Pirates! (22 page)

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All the gold and the silver too, that ever did cross the sea ...

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Chapter 35

Now a respectable merchant ship, we continued along the Guinea coast towards the Bight of Benin. Vincent came aboard for a consultation with Broom and Pelling and to see how Minerva was doing, but after that, we hardly saw him. We could not be seen to be sailing in convoy, so Vincent had been told to keep his distance. We put into several places to trade for supplies and that was a chance for us to meet up again.

Native traders drove through the surf offering slaves, just as bumboats row out in a harbour to show their wares. Broom was not there to buy slaves, but he did not dismiss the traders out of hand. He questioned them, and he bought one man, a big Kroo called Toby who spoke many languages and knew the shoals and currents of that treacherous coast. He was freed as soon as the trader disappeared and became very close with Broom. They spent much time closeted together, poring over charts and hatching plans.

Vincent was trading on his own account. Men had been taken from the
Swift Return
to replace the mutineers on the
Fortune
, so he had to find a crew. He began to buy from the slave traders. Many on our ship thought he was sun-touched. Most of the blacks had never even seen the sea before; what kind of sailors would they make? It would be better to sell them off to the next slave ship that passed.

‘He’ll never teach ’em!’ Spall, one of the topmen, summed up the general opinion. ‘Easier to teach a monkey!’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Minerva replied smoothly. ‘Sailing can’t be that hard. You learned, didn’t you?’

Minerva’s arm was healing well, helped by our new idleness. We kept to the main cabin and set about making ourselves into women again. I softened my hands with a kind of rich nut butter Toby had bought from a native trader, and Minerva put the pulp of pineapples on my face, a beauty treatment used by black servants to keep their mistresses white in tropical sun. It was strange to wear women’s clothes again. Skirts caught round my legs, and when Minerva tightened my corset, I thought I would not be able to breathe. Minerva groomed my hair for hours, combing out knots and tangles, and I did the same for her. My hands softened and my nails grew so that I could shape them.

The men became used to the new ship’s rules. They had all been regular sailors once and remembered how to behave as such. The officers went about their duties, smart and sober. Broom hoisted English colours, and as we sailed on we gradually became what we appeared to be: an honest British trading vessel, out of Bristol, bound for India, but doing some trading along the way.

We cruised the coast, passing the forts held by different nations to protect their own interests and to act as centres of trade. Slaves were brought there from inland to await collection, along with elephants’ teeth, gold dust, gum and spices, the produce of the country. The forts were stuffed full of riches, according to Broom.

‘And gold.’ His brown eyes glinted as if he were already seeing it. ‘Gold is kept there to pay for goods coming in, goods going out, and everyone using the fort is taxed.’

His plan was bold and ambitious. With Toby’s help, he’d chosen his target carefully: a fort made of mud and brick which lay on an island in the mouth of one of the great rivers that flowed into the Bight of Benin. Toby was well acquainted with the place, having traded slaves there and acted as interpreter, and having been tricked by the governor and sold down the coast as a linguist. He knew the layout of the fort and how many men would be guarding it. He knew the nature of their lives: their fear of the hundreds of slaves kept captive in barracoons, their equal dread of disease that breathed from the tangled mangrove swamps, creeping across to them on cold clammy fogs. Many of the white men sent there were dead within months. The rest tried to fight off malaria and guinea worm by spending their time drinking and seeking the company of native women.

The fort had changed hands many times, but it presently flew the Union flag. A new governor had been sent by the Royal Africa Company to restore order and prosperity, but seemed intent on trading on his own account and lining his own pockets.

‘It will be clear sailing, gentlemen. And ladies,’ Broom grinned at Minerva and me sitting prim in our dresses. ‘We will just go in there and take it. The fort is stuffed with gold, according to Toby, and poorly manned. No match for two well-armed pirate ships. Not that we’ll be presenting ourselves as such, of course.’

We sailed into the small harbour, making fast under the fort. Broom ordered most of the crew below. Too many men on deck might proclaim us a pirate. The schooner had passed us in the night and was already at anchor, but no signal went between us. It was important that we seemed strangers to each other.

Broom ordered out the boat with six men in her, all dressed in ordinary blue jackets. Meanwhile, Halston, Phillips, Duffy and Graham joined the captain on the quarterdeck, all arrayed in their best.

‘Mr Andrews?’ Broom called out. ‘Care to help my niece down into the boat?’

Andrews escorted me to the side of the ship. I had put on a fine gown that I had worn in New York and Charlestown, long enough in the sleeve to hide the cutlass scars on my arms. Minerva dressed plain, as a slave. She had agreed to play the part. Just this once, she was clear about that; but to see the fort fleeced of its wealth and all the captives freed, she was prepared to submit to the insult. She would follow behind me, head down, staring meekly at the floor. As far as Broom was concerned, the gold was ours already. A woman with the party, a lady, would fool them completely.

We were met at the landing place by a file of musketeers and escorted to the fort. The governor, Cornelius Thornton, met us with all civility. He bade us sit and share a glass with him. From his complexion I judged that this was not his first of the day. He asked us where we were from, and where we were bound, sipped his brandy and listened as Broom rattled off our story.

‘Captain Broom, Sir, out of Bristol. May I present my niece, Miss Danforth? We are bound for India to join my brother. He’s setting up in business there. We are doing some trading along the way for gold and gum and elephants’ teeth and suchlike things.’ Broom regarded the governor in a speculative manner. ‘I was wondering, do you have anything of that sort here?’

Broom can seem the most affable fellow in the world, if not a bit of a fool. Thornton’s small colourless eyes narrowed and his pale lips twisted into a thin little smile. He was the kind of man who thinks he knows everything, so he never doubted a word that was said to him. Broom strolled about, gesturing with his hands, talking all the time. The governor stroked his greying beard, his mouth quirking further. He clearly thought that the captain was something of a booby. He asked what wares we had to trade, and Broom told him everything that he thought the fort might be needing. When Thornton asked the price, Broom told him a figure just short of stupid. Thornton nodded and allowed himself a private smirk of triumph, satisfied that he could get what he wanted for as little as possible. He was happy to show us about the fort and did not notice Broom’s brown eyes taking in everything, from the number of men on guard, to the weapons on the walls, the wind of the stairs and the disposition of the cannon. He saved the strongroom until last, obviously hoping to awe us with his personal wealth and the fort’s importance.

The vaults were deep under the ground. The air here was cool; draughts flickered the flames of the torches the soldiers held, throwing shadows up the wall. We were close to the trunks, the underground caves that held the slaves, near enough to hear their groans and the clinking of chains. Thornton cocked an ear.

‘That’s where the real gold lies. Better than the yellow kind.’ He smiled at Broom. ‘I’ve just had a choice consignment from the Congo. They’ll fetch an excellent price. I like you, Broom, and I’d be willing to come to an arrangement. Sure I can’t tempt you? You wouldn’t lose by it.’

Broom shook his head.

Thornton shrugged, as if to say it was his loss.

‘Here we are!’ He stopped before a wooden door. He selected a long key from the bunch he wore at his hip, turned it in the great black iron lock and the door creaked back. One of the soldiers held up his torch to show the soft gleam of gold from bars stacked to the ceiling. Against other walls stood great chests of oak, and two of red and green leather, bearing a coat of arms on the front and bound in silver gilt. These had belonged to a Spanish nobleman, but now contained Thornton’s own fortune.

‘Very stout, sir, very stout.’ Broom patted the red wood of the door. ‘Very secure.’

‘Camwood. Four inches thick. See that?’ Thornton put his hand on the surface of the wall. ‘Carved out of the solid rock. It would stop Black Bart himself.’ He laughed, and we all laughed with him. ‘Gloomy down here for a young lady.’ He offered me his arm. ‘Why don’t we take a turn around the garden?’

Thornton’s private apartments were kept cool by the thickness of the walls and were well appointed. They gave out on to a courtyard and beyond to a garden filled with fruit trees and all kinds of plants. Paraquets wheeled above our heads in bright formation, and monkeys chittered from the branches as we walked among orange and lemon trees and the governor pointed out pineapples, guavas, bananas and a nut called cola that the Portuguese use to sweeten water. He was obviously proud of his garden, so Broom and I were quick to admire and praise what we saw. The groves ran down to the harbour. A route of escape if others were blocked.

‘It’s an interest of mine,’ Thornton explained. ‘This garden was a patch of hog-trampled mud when I first came, but it’s coming on. I mean to take seeds and cuttings and send ’em to Gleeson.’

He was speaking of his country house in England. He was getting it ready for when he returned after his tour of duty. Much of the wealth he made here was being spent on improvements to the house. He told us all about them as he led us back to his residence, where he ordered tea for me and poured more brandy for the gentlemen. Minerva, of course, was offered nothing.

The room was furnished in the way of an English drawing room, but the fittings from an English country mansion looked strange here, unsuited to the place, or the climate. Damp was attacking the books on the shelves: the pages were thickened and swollen, the covers eroded by mould and insects. The veneers were springing from the surfaces of the furniture and something was eating the sideboard to powder. Black blotches and tarnish marred the mirrors and silverware.

Thornton’s talk reverted to Gleeson and his plans for it, but every so often he was forced to leave off his account, afflicted by a wheezing breathlessness. His colour was poor, and he was constantly dabbing at his face with a handkerchief, mopping at the sweat rolling in oily drops down his grey-and-pink mottled skin.

‘He’s decaying as quickly as his belongings,’ Graham whispered to me. ‘He won’t see Gleeson again. Are you quite well, Sir?’ The doctor rose to go to him, but Thornton waved him away.

‘
Beware and take care of the Bight of Benin; few come out, though many go in.
Is that not what they say?’ His bitter laugh brought on another fit of coughing and wheezing. ‘Damned climate!’ He drained his glass. ‘I usually rest in the afternoon. Perhaps you would like to join me this evening for dinner. It generally cools somewhat after sundown.’

‘We would be delighted.’ Broom stood up. ‘And we will impose on you no longer.’ He looked around. ‘I see you are a man of taste, Sir, and discernment. I have a couple of bottles of very fine French brandy; I wonder if you’d care to share ’em with me?’

‘I’d be happy to, Sir.’ Thornton rose to see us out. ‘What say you return about eight o’clock or thereabouts?’

Back on the ship, we were all told to get ready for the evening party. The officers were to dress in the best uniforms they could find, and Broom selected a gown for me, a low cut, fine silk dress that he’d bought for me in New York.

‘For just such an occasion. I want you to look particularly fetching. And you will wear this.’ He produced the ruby necklace from his pocket and placed it on the table.

I stared at it.

‘I thought you had left that with Brandt, the banker.’

‘No,’ Broom shook his head. ‘Why should I? Never know when it might come in useful. Like now.’

‘I won’t wear it.’

‘Why ever not?’

I just shook my head. I could not explain to him.

‘You have to Nancy! It’s just the touch we need! Thornton won’t be able to take his greedy little eyes off it, or you in it. Neither will any of the other men in the room, and I want them distracted.’

In the end, I was persuaded. Minerva fixed the thing around my neck and I gulped at its choking grip. I pulled and worried at it until Minerva told me to stop it. We were rowed back to the fort by six sailors, very smartly turned out, every one with a brace of pistols beneath his sailor’s blue jacket. Each pair had a cask of rum with them, to share with their new friends in the fort.

‘Don’t stint now, lads,’ Broom winked as they left us for the guardroom. ‘’Tis our way of showing thanks for all this kind hospitality.’

Broom, Graham and the other officers all had weapons hidden about them. Minerva and I both wore shawls around our shoulders and sashes wide enough to take a pistol. The governor met us and took us to a dining room overlooking the harbour. A glance out of the window would have showed him that our ships had changed position, moving to face the fort.