Book 16 - The Wine-Dark Sea

by Patrick O'Brian

  The chiming watch in Stephen's fob, so often his conscience before, now warned him once again. He started up and in a low hurried voice he said, 'Listen, Sam, I do not wish to abuse your friends' confidence, far less your own. You must know that I am not only bitterly opposed to slavery but also to the dependence of one country upon another—you may smile, Sam, brought up as you were by Irish missionaries, God be with them—yet I mean the dependence of any country at all upon another; therefore I may be suspected of political, even subversive motives by those in authority. Do not run yourself or your friends into danger; for where those who are called intelligence-agents or their allies are concerned the Inquisition is mildness itself in comparison with those who maintain the established order.' He saw the half-suppressed, not wholly unexpected smile on Sam's face, heard him say, 'Doctor dear, you are beyond measure more candid than the Frenchmen here, the serpents,' and went on, 'But tell me now, Sam, where is the calle de los Mercadores? If it takes ten minutes I shall be twenty minutes late.'

  'If I let you out by the stable door it will be the third on your right hand: and I will give the little girls over to the sailor when he comes with the gig.'

  In spite of his name Pascual de Gayongos was a Catalan, and when by a series of arbitrary questions and answers Stephen had established his identity it was in Catalan that he said, 'I had expected you long, long before this.'

  'I regret it extremely,' said Stephen. 'I was caught up in a particularly interesting conversation. But, my dear sir, does not a long, long time almost border on the excessive for twenty minutes?'

  'I was not speaking of twenty minutes, no, nor of twenty weeks. These funds have been in my hands for an even greater time.'

  'Certainly. Some information about our undertaking had been betrayed to Spain'—Gayongos nodded—'and it was thought expedient that I should change to another ship, rejoining the Surprise at a stated rendezvous. An intelligent plan, and one that would have caused no great delay; but it did not foresee that this second vessel should be wrecked in a remote part of the East Indies, nor that the inevitable pauses in Java and New South Wales should eat up days, weeks, months that will never return.'

  'And in that period,' said Gayongos in a discontented voice, 'the situation here has changed radically: Chile is now a very much more suitable plan for the enterprise, the whole series of undertakings.'

  Stephen looked at him attentively. Gayongos was a big heavy man, well on in middle age; he gave the impression of general greyness and he was over-weight: at this point his fat trembled with passion, fairly well concealed. His commercial dealing had already made him rich: he had nothing to gain and his motives seemed wholly pure, if indeed hatred could be called pure: hatred of the Spaniards for their treatment of Catalonia; hatred of the Revolutionary and Bonapartist French for ravaging the country.

  'Is Government aware of this?' asked Stephen.

  'I have made representations through the usual channels, and I have been told to mind my own business: the Foreign Office knows best.'

  'I have known the same treatment.' Stephen reflected and went on, 'But at this point I am necessarily bound by my instructions: any alteration must take six months to reach me and those six months, added to the present delay, will see the decay of the whole structure built up here and in Spain. I shall have to do the best I can: yet at the same time I shall endeavour to avoid committing what we have at our disposal until we see some strong probability of success.'

  After a silence Gayongos made a gesture of resignation and said, 'If the Foreign Office were a firm of marine insurers they would be bankrupt within a year. But it must be as you wish, and I shall arrange the agreed meetings, or at least those that are still of any consequence, as soon as possible.'

  'Before we speak of them, be so good as to tell me, very briefly, how the situation has changed.'

  'In the first place General Mendoza is dead. His horse threw him and he was picked up dead. He was one of the most popular men in the army, particularly among the Creoles, and he might well have carried half the officers with him. In the second the Archbishop is now—I hardly like to use the word senile about so good a man and so outspoken an abolitionist: but we are deprived of the full force of his support. In the third place Juan Muñoz has returned to Spain, and he has been replaced as far as governmental enquiries, secret service and unavowable activities are concerned by Garcia de Castro, too timid to be equally corrupt and in any event wholly unreliable: clever perhaps but oh so weak—terrified of the new Viceroy, terrified of losing his place. He is not a man to have anything to do with, near or far.'

  'The absence of Muñoz disturbs me,' said Stephen. 'If Castro has access to his papers, my position is very nearly untenable.'

  'I do not think you should feel anxious,' said Gayongos. 'We did handsomely by Muñoz; and quite apart from the presents he was wholly on our side. I do not pretend that handsome presents, or places in my concerns for his nephew and natural sons, did not have their effect on him, but he was not a weak unprincipled man like this Castro, and he was capable of taking decisive action in support of his friends. The reports about our possible intervention here—never taken very seriously in Madrid, by the way—passed through his hands in the first place and he virtually smothered them: it was easy enough, since the then Viceroy was about to leave, very ill, sick of the country and everything to do with it. And when the Surprise appeared—I mean when she came in first without you—he went privately down to Callao, ascertained that she was what she purports to be, a privateer, and had her officially inspected and passed the next day. Before he left Peru he destroyed a great many files. If any of the more bulky routine commonplace innocuous registers were kept you would appear only under your name of Domanova: but I very much doubt it. And I do not believe the privateer's captain was ever named at all.'

  'That is comforting, to be sure,' said Stephen, cocking his ear to the window. All over Lima church and chapel bells began ringing the Angelus with no more than a few seconds between them, a remarkable medley of tones: both men crossed themselves and remained silent for a while. Looking up again Stephen said 'Except in certain forms the Church is not a well-organized body—scarcely an organized body at all—yet sometimes flashes of sharp, co-ordinated intelligence pierce through and they are the more formidable for being unexpected. There is perhaps a certain analogy here with the Spanish government.'

  Gayongos digested this, and then said, 'Let us turn to the administration. The new Viceroy is not intelligent, but he wished to distinguish himself by being active and zealous: he is wholly committed to the King—quite unapproachable by any means—and so are the people he brought with him, his immediate staff. But fortunately most of the secretariat remains unaltered, and I have some reports that will interest you. As for the chief office-holders, there is little change, except at the head of Indian affairs, which is now occupied by a highly-respected man, a friend of Humboldt's and like him an abolitionist; while in the department dealing with trade and customs the deputy-controller has taken over from his chief, but he continues the same kindness towards me, and sometimes with my wide connexions I am able to let him know of a profitable venture, as I did for his predecessor.'

  In a kind of parenthesis they talked about trade for a while: it was a subject upon which Gayongos, with his correspondents and business associates up and down the Pacific coast and beyond the isthmus, even as far as the United States, was unusually well qualified to speak. He had many activities but the chief was the insurance of ships and their cargoes, sometimes joining in a scheme he thought unusually sound; and to make a success of these an accurate knowledge of conditions, public feeling and official intention in the various provinces was of the first importance. 'As I am sure you know,' he observed, 'the governors of all the considerable cities, garrisons and districts send confidential reports to the Viceroy. It was Muñoz who first suggested that we should use them, when I began to let him have a share in some of my undertakings; and now of the seven copies made
one comes to me as a matter of course: they are particularly interesting at this juncture, since they have an appendix on the political opinion and loyalty of many officers, ecclesiastics and servants of the crown.' He looked at Stephen to see the effect of his words, and with some satisfaction he went on, 'This brings us naturally to the army. But before we speak of the soldiers, may I ask whether you know there is a French mission here?'

  'I do,' said Stephen, smiling. 'It would be strange if there were not. But I know only of its existence. Pray tell me what the mission consists of, and how they are coming along.'

  'There are five of them, all said to be Swiss, Catholic Swiss. The leader and his brother, the two Brissacs, are mathematicians, measuring the force of gravity and the height of various mountains; the other two are said to be naturalists. The fifth, who speaks very good Spanish, seems merely to arrange their expeditions. They brought a letter of introduction from Humboldt, or what purported to be a letter of introduction from Humboldt, and they were well received at the university. They are evidently men of considerable learning.'

  'What progress have they made?'

  'Not very much. The elder Brissac, Charles, is a man of real ability and he has entered into serious conversation with some who are in favour of the new order. But the present French position on slavery cannot please the sort of people he usually sees, who are abolitionists, and he has nothing like enough money to tempt those who are both open to temptation and worth tempting. On the other hand, in spite of everything, everything, there is still a glamour attaching to France, and combined with the name of Napoleon and the idea of independence it moves some young men to a giddy enthusiasm; and the two naturalists, who appear to have served in the Italian campaign, have a number of followers. Castro may be one of them. He often invites the younger, Latrobe, and he arranged for their journey to the place where Humboldt stayed near Quito, so far up in the Andes that you can touch the moon from the ground floor.'

  'That would have been Antisana for sure; and if I do not mistake the house is at more than thirteen thousand feet. If these French agents were not truly devoted naturalists, it must have been the weary, weary climb for them. But Lord, what an opportunity! I long to see the high Andes—to tread the virgin snow, and view the condor on her nest, the puma in his lair. I do not mention the higher saxifrages.'

  'I went to Quito once,' said Gayongos, 'which is only nine thousand odd: up and up, always up and up, your lungs bursting, the muscles of your shins on fire; for you often have to lead your mule. Never, never again. I had rather be taken by the Inquisition. And there—how curious—there, hesitating to cross the street—' They were sitting in a protruding louvered balcony from which they could see without being seen—'there, the gentleman in black, is a familiar of the Inquisition. Yes. Yes. So he is. That reminds me: Castro is a Marrano—his great-grandmother was a Toledo Jewess—and perhaps that is what makes him so anxious to be cherished by the Viceroy while at the same time he longs to insure himself on the other side.'

  'A difficult position,' observed Stephen. 'A Marrano cannot afford to make enemies: one alleged dislike of pork—one seven-branched candlestick found in his house—no matter who put it there—and the familiars come for him. He is accused of Hebrew practices, and you know the rest. Castro had much better keep quiet.'

  'Castro is not capable of keeping quiet,' said Gayongos, and from that they went on to discuss the soldiers: it appeared from Gayongos' informed comments and from his appendices that there was a considerable amount of idealism and of support for independence, particularly among the captains and lieutenants; the senior officers were for the most part chiefly concerned with power and personal advantage; and they tended to hate one another. 'There are already bitter quarrels about how various commands and ministries are to be shared out,' said Gayongos. But he also vouched for three relatively disinterested generals and stated that if they were properly approached they might move in concert and precipitate the revolution: this would be all the more feasible if they were supplied with donatives to win the support of five or six regiments in key positions. 'This we can afford to do,' said Gayongos, 'whereas the French can not. Yet these are difficult, imperious men, and the presentation of the scheme is of the very first importance; and in any case it is you who have to decide on their value and on the present situation. General Hurtado is by far the most influential, and he is in Lima at present: should you like to go shooting with him early on Friday morning?'

  'Very much. It would I think be indiscreet to ask to borrow your confidential reports.'

  'They are indeed very bulky; and although I could explain their presence, no one else outside the palace could do so. May I look through them for some particular point?'

  'I should be interested in any recent mention of Father O'Higgins the Vicar-General, of Father Gomez and of Father Panda.'

  'Now that the Archbishop is failing, the Vicar-General is the most important man in the diocese. He is an abolitionist and he would be entirely on our side but for the fact that he deplores violence and that the English are for the most part heretics. Father Panda, a tall African, is his confidential assistant; he does not seem to mind violence nearly so much. Although he is so young they say he is very well seen in Rome, and is likely to be a prelate soon: the Vicar-General thinks the world of him. He too is an abolitionist of course. Of Father Gomez I only know that he is descended from Pachacutic Inca, that he is much reverenced by the Indians, and that he is very learned, which is not my line at all.'

  'I believe I shall meet them privately quite soon.'

  'Very good,' said Gayongos. 'And for these gentlemen?' He held up his list of agreed meetings.

  'General Hurtado on Friday morning by all means; but it might be wiser to give the Vicar-General priority over the others—to see them having learnt his views.'

  'Very much wiser.'

  There seemed little more to be said at this first interview, apart from settling the place and time of Friday's expedition; but after a moment Gayongos said, 'This may be an absurd suggestion—it is most unlikely that you should have the time—but you said you longed to see the high Andes: Antisana, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo and the like. Now I shall presently have messengers going to Panama and Chagres by way of Quito. I should in any case have offered their services for any letters you might wish to have sent from the Atlantic side of the isthmus; but it occurs to me that some of these interviews may take a long while to arrange, a long while for emissaries to come and go—Potosi, Cuzco, for example—and that possibly you might find time to travel with them as far as Quito, reliable men who know the road and who could show you prodigious prospects of snow, rock and ice, volcanoes, bears, guanacoes, vicuñas, eagles . . .'

  'You tempt me strangely: I wish it could be so. I dearly love a mountain,' said Stephen. 'But I could not square it with my conscience. No. I am afraid it will have to wait until our design is carried out. But I shall certainly burden your people with my letters, if I may: many, many thanks to you, my dear sir.'

  For days the wind had kept in the east, and by now there was a considerable sea running across the northward current, causing the Franklin to roll and pitch rather more than was comfortable, rather more than was usual for mustering the ship's company by divisions; but this was Sunday, the first Sunday that Jack had felt reasonably sure that his wounded leg would bear the exercise, and he decided to carry on. At breakfast the word had been passed 'clean to muster' and now the bosun was bawling down the hatchways, 'D'ye hear, there, fore and aft? Clear for muster at five bells. Duck frocks and white trousers,' while his only remaining mate roared, 'D'ye hear, there? Clean shirts and shave for muster at five bells.' Many of the seamen were of course old Surprises: for them all this was part of immemorial custom, as much part of natural life as dried peas on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and they had already washed their best shirts in readiness while on Saturday evening or early on Sunday they had combed out their pigtails and replaited them, each man for his tie-mate, before or after
cornering the ship's barber for their shave. Now, apart from fitting the poor bewildered blacks into their purser's slops, brushing and tidying them as well as they could and comforting them by calling out, 'It's all right, mate: never fret,' and patting them on the back or shoulders, they were quite ready.

  So was their Captain. He was about to pull on his ceremonial breeches when, through the open door, Killick cried, 'No you don't. Oh no you don't, sir. Not until I have looked at those there wounds and that there eye. It was the Doctor's orders, sir, which you cannot deny it. And orders is orders.'

  He had an overwhelming moral advantage, and Jack sat down, showing his thigh, a damned great slit that had been very painful at first but that had healed to a fair extent, just as his scalp had done, though walking was still awkward. Unwillingly Killick admitted that they needed no more than the ointment; but when he unrolled the bandage covering the Captain's eye he cried, 'Now we shall have to have the drops as well as the salve—a horrid sight: like a poached egg, only bloody—and I tell you what, sir, I shall put a little Gregory into the drops.'

  'How do you mean, Gregory?'

  'Why, everybody knows Gregory's Patent Liquid, sir: it rectifies the humours. And don't these humours want rectifying? Oh no, not at all. I never seen anything so ugly. God love us!'

  'Did the Doctor mention Gregory's Patent Liquid?'

  'Which I put some on Barret Bonden's wound, a horrible great gash: like a butcher's shop. And look at it now. As clean as a whistle. Come on, sir. Never mind the smart; it is all for your own good.'