb, hasn’t it? Don’t know whether you’re still a general or reduced to a trooper. You’d better join us now; there’ll be a rush once Richard fools around with the army, and we’ve only a few vacancies!”

  “Ah, Mr Whetheread, you will have your joke. The news arrived from England, as you probably guessed, in the merchant ship that came in yesterday.”

  “Did it bring fresh orders for you?”

  “Not exactly,” Heffer said cautiously. “They had some private mail and, of course, the master had sailed from London, so he had the latest news.”

  “Up to what date?”

  “The Lord Protector died twelve weeks ago. I am not sure when the ship sailed.”

  “So no official news, no orders, nothing for you. You’re just acting upon rumour and gossip from the ship.” Thomas said it without malice but Heffer, suddenly realizing how another interpretation could be put on his activities, went pale.

  “I’m not acting upon gossip,” he said primly. “I’m not doing anything. Or, rather, I am continuing to carry out the last orders I received.”

  “Ve-rree wise,” Thomas drawled. “One mistake at a time like this and you could end up with a noose round your neck!”

  “Oh, come, come, you exaggerate.”

  “I assure you, I don’t,” Thomas said. “The King had his head chopped off. However, what you do is none of my affair, but if the Lord Protector’s been dead three months, the chances of Richard still having any authority are negligible. It needs only one of your enemies to be in power – or even someone who has never heard your name… Still, it’s a disagreeable subject, and you’ll have to wait for another ship to bring you orders.”

  “Yes, quite,” Heffer said, glad to change the subject. “You had a good voyage?”

  “Yes, the weather was good but fishing was poor. Trailing a line over the stern never brings me luck.”

  “Ah, yes. Well, I asked you to call on me so that I could confirm the news I mentioned in my letter about the Lord Protector, but also I have fresh intelligence about the Spanish at Santiago!”

  “You mentioned that place before, I remember. In Cuba. Something about a Spanish fleet was it not?”

  “Yes, and I have impeccable information which arrived this morning that a Spanish fleet of seven big ships was anchored at Aguadores, close to Santiago, two days ago, and the Spanish army in Santiago is ready to embark.”

  “You need defences,” Ned said sympathetically. “Batteries at the end of the Palizadas to cover the harbour entrance. A fort on the seaward side. Another battery on the Palizadas and also one on the other side.”

  Heffer swallowed hard, obviously trying to be patient. “I told you, Mr Kent, that I have no guns; they are still in the storeships that have not yet arrived.”

  “I’m no soldier,” Ned said, “but how many guns and forts and batteries would you need to defend the harbour? Not the island, just the harbour and its entrance.”

  Heffer’s brow wrinkled. “To defend the harbour you must prevent an enemy landing on the Palizadas, because it is so flat. They could put carriage guns ashore on the seaward side in calm weather and get them across the sand. Men could haul them; they would not need horses. So – a strong fort on the shore opposite this house with a minimum of four guns; a battery at the end of the Palizadas with, say three guns, and another on the opposite side with another three guns. Ideally one would like another fort with three guns covering the Palizadas to the eastwards, where the peninsula begins, in case the enemy landed farther up the coast. So that’s a minimum of ten guns, and preferably thirteen.”

  Ned nodded thoughtfully. “You have no guns, no shot, general. How about powder?”

  “Sufficient for the two dozen shot that the musketeers and cavalry have.”

  “But you are not short of men – I mean, if you had the guns you’d have enough men to build forts and batteries.”

  Heffer looked both hungry and wistful. “If I had the guns, I’d have the forts and batteries built in a month!” he exclaimed. “Plenty of stone, plenty of sand for mortar…”

  “Such a pity,” Ned said sympathetically. “We buccaneers like this anchorage, but of course with no defences it becomes a trap, which is why we did not stay last time, and now you have more confirmation that the Spaniards are coming, we shall sail as soon as we have more provisions and water.”

  Clearly Heffer could have bitten off his tongue for having mentioned the Spanish fleet. If only he could persuade the buccaneers to stay, he had a little squadron of his own. Or anyway, a squadron whose interest was similar to his own.

  Ned leaned towards the general and said casually: “We could strike a bargain with you.”

  “What bargain?” the general replied suspiciously. “I can’t bargain with buccaneers, you know!”

  “The other day you were trying to get us to defend you for nothing; a few days before that you were only too glad to buy grain which saved your garrison from starving.”

  “Oh well, what are you offering?”

  “A dozen bronze cannon – they’re culverins – with plenty of powder and shot, and a couple of hundred grenadoes and brimstone. And some three-pounder carriage guns.”

  Heffer’s eyes looked as though they would pop out of his head. “What, what…” he stammered, “what are you asking in return?”

  “That you build two forts and two batteries in the positions you’ve just described, along with the appropriate magazines, cookhouses, and cisterns where they can’t sink wells.”

  “Where are those guns coming from?” Heffer asked cautiously. “How long will it take for you to get them?”

  “An hour or two,” Ned said in a bored tone. “The guns, powder, shot, grenadoes and brimstone are all loaded on board our ships.”

  “But – well, you didn’t have them when you were last here, did you?” Heffer asked incredulously.

  Ned shook his head.

  “May I ask where you found them?”

  “First, do we have an agreement that you will build the positions if we supply the guns?”

  “Indeed, indeed,” Heffer said eagerly. He held out his hand first to Ned and then to Thomas, and when they had shaken it, repeated his question.

  “They are Spanish guns,” Ned said. “In excellent condition. I doubt if any one of them has fired twenty-five rounds.”

  “Spanish? Then what about shot? No English or French shot will fit.”

  “We shall supply one hundred roundshot with each gun, and later we will make sure you get more when we raid other Spanish ports and towns.”

  “But where did these come from?”

  “Santiago,” Ned said.

  “Santiago de Cuba? Why that’s impossible! The Spanish fleet is at Aguadores…”

  “Seven ships, you say? We have seven ships. We were anchored at Aguadores two days ago.”

  “But you can’t have been to Santiago! Why, it has an enormous castle defending it!”

  “The Castillo del Morro?”

  “Yes, that’s it.”

  “Just a hole in the ground and a pile of stones,” Ned said.

  “But how do you know?”

  Thomas said in a bored voice, “Because he blew the confounded thing up on Friday night.”

  “Goodness me,” said Heffer. “Goodness me!”

  As Ned and Thomas walked back along the jetty to boar
d their boat, Thomas said: “You know, we might as well pay a call on that ship. It’ll be good hearing some gossip from England.”

  “We might be recognized,” Ned said cautiously.

  “With seven ships we have little to fear. The general is on our side because he wants those guns – and we could secure this merchant ship without a word of complaint from him. He certainly couldn’t interfere.”

  “You know, Thomas, you think like a buccaneer; there’s none of the old Huntingdon squire left.”

  Thomas slapped Ned on the back. “Finest compliment you’ve ever paid me. That’s why we all stay alive. If you’re going to catch wolves you must think like a wolf: otherwise the wolf catches you. You’re learning too, you know.”

  Intrigued by this piece of information, because he had been depressed over the last few days, thinking that he was slow to take the lead and remembering how Day and Lloyd had seemed to be acting instinctively at the castle, Ned said almost angrily: “All I’ve learned is how to navigate, thanks to your man Lobb.”

  “Whoa there!” Thomas said, stopping in mid-stride and turning to face Ned. “Not feeling confident, eh? Don’t be fooled by my beard and my loud laugh, Ned; you’ll be the leader of all the buccaneers in a few months and I’ll be glad to serve with you as second-in-command. Diana says three months but I reckon six would be better.”

  A completely flabbergasted Ned said: “Why? What on earth makes you say that?”

  “Ned, my boy, there are two kinds of buccaneers: the leaders, who think and plan for the next year as well as this. And there are the cut-and-thrusters, good hands in a fight but not thinkers. We need the leaders. Who decided on the spur of the moment that blowing up the castle would terrorize Santiago so no Spaniard would argue with us? It wasn’t me. Who brought the cannons back and bargained with the general so that the army builds our defences? It wasn’t me!”

  These had been such obvious things that Ned was embarrassed by Thomas’ praise. But it was scorching hot standing on the jetty, and the men in the boat had come back after sheltering from the sun on the shady side of an old shed although it was almost noon, with the sun nearly overhead.

  “Let’s get into the boat.”

  Thomas held his arm. “A moment more. We have three ships that we own, and those four buccaneers came with us. When the word gets round how much purchase those four are sharing, we’ll have a couple of dozen more privateers, English, French and Dutch, coming in here and wanting to join us. They’ll hear that I led the Santiago raid. Well, I’m going to tell them the truth, that you led it. They’ll elect you their leader. If you choose me as your second in command I’ll be more than content. I know many of these men and I’ll warn you against the scoundrels. But all the boats who’ve been using Tortuga will come over here now – particularly if Heffer gives them commissions.”

  “Where is Tortuga?”

  “I can’t think why I haven’t mentioned it before. It’s an island at the north-west corner of Hispaniola – at the other end of the Windward Passage – with a good anchorage. The Spaniards can’t get at it: they haven’t the ships to attack by sea and that corner of Hispaniola is just thick jungle. They even have a name for themselves, ‘The Brethren of the Coast’.”

  “They’re just a collection of pirates, then?”

  “No. Outcasts, yes, like you and me: persecuted by the English for being Royalist or Catholic; by the French for being Protestant; by the Dutch for not being Dutch; and by the Spanish because they are ‘Beyond the Line’ as well as not being Spanish.”

  “Come on, let’s pay a call on that ship,” Ned said, his mind already beginning to spin at the thought of what could be done with twenty ships and a thousand men, using Jamaica as a base.

  The merchant ship was the Emerald of Bristol and her master was a portly Devonian, William Parker. He greeted them warily at first, recognizing their boat as coming originally from the Griffin. It was obvious that he had guessed they were buccaneers and was nervous with their seven ships surrounding him.

  In less than five minutes he had fallen under Thomas’ cheery spell, was calling both men “sir”, and was completely won over when he warned them that there was a great danger of a Spanish fleet from Santiago recapturing Jamaica and was told the seven ships had just come from destroying the defences.

  “A good purchase, eh?” he said jokingly.

  “Not enough to cover our expenses,” Thomas grumbled. “Still, we brought back great guns for the general so he can build some defences here. Now, enough of that; tell us what is happening in England?”

  Parker looked gloomy. “The news was not good when we sailed from London. The Lord Protector had died the week before. The country – well, London anyway – seemed stunned.”

  “His great strength was in London. Not many tears were shed down in the west country,” Thomas said, making it clear he was not a Parliamentarian.

  “No, quite. Well, there was not a great deal of enthusiasm at the thought that Richard was succeeding him.”

  “What brought you to Jamaica?” Ned asked.

  “A dozen or so people want to settle here. Granted land by the Lord Protector. They took passage with me because I was going to Barbados and Antigua. Now they don’t know whether to stay or come back with me.”

  “What worries them?”

  “Well, are their land grants still any good?”

  “Of course, as long as they were signed by the Lord Protector or someone he appointed legally. Otherwise everyone would lose his land every time a lord protector or a monarch died.”

  “Ah, I’ll tell them that. It sounds good sense. Trouble is, they couldn’t get any reassurance from the general here.”

  Ned gave a dry laugh. “Tell me, what news from Barbados?” he asked casually.

  “A very unhappy island, it seemed to me. I hadn’t been there for three or four years, but now…every man’s hand seems to be turned against his brother. There was a nasty duelling episode while we were there; one of the island’s biggest landowners was killed.”

  Ned nodded. “A small island, everyone knows everyone else – perhaps too well – and heavy drinking is a habit. What happened?”

  “There was a gambling party in Bridgetown, I understand. Two or three dozen people there and gambling for high stakes. One man was cheating – five or six people had been watching him for an hour or two. Then one of them accused him. He had marked cards in his hand but he denied everything and in a terrible fury challenged his accuser to a duel. They fought at dawn next day. He was shot in the stomach and died before sunrise. A young man, owning two big estates, but he had a wild temper, people said.”

  “Did you hear his name?” Ned asked, casually trying to disguise his interest.

  “Oh yes. I’ve met him a few times and brought out goods for him this voyage. The rate was agreed but he refused to pay it all. Paid me exactly half. A bad man, really; no one was mourning him, as far as I could see.”

  “What was his name?” Ned repeated.

  “Wilson. He had a plantation near Bridgetown, and recently he bought Kingsnorth, so people said. I delivered his goods at Bridgetown and he cheated me, standing on the jetty and calling me a scoundrel.”

  “We mustn’t speak ill of the dead,” Thomas said piously. “Well, we have some work to finish on board the Griffin so we will bid you a good day sir. You will not be sailing for some days? Good, then you must visit us.”

  In the boat Ned sat on the thwart, Parker’s words repeating in his ears like a jungle drum. “A bad man, really; no one was mourning him, as far as I could see… Wilson, Wilson, Wilson…marked cards in his hand but he denied everything… challenged his accuser…shot in the stomach and died before sunrise…”

  Thomas gripped his arm. “Stop feeling sorry for Wilson; it should have happened years ago. Start thinking about how you tell Aurelia.
She won’t be grief-stricken, but it’ll be a shock. Would you prefer that Diana…?”

  “No, I’ll do it. I’m not sorry for him, Thomas; he challenged me, you know.”

  “And you refused?” It was Thomas’ turn to be shocked. Refusing a challenge invited the accusation of cowardice.

  “If I’d fought him, I’d have killed him, sword or pistol.”

  “That’d have been no loss!”

  “Yes, but I did not think Aurelia would ever marry the man who killed her husband, much as she hated him. Every time my right hand touched her, she might remember…”

  “You’re right, I suppose; women can be unpredictable. But you took a big risk. The island would have loved to call you a coward, and Aurelia might have thought you were too frightened to risk your skin on her behalf – I presume she was the cause.”

  “Yes, she was, but she understood. And now someone has done the job for me. For us, really.”

  “You’ll be able to marry now,” Thomas said cheerfully. “Oh, what a wedding we’ll all give you! After the usual period of mourning, of course!”

  By then the boat was coming alongside the Griffin and Thomas said: “I’ll leave you to it. Diana will want to hear the news. Gently does it and don’t rush things, Ned.” He shook him by the hand and Ned stood up on the thwart and jumped for the rope ladder.

  Aurelia was waiting on deck and she walked towards him and clasped his hands in hers. “Did everything go well?”

  “With the general? Oh yes, he has agreed to build the forts and batteries if we provide the guns, powder and shot.”

  “And then you and Thomas visited the other ship.”

  “Yes, we went over to hear any further news.”

  “She came through Barbados.” She said it as a statement, not a question, and she was looking past Ned as she spoke, to a point in the distance measurable only in time, not distance.