by Jean Rolt
as it was getting very chilly at night, they had better get on with it.
As yet they had not even looked for tin...certainly there had been no sign of any during their day out. One thing they could do though was smelt some of the copper ore down to make ornaments, brooches or buckles, the villagers seemed prosperous enough to swop things for the bright metal, even in its soft state!
The next day they started the process of smelting since they now had enough charcoal to use. First the bright green rock had to be crushed. They used smooth stones for this and kept the precious green powder safe in their own cups.
When they had enough they dug a deep hole into the ground. There they lit a small fire. They fed the fire with twigs to get it hot and then put some charcoal on top of it, then turf wa placed on top of the charcoal, all the time making sure the fire underneath was still burning. If it went out they had to start again. The idea was to make as much heat as possible, sometimes an air channel was dug into the side to get even denser heat. When they were sure the heat would melt the ore the powdered copper was put into the hole on top of more charcoal. They covered the whole thing with turf and left it.
When hours later they went back the charcoal was pulled out and there shining through the blackness was bright copper metal, a magical process which took skill and sometimes failed.
The copper released from the rock that had held it could be hammered into metal objects. Cups were made but they were easily squashed. It's main use on its own was to make ornaments or shoe buckles, but it's real value lay in its brightness and it was polished until it looked like gold at times. Most of the men on board knew about gold but few had ever seen it except in synagogues.
Joey looked at the melted copper and decided that he could wait till it was mixed with silver before making his mother what he had in mind for her.
He took the puppy everywhere he went. He called it Mia because it sounded like his mother's name and it quickly learned to respond to it. She loved Joey dearly and it was obvious that he loved her. She got tit bits from all his food and went everywhere with him.
He was at first unsure about taking her on a Coracle but as she yelped every time he tried to go without her he gave in and she sat on the bow of the boat as he paddled it at first through the water in the creek and then on his first journey out through the narrow opening of the sand bar.
At first they did not go far. He was afraid of missing the tide and being unable to get back in. Then he learned to pull it up on the sea side of the bar and walk over to the big boat on the other side.
He didn't like to lose sight of land ..but they fished, Joey learned to dive down to bring up lobsters and crabs which he gave to Mia because the rules of his church forbade them to eat shell fish. There were times though when he watched his dog tearing open the shell and he saw the firm meat inside .One day he thought. One day when he was starving he might just try!
Nine
He and Mia often walked along the great bar from the inlet to the land end. There were places where it was easy to get ashore and they would explore the mass of vegetation, disturbing the wild life living in it but they never found any sign of human habitation. They seemed to have arrived at world's end. He decided that some time soon he would set off in his coracle to see if any metal ore could be found locally. If the ship was there for the whole winter then they might as well make the most of it!
About a week later he took his first solo trip outside their now secure settlement. He knew the ways of the sea and realised that he had to time it right with the tides and the wind. By setting off at mid tide whilst it was ebbing the current would take him out and if he stayed out for a few hours the next tide in would be a help.
One morning he took Mia early and they set off. Crossing the end of the bar was plain sailing...and he settled into a steady rhythm with the paddles. Uncle Joe had had been easy to persuade but Joey knew it was important to reassure him that he would be safe.
Joey took the left turn out of the creek, the way they had arrived. He remembered seeing a place with sails as they had travelled up stream. It was on the opposite side of the water but it wasn't long before he saw what he was looking for.
Mia saw on the prow of the boat, looking out. When she saw that they were heading for land she wagged her tail excitedly.
The estuary was wide and the water very deep but Joey saw a stone wall built to be a safe landing place about a mile away. Small boats were clustered around it and that was where they headed.
Joey paddled into the quiet pool of water by the harbour wall....there was a slope which had been fashioned into a slipway to get boats in and out easily. There he pulled up his coracle and tied her off to an iron bar fastened for just that purpose.
Followed by Mia he walked up the slope into the small town.
It was no so densely vegetated as the creek they had made their home. It was possible to walk up a dry, partly paved hill, leading to a few market stalls....it was obviously a thriving little town.
Mia's nose was twitching at all the wonderful smells coming her way, fish, roast birds, small cakes of cereal and honey, they were all laid out to entice the traveller.
Joey spread his hands in a gesture that said clearly there was no money. And in any case he was not looking for tit bits....he was looking for metal...ore or roughly smelted metal...anything that might lead him to find what they were looking for.
They walked quite a way up the slope looking for anything made of metal and then turned around to make their way back to the coracle..
Ten
They could see the harbour clearly and admired the coloured sails as they approached. Suddenly they realised they were being followed. Two small girls smiling shyly walked along with them asking questions.
They wanted to know where Joey had come from and giggled as he said the name.
They asked him if he came from the same place the other foreigners came from.
Joey looked at them carefully. He understood their question perfectly but wanted to be sure they could understand him.
"There is another man here from a long way away.?." The girls nodded their heads and laughed. One of them produced a round glittering coin from her pocket.
"The man gave us this. It's from the other side of the world. "
Joey recognised it. It was copper with a head on one side with letters and numbers on it.
The head wore a crown of laurels......it was of a Roman emperor.
He had seen these coins before of course. In some of their stopping places they had been almost commonplace. But out here?
This was not good news. The Romans were warlike and brutal. They had no qualms about murdering the people they found settled as they marched their way through the world. He asked if the man was still here?
The girls shook their heads and then laughed again.
"He was just one man." they said "Only one man who hid from view if anyone else came in on a boat."
He had bought food with some of his coins and had lived in comfort for a while.
"But then" said a girl '" He went bang" she clapped her hands together...."Bang! "
When Joey looked at her carefully she looked anxious for a moment....."Dead" she said, "Gone now. Dead"
Joey guessed that he had been killed by the villagers and for good reason....it was not up to him to quote the commandment that forbade it.
And it was a relief not to have to worry about meeting him. But where he wondered had he got the metal from?
He realised that the coin would have been made a long way away.....but there was always a chance......he spoke to the girls again.
"This copper, this metal" he said, turning the coin over in his hands, "Are there any more like this anywhere? "
The girls shook their heads......and one of them thought for a moment.
"Come " she said and they led the way to a small collection of huts, much like the ones lived in by the farmers on the other side of the creek.
A fire burned outside one of t
hem and and the girls shyly welcomed their guest.
Their mother came out to see what was going on and Joey was amazed to see a tin cup in her hands. It was battered and not very shiny but it was metal.....and the sort of metal they were looking for.
Amazingly many more of the villagers also had tin beakers and brought them out to show the young man with the smiling face.
Joey was jubilant. He had actually found a community who used tin for cooking utensils....
He lost no time in asking where they had got them from.
A long walk from there he was told....a day, maybe two, easier to go by boat, but these people were farmers not sailors....
Eleven
He tried to get them to describe where the tin had come from....they did their best to help but failed to make him understand.
Then one of them produced a long piece of slate and a soft stone. On it he drew a rudimentary map. He started at the harbour. A small boat indicated the presence of water...then the line went inland to where they were then. Joey grinned and said he understood.
From there the line went inland straight to begin with and then turned eastward. Joey nodded. After that there was a slight disagreement about the route but Joey had seen enough.....there was a tin mine and the routes would be well marked once they had got onto them. Horses and people tended to use well worn paths taking the safest routes found for centuries.They were well trodden, occasionally marked with stones and not difficult to follow.
The people in the huts insisted
