Buccaneer (39 page)

Thomas nodded his agreement. “I still don’t like the idea of
giving
them all those guns, shot and powder. Certainly the guns will defend us, but they’ll defend the Roundheads, too.”

“We’ll bargain,” Ned said, suddenly getting an idea. “The guns have to be mounted in forts or on batteries, and I’m damned if we want to use our people as masons and labourers. If the general will agree to use his soldiers to do the building, we’ll supply the guns, powder and shot.”

“And we’ll make sure that every time we raid a place we’ll bring back more guns and shot.”

“Come on, Thomas, let’s go and bargain with the general. Let him report on the Spanish fleet at Santiago!”

The general was very agitated. The bottom had just dropped out of his world professionally because he owed his promotion entirely to service with the late Lord Protector. Politically he was exposed because he had many enemies in England and had never met Richard Cromwell. He had powerful enemies here, too, even among his own officers: many of them wanted to return to England before they were struck down by yellow fever or typhus, and the last ships to leave for England carried letters to influential friends, accusing their general of everything from corruption to inefficiency, and saying that Jamaica was a useless possession. And this morning the news had come from the fishermen about the Spanish fleet at Aguadores.

The only good news was that the buccaneers had come back, sailing in as silently and unexpectedly as they had left several days ago, and he only hoped that Rowlands had delivered his letter safely and not antagonized them. A good young officer, Rowlands, but one of his brother officers had called him a psalm-singing hypocrite and the general found it hard to quarrel with the verdict.

He heard footsteps and voices and then the bellowing laugh of Whetheread, the bearded buccaneer leader. Suddenly Heffer felt less lonely. The buccaneers were an independent crowd, but at least they were not cowards, like half his officers, who were so scared that they would lie, cheat and probably mutiny in their mad rush to get out of Jamaica, and who had shown their worth at Hispaniola.

“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 board 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?”