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    The Pistoleer: Slavers
    The Pistoleer: Slavers
    The Pistoleer: Slavers
    Ebook375 pages8 hours

    The Pistoleer: Slavers

    By Skye Smith

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "What news do you bring from London?" Betty Cromwell asked him. "Anything that may prove dangerous to my Ollie?"
    "Shouldn't think so,” he said in a calming tone, "so long as he stays clear of Pym and his rabble rousers."
    "But he is with Pym now, at a political rally in Cambridge."
    Daniel stood, turned, and threw his hosters over his shoulder as he strode out of the back door and into the sunshine. "I'm borrowing a horse."
    She dropped to her knees to beseech the Lord to keep her husband safe, but instead she sniffed up her fears and called out after the tall pistoleer, "Oh please Daniel, keep my Ollie safe!"
    * * * * *
    Skye Smith is my pen name. The Pistoleer is a series of historical adventure novels set in Britain in the 1640's. I was encouraged to write them by fans of my Hoodsman series.
    This is the second of the series, and you should read the first novel 'HellBurner' before you read 'Slavers' because it sets the characters and scene for the entire series. The sequence of the books follows the timeline of the Republic of Great Britain. The chapter headings identify the dates and places.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSkye Smith
    Release dateAug 4, 2014
    ISBN9781927699133
    The Pistoleer: Slavers

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    • 5/5
      Excellent historical fiction about the British Civil War (BCW) with important parallels regarding the religious right attack on the US Constitution. The latter encoded a non-religious government to avoid the problems the US is currently facing of an insurrection by white nationalists backed by evangelical protestants and catholics. Read now to see what future may in store for us!

    Book preview

    The Pistoleer - Skye Smith

    THE PISTOLEER

    Slavers

    (Book Two of the Series)

    By Skye Smith

    Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Skye Smith

    All rights reserved including all rights of authorship.

    Cover Illustration is Off the Moroccan Coast

    By Edmund Aubrey Hunt (1855-1922)

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    Revision 0 . . . . . ISBN: 978-1-927699-13-3

    Cover Flap

    What news do you bring from London? Betty Cromwell asked him. Anything that may prove dangerous to my Ollie?

    Shouldn't think so, he said in a calming tone, so long as he stays clear of Pym and his rabble rousers.

    But he is with Pym now, at a political rally in Cambridge.

    He stood, turned, and threw his gun leathers over his shoulder as he strode out of the back door and into the sunshine. I'm borrowing a horse.

    She dropped to her knees to beseech the Lord to keep her husband safe, but instead she sniffed up her fears and called out after the tall pistoleer, Oh please Daniel, keep my Ollie safe!

    * * * * *

    * * * * *

    The Pistoleer - Slavers by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

    About The Author

    Skye Smith is my pen name. The Pistoleer is a series of historical adventure novels set in Britain in the 1640's. I was encouraged to write them by fans of my Hoodsman series.

    This is the second of the series, and you should read the first novel 'HellBurner' before you read 'Slavers' because it sets the characters and scene for the entire series. The sequence of the books follows the timeline of the Republic of Great Britain. The chapter headings identify the dates and places.

    * * * * *

    * * * * *

    The Pistoleer - Slavers by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

    Prologue

    This adventure is as historically accurate as I could make it, however I have not included my endless references because the main character, Daniel, is fictional. I have kept the descriptions and actions of the non-fictional characters as close to historical accounts as possible.

    As a rule of thumb, if the character is a parliamentarian, or has a title, or has a military rank of captain or above, then they and their families are non-fictional. If the character is a member of the Wellenhay clan or goes unnamed, then they are fictional.

    All dates have been converted to our modern calendar to save the reader the confusion of January being the tenth month of the old year rather than the first month of the new year.

    Note that at the end of this book there is an Appendix which is organized like an FAQ. There you will find answers to dozens of questions such as:

    - Where can I find out more about the historical characters and events?

    - What was a Pistoleer?

    - What was a Lateen?

    - What caused the riots in London?

    However, the next few paragraphs will set the scene of this era for you.

    * * * * *

    This novel begins in June 1640 so King Charles has already been defeated by the Scots in the First Bishop's War and the Spanish-Portuguese Armada has already been defeated by the Dutch Confederate Navy in the Battle of the Downs (see book one). June 1640 is before the Second Bishop's War.

    The outcome of the First Bishop's War had humiliated King Charles. The armies he had sent to Scotland to punish the rebellious Scottish Presbyterian Covenanters had retreated without fighting any true battle.

    The outcome of the Battle of the Downs, a sea battle along English shores, had also humiliated Charles, even though he had been neutral and trying to keep the peace. The Spanish blamed him for not doing more to protect their armada. The Dutch blamed him for doing too much to help the armada. In hopes of placating the Spanish, Charles arranged for the delivery in English ships of all the Spanish troops who had been beached by the battle in England, to the Spanish-held port of Dunkirk. This infuriated the Dutch.

    To all protestant English and Scots, Charles' protection of the Catholic fleets from England's long time protestant allies, the Dutch, spoke volumes. Their king not only had taken a Catholic wife, but was now proven to be allied with the Catholic Emperor of Spain. Charles' absolute rule of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland was now jeopardized by well-spoken Presbyterian and Puritan parliamentarians. He did what any despot would do, and arrested, imprisoned, terrorized, tortured, or killed the leaders of the opposition ... politicide. Or at least that was what he plotted.

    He never expected that insiders to his regime would expose his absolute rule for what it really was ... absolutely without ethics or morals. Charles learned, as all corrupt regimes learn, that eventually gross immorality begets whistleblowers ... no matter the consequences. As good men began to leave the king's service they were replaced by the sycophants and psychopaths who are drawn to men of power.

    Now ... on with the novel ... enjoy.

    * * * * *

    * * * * *

    The Pistoleer - Slavers by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Cover Flap

    About the Author

    Prologue

    Table of Contents

    Chapter 1 - Escaping the Dunkirkers in June 1640

    Chapter 2 - Visiting Maarten Tromp in Rotterdam in June 1640

    Chapter 3 - Home to a wedding in Wellenhay in June 1640

    Chapter 4 - The voyages of the Swift Daniel in July 1640

    Chapter 5 - Crossing the River Tweed with Alex Leslie in August 1640

    Chapter 6 - The Battle of Newbourne in August 1640

    Chapter 7 - Storm along East Yorkshire in September 1640

    Chapter 8 - Wreckers at Spurn Head in September 1640

    Chapter 9 - A worried wife in Ely in September 1640

    Chapter 10 - A rally at Cambridge in September 1640

    Chapter 11 - A bomb at The George Inn in September 1640

    Chapter 12 - From the mouths of babes in September 1640

    Chapter 13 - While Irish eyes are dozing in September 1640

    Chapter 14 - The price of coal in London in September 1640

    Chapter 15 - The London riots of October 1640

    Chapter 16 - Collaring a King in London in November 1640

    Chapter 17 - Sailing south to Morocco in February 1641

    Chapter 18 - Feasting in Safi, Morocco in February 1641

    Chapter 19 - Slavers in Africa in March 1641

    Chapter 20 - Rescuing slaves in Africa in March 1641

    Chapter 21 - Landfall in Barbados in April 1641

    Chapter 22 - Virgins paradise in May 1641

    Chapter 23 - Appendix - FAQ

    * * * * *

    * * * * *

    The Pistoleer - Slavers by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

    Chapter 1 - Escaping the Dunkirkers in June 1640

    To the oars, everyone to the oars! Anso yelled from the tiller. Then he blew the whistle hung around his neck three times, hard, and yelled it again. Men dropped what they were doing and ran towards their personal sea chest which they used as a seat when rowing. Seconds later the first of many oar-blades was hovering over the water.

    I'll have to leave you, Oliver. Make sure you don't fall overboard, Daniel told the tithe collector of Ely. He had been steadying Oliver beside the leeward gunnels while the man puked his guts out. Oliver groaned and nodded that he understood, and then heaved again. Daniel danced up the steps to the steering castle to see what was happening. Robert, his pistoleer friend from Somerset, joined him there.

    We've got trouble, Anso told them while pointing south. Dunkirker coastal privateer, and she's coming for us. He handed the Dutch 'kijker', the 'looker' to Daniel. Daniel twisted the two pipes of it further apart so that the spectacle lenses at each end would focus on the ship.

    How do you know it is a Dunkirker? Robert asked. Surely now that the Spanish Armada has been defeated, the Dunkirkers must be staying close to port. We are almost to the Rhine delta. It could be Dutch.

    Could be, but why take chances? Anso asked as he watched the sail being dropped by the rigging crew. Now he could turn the Freisburn directly into the light wind and let the oars take them away from the other ship. They had no cargo aboard so the small ship was light, and carried a larger than normal crew so there were hands for many oars.

    She's no Dutchman, Daniel spoke as he stopped looking at the other ship and scanned the horizons for others. The Dutch don't use galliots with lateen rigs, and that is what she is. The Dunkirkers probably bought her, or captured her along the Barbary Coast of Africa. He passed the looker to Robert. Here, take a look at her triangle sails. Now that we have turned into the wind, she'll soon enough be running her own oars out.

    So if she has oars too, then our own oars still may not save us, Robert stared through the looker. Amazing the difference these lenses make. I can see the men on her. My God, there are a lot of them for such a small ship.

    Small, Anso growled. She's twice our water line. That means she can row half again faster than us. A big crew proves she's a pirate. Extra hands for boarding other ships. That's because a galliot is built for speed rather than to be a gun platform. Last year the Dunkirker coastal galliots captured almost the entire Dutch herring fleet.

    Daniel took the looker back so he could finish scanning the horizons. I see it, Anso. Let's hope we can make it before we are overhauled.

    See what? Robert asked, staring to the north where Daniel was looking, and then squinting against the brightness.

    The fog bank caused by the Rhine. In light winds like this there is always a fog bank. That is why there is no clear horizon to the north, and why it seems so glaring white.

    Her sails have gone slack, Anso grumbled. She's under oar and coming straight into the breeze for us. Unlike us, she doesn't have to drop her sails when she rows into the wind. Those triangles run fore and aft rather than across like our square sail, so they just flap uselessly when pointed into the wind. Danny, do you think I should increase the beat of the oars?

    I wouldn't, not yet, Daniel replied. Spare the shoulders and backs until there is an urgent need. Robert, go and fetch Oliver. He may as well hang over the stern while we are going up wind. Never seen such bad sea sickness.

    This is his first time on a ship, or so he told me, Robert said and then went to help Oliver. He was lucky there was little wind and a calm sea.

    I still don't understand why you brought him, Anso grumbled and then stretched. Daniel was a tall man but Anso had at least three inches on him. Not just three inches taller, but three inches across each shoulder and three inches around each bicep. He was the size of man that filled a normal doorway. The size of man that everyone wanted on their football team. Perfectly proportioned, mind you, so you didn't realize how big he was until you were standing beside him.

    We couldn't just leave him in London, could we? Not after we rescued Pym and Warwick and the rest from Lollards Tower. Not with all of his parliamentary friends fleeing to their country estates to be safe from the king's men. The rest of them are all wealthy, so they have men about their estates to protect them. Not Oliver. There is no one in Ely who will protect him. Not the local titheman.

    I wish you would stay out of politics, Anso scolded him. The whole clan thinks the same. Nothing good ever comes of getting involved.

    If that were true, Daniel replied, then Holland wouldn't be a republic, and the Dutch traders wouldn't be making such fat profits. I want some of those profits. Every merchant in London wants some of those profits. Shit, she's catching us and making it look easy. The Dunkirker had halved the distance between them.

    Anso shielded his eyes and stared at the fog bank. Always the problem with fog was that it was hard to judge how far it was away until you were into it. Usually you did everything to stay out of it. This time he was praying that the breeze would blow it towards them, and be quick about it. We're not going to make it.

    Daniel was keeping the looker locked on the galliot. Bugger, they've got a bow chaser, and they are loading it. Turn hard at my call. Then in a loud voice to the entire crew, most of them below pulling on the oars, and seeing nothing but the back in front of them, he yelled, They're loading a bow chaser. We'll be doing some zigzagging whenever I first see gunsmoke and cry out. There were groans back from the men.

    Robert steadied Oliver up the five steps to the castle and then danced him to the stern gunnels. It was a small castle, and now there were four big men standing on it which took up most of the space. Well, two big men, one double-sized man, and one pint-sized, because Robert was quite short, at least a head shorter than Anso.

    Smoke, starboard! Daniel yelled, and immediately Anso pulled the tiller hard towards him to turn to starboard, east towards land. As soon as they felt the ship heel, the starboard oarsmen lifted their oars for two pulls so that they would not dig into the sea and so that the power of the port oars would help the turn.

    And how that small ship did heel as it almost spun right. Oliver went sprawling onto the deck, as did Robert who was trying to steady him. Meanwhile, Daniel had begun counting out loud the instant he had yelled 'smoke'. One rabbit, two rabbits, three rabbits, four rabbits, five rabbits ... There was a boom, a whooshing whistle to the left, and a plume of water where they would have been had they not turned.

    Anso turned the ship back on a northerly course. Bugger, that was close for a ranging shot! Someone on that galliot has been practicing. Which way should I turn next time?

    Your guess is as bad as mine. One chance in three. Left, stay the course, or right. The gunners will be making the same guess.

    Well, staying the course is out. You've shot at fleeing game enough to know that. The easiest shot is when they run directly away from you because you don't have to worry about the range or the lead. Five rabbits, eh? They will be closer the next time they fire. We won't have as much time to make a turn, and sooner or later they will start shooting chains or grape shot rather than a ball. Bloody fog. The one time I'm glad to see it, and it lets me down.

    What about your dad's longbow? Daniel asked him.

    Aye, better than nout. Here, take the tiller. Once Daniel had the tiller, Anso dashed off to fetch his bow and quiver. It was the only weapon aboard that could match the aimed range of a cannon. He almost fell off the steps and overboard when Daniel yelled, Smoke, port! and this time turned hard to port. One rabbit, two rabbits, three rabbits ..... Boom, whistle, splash. He was glad he had turned to port, for if he had turned to starboard the cannon ball would have splintered the hull.

    The next shot will be chain or grape! Daniel yelled out to the crew. Rob, get Oliver below. Hide him behind something solid. As he was tillerman, he would be the only unshielded man on the ship. Oh, please be chain. If they shot chain they would aim high for the rigging and mast. If they shot grape, well, grape tended to go everywhere like bird shot from a blunderbuss.

    Anso came on deck carrying a longbow that was as tall as he was and a quiver of arrows that had to be four foot each. Only Anso was strong enough to string the thing, never mind draw it. In the time of King Henry the Cock and his daughter Elizabeth, every sailor and soldier were trained in bows such as these, but that was before every likely yew tree in Europe had been cut down to supply England with bow staffs.

    Quickly, Anso! Loose one and check the range.

    Anso yelled at the oarsmen to time their oars to the swells, and to hesitate on the crest of each swell. It took a few moments for them to get the timing right, but when they finally had it, the stern would rise high on a swell and then almost hover for a second before the ship slid down the wave.

    Smoke, port again! Daniel yelled out and threw the tiller over. The little ship danced to the left. One rabbit, two rabbits... There was a boom and a shriek of tortured wood that caused everyone to look up. The mast was now shorter and topped by splintered wood. Chain, the stupid buggers used chain even though we weren't carrying any sail. We may reach the fog bank after all. He turned the ship back on course into the breeze and towards the fog.

    The was a hiss of breath from Anso. He had loosed an arrow on the top of the swell. It arched high until it peaked and then began to fly down the air. It fell short, but not by much, and it was almost true to the bow of the galliot.... just slightly on the side where the slumping head lateen sail would have hidden it from the sight of the gunner crew working away on the bow.

    Robert, Anso called. Take the looker and tell me what the gunnery crew are doing, and warn me when you think the gunnery master is about to light the cannon.

    Robert took up the looker and stared. They just finished cleaning it. Now they are ramming a sack down it. That must be the powder. Now they are pouring something in from a bucket.

    Grape! Daniel yelled out. Prepare for grape! Robert, as soon as you tell me they are ready to light it, hit the deck, I will, too. I'd rather take grape stern on so the castle protects the crew, so I won't bother turning.

    I think they are aiming it now, or figuring the angle for the range, Robert said as he dropped to the deck.

    Daniel joined him, yelling Smoke! Straight ahead, even though there was no smoke, not yet. What there was, was a bloody long arrow arching into the sky, and then another, and another, and another. There was still no smoke, so the arrows kept flying.

    Eventually Robert couldn't stand the suspense anymore so he lifted his head just above the stern rail and poked the looker over to have a look-see. Oh Anso, you've given them something to think about. There is one, no two arrows stuck in the head sail, so you had the range and the aim right. I don't see any heads moving around the bowchaser, so they must have ducked. He shivered because the air was suddenly chilling, and then white mist fogged up the looker's lenses. They had made it to the fog.

    Anso was sucking wind after loosing ten arrows in a minute, but Daniel was standing at the tiller again. As soon as he could no longer see the outline of the galliot through the mist, he turned the ship a quarter to starboard and into the brown plume of filthy river water that was creating this fog. Dig, dig, dig. Double time lads, he yelled at the oarsmen. They will know that we would turn towards the river so they will try to cut us off in the fog. Now begins the real race.

    There was an echoing of oars splashing, but that could not be helped with the men rowing so quickly. Daniel turned her another quarter so now she was racing along in the fog at right angles to their original course. There was a thumping noise against the hull and then another.

    What was that? Robert asked in an urgent voice, expecting it to be some new kind of Dunkirker weapon.

    There, Anso pointed. We just went through a tide line. The big thump would have been that cow. The other would have been that man.

    Cow, man? Robert repeated to himself unbelievingly but that was exactly what he saw. One dead cow bloated enough to be bursting was in their wake, and there were the bloated bodies of two, not one, man. There were also logs and bits of wooden crates, and branches, and anything else that would float down the river.

    Everyone quiet down, Daniel yelled. The galliot will be in the fog by now and listening for us. In fact, everyone shut up and stop rowing and let me listen.

    The newborn silence rang in their ears but they could hear something from out in the fog. The repeated rhythm of oarsmen. Everyone cupped their hands to their ears and turned their heads slowly, hoping to sense the direction the sounds were coming from. We've won, Daniel hissed into the silence. Their intercept course was too shallow, so they have missed us. Start rowing again, but quietly. It won't be long before they also stop to have a listen.

    The crew did a very good job of rowing silently. The first thing they did was cram their neckerchiefs under their oars in the locks to stop them from thumping. Their pace was measured and every dip into the water, and pull was careful and steady. Despite this they were not creeping along, but moving about three-quarters the normal speed. On the steering castle everyone kept their hands cupped to their ears and scanned the fog with them, back and forth.

    And out of the white came a splash and a thump of an oar and a call of, Kijken waar je gaat je idioten! which Oliver, who did not speak Dutch, quietly observed was still easy to interpret.

    Daniel called softly in Dutch to the four men rowing a small herring skiff that they had almost hit. Shush. There is a Dunkirker three hundred yards behind us. Then to the crew he said softly, Drag your oars, and the ship slowed quickly.

    Anso had read his mind and was throwing a line to the skiff. In a loud whisper he told them in Dutch, Tie the line off and we will tow you in. They did not argue. Dunkirkers were the bane of their existence. While Daniel got his crew to row again, Anso hauled the skiff closer and closer to the stern, and then ever so quietly lowered a rope ladder down so the four fishermen could scramble aboard. In truth, Anso reached over the railing and hauled them one at a time up the last three feet and set each of them onto the deck.

    What happened next was a classic case of seafolk mutual aid. The Freisburn took them quickly away from where the Dunkirker was patrolling in the fog, searching for the small ship, while the fishermen piloted their saviours through the fog and towards the main channel of the River Scheldt.

    This they did by simply watching the changing hue of the brown river water plume and the angles of the tide lines. An hour later they arrived at their tiny fishing village of Sint Anna ter Muiden, which the locals claimed was the westernmost village in the republic. The good news was that the naval town of Sluys was only a mile up river.

    * * * * *

    Being the westernmost port and town in the republic, Sluys had an imposing fortress protecting a small muddy port. Small it may have been, but it was always busy. As the westernmost naval port, it was critical to the delivery of reports, messages, and orders to and from naval ships. Even were they not staying, or going up or down river, or up or down the coast, if navy ships were close by, they would stop in to see if there were messages for them.

    It was a shock to Daniel that while he was reporting the sighting of a Dunkirker galliot not two miles out in the fog, one of the port clerks handed him a waterproof document pipe with the Freisburn’s name on it. All the clerk said was, Are you the master of the Freisburn out of Lynn in England? in perfect English and once confirmed, he handed over the pipe.

    Inside was a letter inviting him to visit Admiral Tromp in Rotterdam and dated not two weeks ago. He showed it to the clerk, and the clerk's comment was that he would need to show that letter in order to enter the Admiralty compound beside the naval dockyards. The invitation put a big smile on Daniel's face, because the Admiral owed him for a cargo of Genever which he and his officers had consumed at the Downs in Kent during the weeks of standoff between the Portuguese, Spanish, Dunkirker, English, and Dutch fleets.

    He had no doubt that he would be paid top shilling for the Genever, not just because it had been the finest Dutch Genever that he had been taking to sell in Cambridge, and not just because the prize money the Admiral would have earned from capturing most of the major ships of the Armada would have been a king's ransom. The Admiral also owed him a favour for being the man who had lit the fuse on the faux-Hellburner, which had caused the Armada to break from their battle formation and make a run for it.

    His eager grin disappeared from his face completely when he returned to the Freisburn to find a Dutch naval officer and four heavily-armed guards aboard waiting for him. Waiting to personally escort him to Admiral Tromp. Perhaps, instead of the invitation being so that the Admiral could repay him for the Genever, it was to ask him about any loot the Freisburn had taken from the Spanish ship that had run itself aground at the Downs trying to escape being sunk by the Dutch broadsides.

    The officer introduced himself as a guide and escort to the Admiral, but if that were true why the four armed guards? Daniel dithered, wondering if it would be better to risk meeting up with the Dunkirker again in the fog. No. That would be silly. Playing silly games with the Dutch Navy was a sure way for a ship to be forbidden to trade with the republic, and where else would he buy his two most profitable cargoes on the cheap ... booze and guns.

    * * * * *

    * * * * *

    The Pistoleer - Slavers by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

    Chapter 2 - Visiting Maarten Tromp in Rotterdam in June 1640

    The Freisburn reached the port of Rotterdam and the huge naval dockyards well after dark. Well after it was too late to send word to the Admiral of their arrival. The officer arranged for everyone aboard to be trooped into an empty navy barracks which was large enough to have beds for all, and then some. They didn't even need to leave a watch on the ship because they were tied up at a heavily-guarded navy quay.

    The officer sent out to the mess to have food brought in, which everyone except Oliver enjoyed. Oliver did not eat much of it, not because he had been seasick for the entire voyage from the Thames to the river fog, but because it was spicy hot in the way of Dutch navy food. The navy fed their men hot peppers as a way of stopping scurvy and keeping their seamen healthy.

    In the morning, word arrived from the Admiral's aide that the Admiral would meet with them in three days. Until then they were the guests of the Navy and in the meantime they were encouraged to enjoy the city of Rotterdam. What else could they do but go and enjoy?

    While Daniel and Robert looked up their old friend and erstwhile partner, Jock Douglas the one-legged Scottish gunsmith, Oliver, Anso and the crew went off in groups of four to explore Rotown. Eventually Oliver found himself on his own, for he was fully happy and intrigued just endlessly wandering about the worldly city, interested in everything and in how things worked, and watching the Dutch go about their day-to-day living.

    Every night in their lodgings Oliver would remark on how well-off everyone, even the poorest of workers, was compared to England. Every night he would remind Daniel that every woman he spoke to was literate. He was convinced that the prosperity of Holland was because literacy was so widespread and therefore the people made intelligent decisions, including the decision to become and stay a republic.

    Daniel and Robert argued that this was too simplistic of a view, but only the first time around. Once Oliver had convinced himself of something, he could endlessly argue the merits. Robert halted further arguments by telling Oliver, But so far you have seen only the folk of a rich city. You have not seen the countryside or the farm villages where the farm workers live.

    There was a lot for Oliver to see in Rotterdam, for it was the grand transshipment port of the fens of Holland. However, he still found time to wander to the edges of the city and inspect how the Dutch drainage engineers had used dams to protect the fens from the sea, and thus had created the great shipping canal that made Rotown such an important port.

    They had to drag Oliver away from studying a windmill that was lifting water between canals to take him to visit the Dutch Admiral. Admiral Maarten Tromp was on the Aemelia, the flagship of the confederate fleet, and they were welcomed aboard to meet with him. This was the first time that either Robert or Oliver had been aboard a ship of war, never mind the most modern of all ships of war, and they were dumbfounded in their eagerness to look at everything.

    So, Daniel, Tromp said after he had welcomed each of his three guests into his cramped cabin with a warrior's grip of their elbows. He spoke in English, for he had been told that Oliver did not speak Dutch. Daniel, first I must pay off the Navy's debt to you.

    For the cargo of Genever?

    The Admiral looked at him as if he had forgotten about the cargo, For your share in the prize money from the capture of the Armada. Payment will be in new shares in the East India Company. I have them set aside for you in my chest.

    Please, do not be insulted, Daniel replied, but shares in a Dutch company are of little use to me other than to be sold immediately. This year my village lost one of our ships, and with all hands, so I need the coin to buy a new ship, one small enough to trade the coast, fast enough to escape coastal pirates, yet big enough to make the crossing to the New World.

    I well understand the tragedy of losing a ship and a crew, but it would be foolish to sell your shares now; Tromp said in astonishment. "They are sure to double and triple in value within the year. Even as I speak, I am waiting for the good word from our East India fleet. If they have taken control of the Malay Malukka Straights away from the Portuguese, then all of our shares will leap

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