Caribee

by Christopher Nicole

  Edward glanced at his father. Tom Warner was flushed as anvone, and his bad temper was growing. Because he was not old. And he would know what it was like to hold a soft body in his arms and find a soft receptacle for his anxious manhood. That he refrained was a conscious act of will, a decision made because he was a leader and a gentleman. Was Tony Hilton, then, not truly a gentleman?

  Tuloa was swaying across, his arm thrown round Tom's shoulders, muttering in slurred Spanish. His face seemed to rest on Tom's back, and he gazed at Edward, mouth drooping, saliva dribbling out of each comer. Truly he was an unprepossessing sight; the idea that this man could on occasion glide with silent ease through the forbidding forest was ridiculous, at this moment.

  Tom replied brusquely, more brusquely, indeed, than Edward had ever heard, a combination of outrage and anger, accompanied by a push which sent Tuloa rolling over on to North. Not that the Indian seemed disturbed. His mouth continued to loll open, and he nuzzled the admiral's chest, while there could be no doubt about his erection; he sought to sustain it with his own fingers.

  'Easy, Tom,' North whispered. ‘We cannot afford to antagonize him.'

  "You heard what he wanted? The boy? Why, by God ...'

  Edward gazed at the chieftain in horror. Or was it excitement? He had a peculiar lightness in his chest. He too had sampled the piwarrie. Why not, he thought. How can it be wrong, if we both wish to enjoy it?

  The forest echoed. The noise swept up the river and struck the tree wall, to go bouncing around the village, an endless boom, slowly dwindling into a mammoth silence, as men dropped cup and woman, and stared at each other, at the sky, at the very ground, in stupefaction.

  North was first to recover. 'Cannon, by Christ,' he shouted, scrambling to his feet in such haste he upset the Arawak chieftain. 'We are attacked. To arms. Man the ships. Quickly now.'

  Tom had also regained his wits, and ran round the circle of drunken lovers, kicking and slapping. 'Get your armour. Man the ships.'

  The men got up, slowly, reluctantly. Naked girls were laid on the grass, trodden on as the seamen searched for their weapons. The Indians were themselves alarmed, and the men gathered by the water's edge, looking past the anchored vessels towards the bar, pointing and muttering amongst themselves. Edward ran down to join them, and stared at the ship, which felt its way into the river, propelled by a faint breeze. ' Tis only one ship,' he shouted.

  'None the less, she is afloat and we are ashore,' Berwicke said. 'She could sink our fleet.'

  'But she won'‘I.' Tony Hilton jumped up and down, and waved, holding his breeches up with one hand. 'She flies the cross of St George.'

  'John Painton, at your service, Mr North. Captain Warner, I am happy to make your acquaintance.' Painton was the very picture of the seadog Niles the boatswain had described, a short, thickset man, with a heavy black beard and tremendous eyebrows; they seemed to protrude like windows. He was clearly a seaman pine and simple, affected no fine clothes, and carried a cutlass rather than a rapier; he kept his hand on the hilt as he eyed the Arawaks, and his followers were careful to prime their pistols most ostentatiously, and remain close to their pinnace.

  'Oh, fear them not, Mr Painton,' North said. 'They are the most friendly people conceivable, if entirely lacking in manners. But what brings you to this desolate place? No accident, I would wager.'

  'No accident, Mr North. I have urgent despatches, from the Court of St James.'

  'Despatches?' North took the sealed wallet, glanced uneasily at Tom. 'Despatches. Hm. You'll take some of our refreshment, sir? And your crew?"

  'Willingly, Mr North.' Painton raised the cup of piwarrie brought to him by an Indian girl, tasted it, the while eyeing the naked body in front of him. 'By God, gentlemen, but you have very much of a paradise here, I do declare. You'll be sorry to abandon it.'

  'Abandon it?' North turned the wallet over once again. "You have read these documents, sir?'

  'You'll observe that the seal is unbroken, Mr North,'

  Painton pointed out. 'But there is sufficient rumour in Plymouth.'

  'You'd best open them,' Tom recommended. 'And put us out of our doubt. What news of England, Mr Painton?’

  'None, sir. You'll realize that I left but a few days after yourselves. I was delayed on the way by a storm which set me some distance off course, or I would have been here sooner.'

  'Would that you had,' North muttered. He gazed at Tom, his face pale. 'The grant is revoked.'

  ‘It is no more than you anticipated, sir,' Ashton said.

  'Revoked,' North said. 'Revoked,' he shouted. 'Gondomar's doing.' He looked at the men, who had formed a vast circle, in many cases still attached to their Indian friends; these had not been sobered by the arrival of the English ship, and seemed entirely bemused by the incident. 'Would to God you had come sooner, Mr Painton. While we yet despaired.'

  ‘I carried out my duty to the best of my ability, sir,' Painton said.

  'Why so sad, Mr North?" demanded Tony Hilton. He had accumulated a second girl, and held one in each arm. 'Scotch James is no less than four thousand miles away from us. So is Gondomar. As for the Dons, would it make any difference to them whether you held the King's Patent or not, should they discover us here? I'd say nothing has changed'

  'By God, sir,' North declared. 'You are nothing less than a pirate at heart. A drunken, debauched buccaneer. By God, sir, I've a mind to hang you from that tree. What you said was nothing less than treason.'

  ‘Yet the lad is right,' someone muttered.

  'Aye,' said another voice. 'To what should we return, Mr North? All our wealth is sunk in this venture.'

  'By God,' North said. "That I should unknowingly have associated myself with such a pack of mutinous traitors. The King bids us return. There can be no answer to that, other than obedience. What, would you set yourselves up greater than the King?"

  He is a man, as we, and dies, as we, Edward wanted to say. But he dared not. And yet, to abandon everything, and go crawling back home, because of a Spanish Don. He gazed at his father, and to his surprise found that his father was staring at him.

  'Disobey,' North said, 'and you think nothing will change? We'll be men without a country. I see you already, after one evening's debauch, men without religion, without concept of good or evil. I would not interfere. You have suffered long and hard. But has life nothing more to offer you than a brown belly? What of your wives and families at home? Your mothers and fathers, your sisters and brothers? And what of your tobacco? Suppose we raise a fine crop? Where'll we sell it? Or shall we degenerate into white Indians, here in this swamp'

  'Knowing His Majesty,' Tom Warner observed, "he'll forgive you anything should you brine; him back something of value. That were the sum of Raleigh's crime.'

  'Tom,' North cried. ‘I'd not have expected to hear you uttering treason. No, no. This was an ill-fated venture, from the very start. It is my fault. I admit it freely. It was my decision to go rushing off before waiting for the King's final decision. I take the blame. But now we must return, as we are true-born Englishmen.'

  There was a moment's silence. But the crew's decisions were evidenced by the way they slowly released their Indian girls, the manner in which they straightened their clothing. No, Edward wanted to shout. No. I do not want to abandon the venture. I want to stay here.

  ‘I think the men, having suffered so much, both in getting here and in staying here this while, deserve to have a free choice in the matter,' Tom said.

  'Am I not admiral of this expedition? And governor of this colony?" North demanded, going very red in the face.

  'You have just elected to abandon your responsibility, sir,' Tom said.

  'Do you seek to impugn my judgement?’

  ‘I would impugn your very courage, Mr North. Certainly your fitness for so arduous a post. And you may take offence if you will, sir. This good right arm of mine is disposed to give you satisfaction.'

  North hesitated, but there could be no question of his opposin
g his inexperienced blade to such a man as Tom Warner. He turned away, arms outstretched. 'Captain Warner wishes the matter to be settled by a popular vote,' he cried. "Very well. I show you the King's command.' He waved the paper. 'And as the ships are mine, I show you an empty river, an empty coast, once I have left. I show you the lad, Dick, sweating his life away in that hut. And be sure, too, that I will make a full report of these events to His Majesty, as I am in duty bound to do. Now make your decision, and quickly.'

  The men shuffled thieir feet, and cast glances at Tom.

  'And I say as we are here, so let us stay, and do what we came for,' Tom declared. 'We have found a settlement. And we have found friends in these good savages. Providing we remember always to treat them as friends we have naught to fear. There will be other ships. Failing that, we shall build our own. And as for His Majesty's displeasure, I promise you that he acts now under pressure from Spain. Did not Her Majesty in days gone by disavow Drake and Hawkins, and issue orders for their recall from more than one expedition, never meaning them to be obeyed? Are we less men than they?’ He walked away from North's side, stood close to Tuloa. 'Let those who would look to the future rather than the past join me here.'

  Edward ran to stand beside his father, panting, watching the other men with, growing apprehension, as they shuffled their feet, glancing from the Arawak girls to the ships to Painton, standing by with an amused expression.

  ‘I will stay, of course, Captain Warner,' Ralph Berwicke said, joining them.

  'And I'll not desert my friend Edward,' Tony Hilton said. 'Faith, there's more life in one of these charmers than in all London's whores added together.'

  Which raised a laugh, but did nothing to dispel the tension in the atmosphere.

  North smiled. 'Well, Captain Warner, I'll wish you good fortune with your colony. You've all of a nation there, two men and a boy. No doubt you'll be sending for your wife and family.'

  tll stay with Captain Warner.' Ashton detached himself from amongst the crew of the Great St George. 'Because he's right. There's more future for us here than ever in England, with Scotch James and his favourite lads breathing down our necks.'

  'And good riddance to you, Mr Ashton,' North declared. ‘You were ever a revolutionary. Well, who else? You have my leave. Anyone? What, no one? Well, then, man those boats and let's get back to the ships. Captain Warner, you'll do us the courtesy of asking the chief to supply us for the voyage.'

  Tom Warner hesitated, and then addressed Tuloa in Spanish. The chieftain listened, frowning, and seemed to expostulate. But Tom insisted, and finally the Indian shrugged and agreed.

  'He will see to it,' Tom said. 'When his folk have recovered from their debauch. But it will take some days.'

  'This is reasonable enough,' North agreed. ‘It will give me time to change your mind.'

  ‘I'll not return to England like a whipped dog with my tail between my legs.'

  'And how will you stay here, with but five of you all told? That would be to commit suicide.'

  'Well manage,' Tom said stoutly. But instinctively he cast a glance at the silent forest.

  'Aye, 'tis a grim place, this Guyana,' Painton said, for he had come across to overhear their conversation. 'They say a man lives but a short while, here, and then contracts a kind of shaking sickness which rapidly brings him to his grave.'

  'Sir, you seek to alarm my companions and myself,' Tom said angrily. 'You'll not succeed, so you had best take yourselves off.'

  ‘I intend to, Captain Warner,' Painton said. 'The moment I have filled my water casks and obtained some fresh food. If I thought to discourage your impression of this place, it was mainly in the hope that you and your men, and the boy, would sail with me.'

  'What?' North demanded. 'You are not returning with my fleet?'

  'No, Mr North,' Painton said. ‘I am with messages as well for the Virginia colony, and will take myself thither.'

  The Virginia colony,' Tom said. 'Well, then, if that is to be our destiny, so be it. Gladly will we accept your offer, Mr Painton, as all other avenues seem closed to us.' He glanced past North to where Ashton was shaking his head and going red in the face. 'What is troubling you, Mr. Ashton? ' Tis a fact we cannot remain here by ourselves; Mr North is right about that.'

  Ashton opened his mouth, and then closed it again. ‘It is of no account, Captain Warner. I shall be happy to accompany you wherever you choose.'

  El Dorado. It was, then, no more than a dream. But he would return. Edward swore this, as he tossed in his narrow bunk. Where Walter Raleigh and Thomas Warner had failed, he would succeed, the moment he was grown to manhood. It was not so very far from Virginia to Guyana.

  Meanwhile, it was good to be at sea again, and in so fine a ship as the Plymouth Belle, manned by seamen rather than would-be colonists, well found and equipped, and more heavily armed than any of Mr North's vessels. Edward found this out the first day, and hastened aft next morning to ask Father if there was any chance of a set-to with the Dons.

  He found Tom staring at the empty horizon, for the low coastline of Guyana, and even the brown water off the coast, had dropped from sight during the night; there had been a land breeze to blow them along.

  'Aye, boy,' he said. 'You have told me nothing I did not suspect, after a word or two with Mr Ashton. It appears that he was trying to warn me against this step, before we embarked. Well, gentlemen?'

  Their three companions had also come on deck.

  'She's a strong ship, all right, Captain Warner,' Tony said. 'She'd make a meal out of any Spaniard.'

  'But strays are not so common in these waters,' Berwicke said. ‘I hope this Painton is not a rash man.'

  'Rash man or not,' Tom growled. 'He will end his life on the gallows, and those who sail with him.'

  'But , sir,' Edward said. 'He is but a seadog who wars on the Dons. Niles the boatswain told us of him on the voyage. Tis said he is a first-rate seaman.'

  'Hush, boy. See him there. We must face this thing out now. There'll be no backsliding, gentlemen. You'll stand by me to the end. Ralph?'

  'You know me well enough for that, Captain.'

  'So I do. Mr Ashton?'

  'To the death, Captain.'

  'Mr Hilton’

  Tony hesitated. 'And should he offer to put us in a way to making our fortunes?’

  'By God, boy, you're all of a buccaneer, as Mr North suggested. Those days are finished, Mr Hilton, at least with any justice on the pirate's side. This Painton will break every law of man as well as God. And as I said, he'll dangle before long. Believe me, boy, I regret having placed you, and ourselves, in this position, but as we are here, we shall only escape the consequences by staying close together.'

  'But, Father,' Edward began again.

  'Hush, lad. Here, take this, and if necessary, use it.'

  A pistol was pressed into his hand, and he turned, his back against the rail, to watch Painton approach.

  'By God, Captain Warner,' he cried, gazing at their swords and pistols with mock alarm. 'But you're expecting to be attacked by the Dons at this early hour? We'll not encounter them much before the Bahama Passage, and that's a good week away, even with the benefit of the Florida Current'

  'And do you, sir, not expect to be assailed by the Spaniards?' Tom demanded. 'As you sail their waters.'

  'God made these waters for all, Captain Warner,' Painton insisted. 'Besides, it is the most direct route to the Virginias.'

  'And is it your intention to go to the Virginias, Mr Painton?"

  Painton glanced from Tom to Berwicke, and then to Ashton.

  'Aye,' Tom said. ‘It seems I was rash in accepting your invitation. Some of my companions have heard of you before.'

  'And you thought I'd force a man? Especially one of your reputation, Captain Warner?" Painton guffawed. 'Come now, man, I'm no pirate. But it seems to me, sir, that should we encounter a Don in the Bahama Passage, and it Is more than likely that we shall do so, we'd be fools not to take what we can and send him to
the bottom.'

  'And you'd not call that piracy?" Berwicke inquired. 'Our two countries are at peace.'

  'Because Scotch James says so,' Tony cried. The Queen would never have it.'

  'Hold your impertinent tongue,' Tom shouted. ‘If you are to follow me. Sir, I came on Mr North's expedition to make a new home for myself, to which, in the fullness of time and by the grace of God, I had hoped to invite my wife and remaining children.'

  'And you'd expect to do that in Virginia?' Painton was contemptuous. ‘If your people do not starve to death within a six month it's sure the savages will have them. Would you see your wife on her back before a red skinned devil?"

  'We had no difficulty with the Arawaks.'

  The Arawaks don'‘I live farther north than the Guyana coast, Captain Warner. For a very good reason. They used to inhabit all the Caribee Islands, once upon a time. But they were destroyed by other, more warlike redskins.'

  'We are straying from the subject, sir,' Tom insisted. 'We mean to be no pirates.'

  Painton looked at their weapons. 'And the four of you, and this boy here, would seek to challenge me and my men? You'd die a madman, Captain Warner.'

  'You'd take arms against Englishmen, villain?" Ashton asked.

  'By God,' Painton demanded of the sky at large. 'And were you not just proposing to do that against me?" Then he laughed again. 'But I like your style, Captain Warner, and that of your men. Now, I'll tell you what is the custom of the sea, for those who would go against the will of the captain. 'Tis to place the offenders on some deserted isle, with but a single musket and a single cutlass, a barrel of water and a side of beef, and leave them there to make the best of it'