‘The British!’
‘Just so. There will be no independence for us, only a change of masters.’
‘Why do we not make use of them to throw out the Spanish and then-’
‘Fool!’ His lips curled in contempt. ‘By trickery, and the unforgivable craven flight of Viceroy Sobramonte they were enabled to take a great city. It is done! They hold our capital and will never give it to us. Therefore we must take it.’
‘Against their mighty force?’
‘In this emergency it has been decreed that nothing is too sacred to be sacrificed to this end. Los patriotas will join as brothers with the royalists, the blandengues will be summoned and the gauchos armed – all in the great cause to drive los imperialistas into the sea whence they came.’
Serrano caught his breath. The blandengues were a centuries-old militia with roots deep in the frontier, and gauchos as cavalry would be glorious – but would it be enough? This was either catastrophic folly or inspired.
‘Who will be leader?’ he asked carefully. If Baltasar-
‘Don Santiago de Liniers.’ At Serrano’s incomprehension he added, ‘At Montevideo he commands our only regular troops and is experienced in war. It is he whom we allow to issue the orders.’
Serrano drew himself erect. With rising exultation, he knew now which was the true cause. ‘I wish to serve.’
The poniard slid back into its sheath. ‘That is what Don Baltasar wants to hear. Very well, you shall, for there is a service that will silence your enemies for ever.’
‘Oh?’ said Serrano, in sudden apprehension.
‘You shall return to your British friends with a tale. Then you will pass us all we want to know of the vermin.’
‘A spy!’
The man smiled.
‘Captain Kydd?’ The aide looked distracted. ‘General Beresford is calling an urgent meeting, sir.’
With relief, Kydd put down the tortured wording of a Customs regulation, then felt a stab of concern. Beresford was a good administrator and not one to disrupt his staff unduly with idle meetings.
They assembled in the usual room but Beresford was not there. Minutes passed and they began to talk uneasily among themselves. As far as anyone knew, no Spanish armies were massing, no fleets sighted. The summoning of all his commanders to meet together at this time was disturbing.
Beresford strode into the room as if he was eager to plan a campaign but his expression was grave. ‘Right, gentlemen. Are we all here? We have our uprising well enough but, I’m sorry to say, not in our support as expected.’
‘A Spanish counter-attack?’
‘I rather think not. Our informant tells us-’
‘Our spies.’
‘The employment of spies and similar is beneath my honour, sir, and will not find service with me. You will find in this city, however, parties who are quite without scruple in delating upon their countrymen.
‘Now, what I have learned this day is unsettling, if not alarming. Where before we looked to the rebels to rise up with us against the Spanish in the hope of independence, now they have completely reversed their allegiance and are in amicable alliance with their old foes to go against us.’
‘Good God! They stand to lose so much by going back to the old ways – why is it, with the golden prospect of free trade, that they turn their backs on us?’
‘Ah. The free trade we’ve all been trusting will be our shining gift. I believe Captain Kydd has discovered something that throws a quite different light on our assumptions. Sir?’
Kydd nodded. ‘I’m billeted with a merchant and have the full griff. What I’ve found out is that our talk of free trade is meaningless to them – the merchants, that is. It’s true that, before, they were liable for the quinta real, a royal tax of twenty per cent on all landed cargoes, and that all freights must under penalty be carried in Spanish bottoms. Naturally we assumed they’d jump at the chance of open trade under our protection, particularly as all Spanish ships were swept from the seas after Trafalgar.
‘What we didn’t count on was what they did in response to their situation. The colony had great need o’ modern manufactures and such, and as well the people were loud in their demands for foreign and luxury goods. So much so that the government took fright and settled with the big merchant houses. For a fat sum in bribery they promised not to notice discreet arrivals of shipping in a quiet bay set aside for it. This grew into quite a sizeable arrangement, with even foreign commercial agents invited to encourage their ships to call.’
He chuckled. ‘Who would have thought it? A government setting up a smuggling operation against itself!’
‘Quite. And the result?’ prompted Beresford.
‘Why, our notion of free trade is upsetting to a degree. The grand businesses having paid big sums for the privilege of landing cargo are not to be welcoming a system that places them at an equal standing to any johnny-come-lately, and as well upsets their cosy relations with the nobs in Government House. No, sir, nothing would suit them more than that the Spanish come back tomorrow.’
Beresford let it sink in around the table, then said, ‘This means we’ve lost the support of most of the middling sort, who cannot now be relied upon. And the common people are being stirred up by hotheads who claim that the only way to wipe away the shame of forty thousand capitulating to two is by a grand rising against us, but with what success I cannot say.’
‘Then what is the threat, sir?’
Beresford looked up with a grim smile. ‘We chose to bypass Montevideo to assault directly. Now we must pay for it. A leader there has stood up and declared that, with regular troops there being reinforced by irregulars in considerable numbers, he will march on Buenos Aires.’
There were shocked looks around the table. After so little time, an enemy had now become visible, a menace that could only continue to grow and threaten.
‘I don’t have to tell you that our choices are few indeed. Our prayer is, of course, that our expected reinforcements do arrive without delay. Therefore I’ve decided that, to this end, my strategy must be to keep the enemy confined to the north shore of the River Plate, which they term the Banda Oriental. As of this moment Captain Kydd is relieved of all duties to attend to it.’
The northern shore where the troops were concentrating was separated from the southern at the head where it joined a forty-mile width of impassable marshes through which six tributary water-courses meandered slowly to become the River Plate. It was an effective enough impediment: the only way the enemy could reach Buenos Aires was by sea and that was where they must be stopped.
To clear his head Kydd mounted the stone steps to the parapets and open sky. He looked out over the foreshore to the fretful grey-brown expanse of sea. All big ships and even the frigates were unable to sail up to administer a thundering barrage because of the impassable mud-flats but, more to the point, he had not a ship of any kind that was his to command.
The foreshore was in its usual rowdy disorder, sailors staggering out of grog shops, others fighting, and wafting above it all, the odour of mud, horses and putrid fish offal. It was a foreign land in quite a different sense from Cape Town and he would be glad when he was free to sail away in his dear L’Aurore. But he had been given a duty to perform and he would do all he could to discharge it.
But it was a damn near impossible thing to ask: to stop an entire army in its tracks? How in heaven’s name could a sea officer accomplish such a feat? He balled his fists helplessly.
What would Nelson have done?
He would not have been disheartened! Find an enterprising action – anything, as long as it was positive.
After a few moments’ concentration he had the solution. A miniature navy! If the muddy shallows would defeat a proper one he’d lay hands on everything under sail that could take the conditions and, with them, throw a blockade against the other shore.
Resolved, he clattered down the steps and bellowed for the duty master’s mate to bring the charts.
It was possible. At no point was the distance between the two shores narrower than thirty miles: any sally by a heavily laden enemy would be spotted in time and he could quickly bring up his forces to dispute the crossing. He gave a wry smile. In many ways it was a small-scale version of the invasion threat to England the year before. Would there be a miniature Trafalgar as well?
Beresford approved the plan and detailed an adjutant to assist him, for which he was grateful. As a young lieutenant Kydd’s first thought would have been to move fast to sweep the harbour clear of the right vessels and send them out immediately to face the enemy. As a somewhat wiser post-captain he was only too aware of the devil behind the details.
There was no question: the Navy did not have the necessary craft and therefore these would have to be found locally. But were the citizens of Buenos Aires the enemy, meaning he could simply take them as prize? If they were of local registry, it would amount to piracy if he seized vessels under the protection of the Crown. So they would have to be paid for – but how? And, much more importantly, under whose line of account?
Then there was the problem of manning them. Enlist rebels and the disaffected? Not if they were reported to be turning on the British. And letting loose a ‘press-gang’ on the riff-raff idling about the port was not practical, for where a big ship could absorb the unwilling or unable, in small craft every man must be relied on to pull his weight.
It had to be their own men therefore, which brought all kinds of other problems. It was not just that it would sap the already tiny numbers available to garrison the city – in view of the seriousness of the situation the commodore would certainly authorise a manning from the big ships – but that it would throw an unknown extra number on slender supplies that could no longer be guaranteed, to the detriment of them all.
And other matters: where were they to be quartered? In ships, crews stayed aboard, there was no need for living spaces, but these vessels would be little more than boats and unfit for extended habitation. If they were to maintain lengthy patrols there was the question of clothing and victuals of a kind that could be readily stowed, a dockyard of sorts with skilled hands for timely repairs, a reliable source of water in a city that carried its own about in carts … The complications went on and on.
General Beresford was in a foul temper. ‘God rot his soul!’
‘Er, who is that, sir?’ his aide enquired.
‘Why, this Liniers in Montevideo, in course! Sent to me that he begs to attend his sick family here in Buenos Aires. I grant him a passport and he spends his time creeping about, noting down our strength and positions.’
‘Liniers, sir?’
‘An officer lost to honour and civilised conduct – yes, this is the scoundrel who’s leading the insurrection out of Montevideo. A cunning fox, I’m told – and a Frenchman. Been in the Spanish service for twenty years but he fought us in the American war and knows his onions. We’ll need to keep good guard, I’m persuaded.’
Colonel Pack glowered from the other end of the table. ‘What sticks in m’ craw is those priests o’ yours. You give ’em leave t’ range as they will and next thing the damn papists are topping it the spy.’
‘I had little choice in the matter, Dennis. They claim it their religion to take their ministration to the people and will not be denied. Should I forbid their free movement it’ll anger the populace, and that is something neither you nor I wish.’
‘So we-’
‘I have a plan that should give you heart. The people are restless and inquisitive of our small numbers. I now propose to free the slaves on the grounds that as slavery is not countenanced in England neither is it here. This will result in many thousands of grateful men who, at the same time, are unemployed. You will offer the more able-bodied service in the Army – at the very least it will double, if not triple, our strength.’
‘Ah. Now that’s a capital idea! I’ve taken t’ dressing as a soldier any common servant on his rounds, the odd sailor an’ such, just t’ have ’em march about the place to impress. When will I have ’em?’
‘I’m to tell the cabildo tonight. Now, I’m getting reports that up-country horsemen are massing against us from this side, to the north-west. Gauchos, who are apparently splendid light cavalry. As we have next to none it’s of grave importance that they are prevented from joining up with Liniers. I’ve pickets out on that side of the city but I don’t fear any assault – unless Liniers gets to ’em.’
For a moment his eyes glazed and he muttered, ‘These damned reinforcements cannot come fast enough for me.’
Then he stiffened and snapped, ‘Captain – how are our sea defences proceeding?’
Kydd tried to give a confident smile. ‘Sir, should you come with me up to the lookout you’ll get a sight of our progress.’
‘Then I shall! Gentlemen, let us remove to the upper regions.’
The same prospect of muddy grey sea looked increasingly morose under a threatening low winter sky. Small clusters of merchant ships were moored together further out, and at the far distant dark grey horizon two specks of white, spaced far apart. ‘I’ve named ’em Staunch and Protector,’ Kydd enthused, ‘on patrol already at the far side of the Ortiz Bank. And here-’ he indicated the mole below the fort where four other craft were in varying stages of fitting out ‘-there are more. In all, seven armed vessels.’
‘They look very small, Captain,’ Beresford said doubtfully, eyeing the half-decked, two-masted craft and the men swarming over them.
‘Sixty feet long, sir. This is accounted sizeable in these waters – any bigger and they’d take the mud, and we need ’em to go into every creek and bay without fear.’ This was the local sumaca, nearly flat-bottomed and with a gaff main, square sail on the fore, and headsails aplenty, often to be seen about the province carrying local cargo.
‘How are they armed?’
‘Carronades,’ Kydd answered immediately. This gave them a great advantage in fire-power but only if they could close with the enemy – and these were boat carronades only, not the formidable weapons of a frigate. In the close-quarter scuffles to be expected in lonely bays, it would be cutlasses and pistols that must settle the day.
‘And how deployed?’
‘General Liniers will not want to take boat from Montevideo as this is a long voyage and leaves him exposed to our cruisers. He’ll stay on that side and march to the only other port o’ consequence, Colonia, which is opposite us thirty miles, and wait his opportunity to cross, which in course we’ll deny him.’
‘I asked how deployed.’
‘Two on watch off Colonia, two at large off the coast. One on passage to relieve, two under replenishment and repair.’
‘Umm. So they’ll live on board.’
‘Yes, sir.’ There was no need for details: it would be the hardest of conditions but these were all volunteers and he’d been insistent on extra foul-weather clothing, a double rum ration and pre-cooked meat, the best he could do for them. Jack Tar’s jaunty spirit had known worse.
‘And your captains, are you confident that-’
‘They’re selected by me personally, General, and bear my complete confidence.’ There had been no shortage of bored junior officers in the larger ships who were eager for action, and Popham had had to decide whether or not he should weaken their sea defences against a return of the Spanish Navy from the north.
‘Very well. I’ll be sleeping a little better for your efforts, Captain. Thank you.’
Back in his office, Kydd held his head in his hands. So much depended on him. One thought hammered in: was there anything else that could be done? The strategics were straightforward, but stopping Liniers crossing now had added urgency with the reports of gauchos gathering on this side. If they managed to join together, it would be a short time only before they must be overwhelmed or sent running like rabbits from their new-won piece of empire.
Where were their damned reinforcements?
Then there was the threat of winter weather. If a
dreaded pampero struck it would decimate his little fleet, the only comfort being that the enemy would suffer likewise. Yet there was no alternative. They had to keep the sea, whatever the cost.
He picked up a half-completed provisioning list, irritated by the task. Despite the increasing threat, it seemed he had to find time to attend to pettifogging details like this. The Army was given forage money if not supplied in the field. The Navy received no such allowance because it was assumed that the men would be properly victualled in their ship. The contrived solution was complicated: the seamen would be borne on the garrison books but the army quartermaster would be reimbursed by individual pursers, even though the ships’ muster rolls would show the men present on board, obliging the purser to seek compensation from the Admiralty directly.
He ground his teeth and set to, authorising the insanity.
‘Sir?’ The master’s mate approached hesitantly.
‘Well?’ Kydd gave an ill-natured grunt.
‘L’tenant Garrick, Dolores, sir. He’s below, wishes to report – there’s two sizeable enemy men-o’-war just been sighted opposite.’
Chapter 10
Kydd was out of his chair and down to the entrance room in a flash. Garrick scrambled to his feet and took off his hat. ‘Sir. Er, pursuant to your-’
‘Be damned to it, what did you see?’ he demanded.
‘Two ship-sloops enter Colonia.’
This changed everything: three masted square-riggers, often termed minor frigates, were a dismaying menace to his little navy and obviously brought up for the job of securing the vital crossing. Where they’d come from and how they were handling the shoal water was another matter. For now …
He snatched up his boat-cloak from behind the door. ‘I’m going to take a look,’ he threw at the duty master’s mate, then turned on Garrick. ‘Let’s be having you, sir!’
The two hurried down to the mole where Dolores lay alongside, rotated to face seaward. Kydd grabbed a stay and leaped lightly on to its humble deck, closely followed by Garrick, who quickly gave orders to cast off.
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