Pirate Latitudes Read online

  “Bosquet.”

  “I have heard of him,” Hunter said. “He is the man who sank the Renown?”

  “The same,” Whisper hissed.

  So the gun crews would be well drilled. Hunter frowned.

  “Whisper,” he said, “do you know if the culverins are fix-mounted?”

  Whisper rocked back and forth for a long moment. “You are insane, Captain Hunter.”

  “How so?”

  “You are planning a landward attack.”

  Hunter nodded.

  “It will never succeed,” Whisper said. He tapped the map on his knees. “Edmunds thought of it, but when he saw the island, he gave up the attempt. Look here, if you beach on the west” — he pointed to the curve of the U — “there is a small harbor which you can use. But to cross to the main harbor of Matanceros by land, you must scale the Leres ridge, to get to the other side.”

  Hunter made an impatient gesture. “Is it difficult to scale the ridge?”

  “It is impossible,” Whisper said. “The ordinary man cannot do it. Starting here, from the western cove, the land gently slopes up for five hundred feet or more. But it is a hot, dense jungle, with many swamps. There is no fresh water. There will be patrols. If the patrols do not find you and you do not die of fevers, you emerge at the base of the ridge. The western face of Leres ridge is vertical rock for three hundred feet. A bird cannot perch there. The wind is incessant with the force of a gale.”

  “If I did scale it,” Hunter said. “What then?”

  “The eastern slope is gentle, and presents no difficulty,” Whisper said. “But you will never reach the eastern face, I promise you.”

  “If I did,” Hunter said, “what of the Matanceros batteries?”

  Whisper gave a little shrug. “They face the water, Captain Hunter. Cazalla is no fool. He knows he cannot be attacked from the land.”

  “There is always a way.”

  Whisper rocked in his chair, in silence, for a long time. “Not always,” he said finally. “Not always.”

  . . .

  DON DIEGO DE RAMANO, known also as Black Eye or simply as the Jew, sat hunched over his workbench in the shop on Farrow Street. He blinked nearsightedly at the pearl, which he held between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. They were the only remaining fingers on that hand. “It is of excellent quality,” he said. He handed the pearl back to Hunter. “I advise you to keep it.”

  Black Eye blinked rapidly. His eyes were weak, and pink, like a rabbit’s. Tears ran almost continuously from them; from time to time, he brushed them away. His right eye had a large black spot near the pupil — hence his name. “You did not need me to tell you this, Hunter.”

  “No, Don Diego.”

  The Jew nodded, and got up from his bench. He crossed his narrow shop and closed the door to the street. Then he closed the shutters to the window, and turned back to Hunter. “Well?”

  “How is your health, Don Diego?”

  “My health, my health,” Don Diego said, pushing his hands deep into the pockets of his loose robe. He was sensitive about his injured left hand. “My health is indifferent as always. You did not need me to tell you this, either.”

  “Is the shop successful?” Hunter asked, looking around the room. On rude tables, gold jewelry was displayed. The Jew had been selling from this shop for nearly two years now.

  Don Diego sat down. He looked at Hunter, and stroked his beard, and wiped away his tears. “Hunter,” he said, “you are vexing. Speak your mind.”

  “I was wondering,” Hunter said, “if you still worked in powder.”

  “Powder? Powder?” The Jew stared across the room, frowning as if he did not know the meaning of the word. “No,” he said. “I do not work in powder. Not after this” — he pointed to his blackened eye — “and after this.” He raised his fingerless left hand. “No longer do I work in powder.”

  “Can your will be changed?”

  “Never.”

  “Never is a long time.”

  “Never is what I mean, Hunter.”

  “Not even to attack Cazalla?”

  The Jew grunted. “Cazalla,” he said heavily. “Cazalla is in Matanceros and cannot be attacked.”

  “I am going to attack him,” Hunter said quietly.

  “So did Captain Edmunds, this year past.” Don Diego grimaced at the memory. He had been a partial backer of that expedition. His investment — fifty pounds — had been lost. “Matanceros is invulnerable, Hunter. Do not let vanity obscure your sense. The fortress cannot be overcome.” He wiped the tears from his cheek. “Besides, there is nothing there.”

  “Nothing in the fortress,” Hunter said. “But in the harbor?”

  “The harbor? The harbor?” Black Eye stared into space again. “What is in the harbor? Ah. It must be the treasure naos lost in the August storm, yes?”

  “One of them.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I know.”

  “One nao?” The Jew blinked even more rapidly. He scratched his nose with the forefinger of his injured left hand — a sure sign he was lost in thought. “It is probably filled with tobacco and cinnamon,” he said gloomily.

  “It is probably filled with gold and pearls,” Hunter said. “Otherwise it would have made straight for Spain, and risked capture. It went to Matanceros only because the treasure is so great it dared not risk a seizure.”

  “Perhaps, perhaps . . .”

  Hunter watched the Jew carefully. The Jew was a great actor.

  “Suppose you are right,” he said finally. “It is of no interest to me. A nao in Matanceros harbor is as safe as if it were moored in Cádiz itself. It is protected by the fortress and the fortress cannot be taken.”

  “True,” Hunter said. “But the gun batteries which guard the harbor can be destroyed — if your health is good, and if you will work in powder once again.”

  “You flatter me.”

  “Most assuredly I do not.”

  “What has my health to do with this?”

  “My plan,” Hunter said, “is not without its rigors.”

  Don Diego frowned. “You are saying I must come with you?”

  “Of course. What did you think?”

  “I thought you wanted money. You want me to come?”

  “It is essential, Don Diego.”

  The Jew stood up abruptly. “To attack Cazalla,” he said, suddenly excited. He began to pace back and forth.

  “I have dreamt of his death each night for ten years, Hunter. I have dreamt . . .” He stopped pacing, and looked at Hunter. “You also have your reasons.”

  “I do.” Hunter nodded.

  “But can it be done? Truly?”

  “Truly, Don Diego.”

  “Then I wish to hear the plan,” the Jew said, very excited. “And I wish to know what powder you need.”

  “I need an invention,” Hunter said. “You must fabricate something which does not exist.”

  The Jew wiped tears from his eyes. “Tell me,” he said. “Tell me.”

  . . .

  MR. ENDERS, THE barber-surgeon and sea artist, delicately applied the leech to his patient’s neck. The man, leaning back in the chair, his face covered with a towel, groaned as the sluglike creature touched his flesh. Immediately, the leech began to swell with blood.

  Mr. Enders hummed quietly to himself. “There now,” he said. “A few moments and you will feel much better. Mark me, you will breathe easier, and show the ladies a thing or two, as well.” He patted the cheek that was under the towel. “I shall just step outside for a breath of air, and return in a moment.”

  With that, Mr. Enders left the shop, for he had seen Hunter beckoning to him outside. Mr. Enders was a short man with quick, delicate movements; he
seemed to dance rather than walk. He did a modest business in the port, because many of his patients survived his ministrations, unlike those of other surgeons. But his greatest skill, and his true love, was piloting a vessel under sail. Enders, a genuine sea artist, was that rare creature, a perfect helmsman, a man who seemed to find communion between himself and the ship he guided.

  “Are you needing a shave, Captain?” he asked Hunter.

  “A crew.”

  “Then you have found your surgeon,” Enders said. “And what’s the nature of the voyage?”

  “Logwood cutting,” Hunter said, and grinned.

  “I am always pleased to cut logwood,” Enders said. “And whose logwood might it be?”

  “Cazalla’s.”

  Immediately, Enders dropped his bantering mood. “Cazalla? You are going to Matanceros?”

  “Softly,” Hunter said, glancing around the street.

  “Captain, Captain, suicide is an offense against God.”

  “You know that I need you,” Hunter said.

  “But life is sweet, Captain.”

  “So is gold,” Hunter said.

  Enders was silent, frowning. He knew, as the Jew knew, as everyone knew in Port Royal, that there was no gold in the fortress of Matanceros. “Perhaps you will explain?”

  “It is better that I do not.”

  “When do you sail?”

  “In two days’ time.”

  “And we will hear the reasons in Bull Bay?”

  “You have my word.”

  Enders silently extended his hand, and Hunter shook it. There was a writhing and grunting from the patient in the shop. “Oh dear, the poor fellow,” Enders said, and ran back into the room. The leech was fat with blood, and dripping red drops onto the wooden floor. Enders lifted the leech away and the patient screamed. “Now, now, do be calm, Your Excellency.”

  “You are nothing but a damned pirate and rascal,” said Sir James Almont, whipping the cloth off his face and daubing his bitten neck with it.

  . . .

  LAZUE WAS IN a bawdy house on Lime Road, surrounded by giggling women. Lazue was French; the name was a bastardization of Les Yeux, for this sailor’s eyes were large, and bright, and legendary. Lazue could see better than anyone in the dark of night; many times, Hunter had gotten his ships through reefs and shoal water with the help of Lazue on the forecastle. It was also true that this slender, catlike person was an extraordinary marksman.

  “Hunter,” Lazue growled, with an arm around a buxom girl. “Hunter, join us.” The girls giggled and played with their hair.

  “A word in private, Lazue.”

  “You are so tedious,” Lazue said, and kissed each of the girls in turn. “I shall return, my sweets,” Lazue said, and crossed with Hunter to a far corner. A girl brought them a crock of kill-devil, and each a glass.

  Hunter looked at Lazue’s shoulder-length tangled hair and beardless face. “Are you drunk, Lazue?”

  “Not too drunk, Captain,” Lazue said, with a raucous laugh. “Speak your mind.”

  “I am making a voyage in two days.”

  “Yes?” Lazue seemed to become suddenly sober. The large, watchful eyes focused intently on Hunter. “A voyage to what end?”

  “Matanceros.”

  Lazue laughed, a deep, rumbling growl of a laugh. It was an odd sound to come from so slight a body.

  “Matanceros means slaughter, and it is well-named, from all that I hear.”

  “Nonetheless,” Hunter said.

  “Your reasons must be good.”

  “They are.”

  Lazue nodded, not expecting to hear more. A clever captain did not reveal much about a raid until the crew was under way.

  “Are the reasons as good as the dangers are great?”

  “They are.”

  Lazue searched Hunter’s face. “You want a woman on this voyage?”

  “That is why I am here.”

  Lazue laughed again. She scratched her small breasts absently. Though she dressed and acted and fought like a man, Lazue was a woman. Her story was known to few, but Hunter was one.

  Lazue was the daughter of a Brittany seaman’s wife. Her husband was at sea when the wife found she was pregnant and subsequently delivered a son. However, the husband never returned — indeed, he was never heard from again — and after some months, the woman found herself pregnant a second time. Fearing scandal, she moved to another village in the province, where she delivered a daughter, Lazue.

  A year passed and the son died. Meanwhile, the mother ran out of funds, and found it necessary to return to her native village to live with her parents. To avoid dishonor, she dressed her daughter as her son and the deception was so complete that no one in the village, including the child’s grandparents, ever suspected the truth. Lazue grew up as a boy, and at thirteen was made a coachman for a local nobleman; later she joined the French army, and lived for several years among troops without ever being discovered. Finally — at least as she told the story — she fell in love with a handsome young cavalry officer and revealed her secret to him. They had a passionate affair but he never married her, and when it ended, she chose to come to the West Indies, where she again resumed her masculine role.

  In a town like Port Royal, such a secret could not be kept long, and indeed everyone knew that Lazue was a woman. In any case, during privateering raids, she was in the habit of baring her breasts in order to confuse and terrify the enemy. But in the port, she was customarily treated like a man, and no one made any great cause over it.

  Now, Lazue laughed. “You are mad, Hunter, to attack Matanceros.”

  “Will you come?”

  She laughed again. “Only because I have nothing better to do.” And she went back to the giggling whores at the far table.

  . . .

  HUNTER FOUND THE Moor, in the early-morning hours, playing a hand of gleek with two Dutch corsairs at a gaming house called The Yellow Scamp.

  The Moor, also called Bassa, was a huge man with a giant head, flat slabs of muscle on his shoulders and chest, heavy arms, and thick hands, which curled around the playing cards and made them seem tiny. He was called the Moor for reasons long since forgotten; and even if he were inclined to tell of his origins, he could not do so, for his tongue had been cut out by a Spanish plantation-owner on Hispañola. It was generally agreed that the Moor was not Moorish at all but had come from the region of Africa called Nubia, a desert land along the Nile, populated by enormous black men.

  His given name, Bassa, was a port on the Guinea coast, where slavers sometimes stopped, but all agreed that the Moor could not have come from that land, since the natives were sickly and much paler in color.

  The fact that the Moor was mute and had to communicate with gestures increased the physical impression that he made. On occasion, newly arrived visitors to the port assumed that Bassa was stupid as well as mute, and as Hunter watched the card game in progress, he suspected that this was happening again. He took a tankard of wine to a side table and sat back to enjoy the spectacle.

  The Dutchmen were dandies, elegantly dressed in fine hose and embroidered silk tunics. They were drinking heavily. The Moor did not drink at all; indeed, he never drank. There was a story that he could not tolerate liquor, and that once he had gotten drunk and killed five men with his bare hands before he came to his senses. Whether this was true or not, it was certainly true that the Moor had murdered the plantation owner who had cut out his tongue, then murdered his wife and half the household before making his escape to the pirate ports on the western side of Hispañola, and from there, to Port Royal.

  Hunter watched the Dutchmen as they bet. They were gambling recklessly, joking and laughing in high spirits. The Moor sat impassively, with a stack of gold coins in front of him. Gleek was a swift game that did not w
arrant casual betting, and indeed, as Hunter watched, the Moor drew three cards alike, showed them, and scooped up the Dutchmen’s money.

  They stared in silence a moment, and then both shouted “Cheat!” in several languages. The Moor shook his enormous head calmly, and pocketed the money.

  The Dutchmen insisted that they play another hand, but in a gesture, the Moor indicated that they had no money left to bet.

  At this, the Dutchmen became quarrelsome, shouting and pointing to the Moor. Bassa remained impassive, but a serving boy came over, and he handed the boy a single gold doubloon.

  The Dutchmen apparently did not understand that the Moor was paying, in advance, for any damage that he might cause the gaming house. The serving boy took the coin and fled to a safe distance.

  The Dutchmen were now standing, and shouting curses at the Moor, who remained seated at the table. His face was bland, but his eyes flicked back and forth from one man to the other. The Dutchmen became more quarrelsome, holding out their hands and demanding the return of their money.

  The Moor shook his head.

  Then one of the Dutchmen pulled a dagger from his belt, and brandished it in front of the Moor, just inches from his nose. Still the Moor remained impassive. He sat very still, with both hands folded in front of him on the table.

  The other Dutchman started to tug a pistol out of his belt, and with that, the Moor sprang into action. His large black hand flicked out, gripped the dagger in the Dutchman’s hand, and swung the blade down, burying it three inches deep in the tabletop. Then he struck the second Dutchman in the stomach; the man dropped his pistol and bent over, coughing. The Moor kicked him in the face and sent him sprawling across the room. He then turned back to the first Dutchman, whose eyes were wide with terror. The Moor picked him up bodily, held him high over his head, walked to the door, and flung the man through the air, out into the street, where he landed spread-eagled on his face in the mud.

  The Moor returned to the room, plucked the knife out of the table, slipped it into his own belt, and crossed the room to sit next to Hunter. Only then did he allow himself a smile.

  “New men,” Hunter said.