Admiral (44 page)

“I have to arrest you,” Heffer said lamely.

“Yes, yes,” Ned said impatiently, “all in good time. But what brought all this on? The last time we saw you, if my memory serves me, we saved your life when some of your officers mutinied.”

“I have no recollection of that,” Heffer said, his eyes focused on the desk about a foot in front of his stomach.

“You mean you have not written a dispatch to London about it,” Thomas said grimly.

“I have no recollection of any such episode,” Heffer said doggedly. “My officers and men are quite loyal.”

“To whom?” Ned asked.

“Why, to me, of course.”

“They’re supposed to be loyal to the King: they’re not your own private army.”

“I meant the King, of course. As governor I embody the Crown, you know,” he said primly, like a parson explaining elementary church ritual to two very dense old ladies.

Ned took the spanning key of the pistol from his pocket and casually fitted the end on the axle. “I saw bodies slung in chains from gibbets on the cays. No one I recognized, of course.” Holding the pistol so that the muzzle, apparently by chance, pointed at the general, he tightened the wheel-lock a fraction, and then put the key back in a pocket.

“Interesting pistol,” he commented casually to Heffer. “Spanish, of course. They do beautiful inlay work. Just look at the pattern – that’s gold wire round the barrel. Made in Toledo, I imagine. The sword, too–” he tapped the scabbard of the sword he was wearing “–it matches. A set, two pistols, sword and dagger.”

“Most interesting,” Heffer said politely.

“You’re not curious about where they came from?”

“Oh – well, yes,” he said, obviously deciding to humour Ned. “Where did they come from, Mr Yorke?”

“Portobelo. But Sir Thomas also has an interesting set which belonged to the governor of Old Providence. They have fine inlaid work, too. Toledo, like mine.”

“You…you’ve been to Portobelo? And Old Providence? Why, I thought… Well, Portobelo has four forts –”

“One fort,” Ned corrected.

“Oh, I thought there were four: my apologies.”

“There were four, but we blew up three, so now there is only one. No guns though.”

“No guns?” Heffer’s brow wrinkled so much his hair joined the eyebrows. “Four forts – one, I mean, and
no
guns?”

“We brought the bronze ones away with us, and blew up the iron. No guns left in Old Providence either. It was interesting, though; some of those we blew up had Queen Elizabeth’s arms on them. At least a hundred and fifty years old. Drake must have left them.”

“How extraordinary,” Heffer said in a strangled voice, “Sir Francis Drake!”

“Now tell us why you want to arrest us,” Ned said casually.

“Ah…” Heffer licked his teeth, giving them a good wetting as if in anticipation of making a long speech. “Well, while you were away, a ship arrived from England. It carried orders. For me.”

“Orders concerning and actually naming Sir Thomas and myself?”

“Well, not actually
naming
you.”

“I think you had better tell us about these orders. Who were they from?”

“The Duke of Albemarle –”

“Who?”

“Well, General Monck that was. He has been created the first Duke of Albemarle.”

“Were there orders from anyone else?”

“Yes. The Lord High Admiral. That’s the King’s brother, the Duke of York,” he added hastily when he saw the expression on Ned’s face.

“Very well, who gave what orders that gave you the strange idea of arresting us?”

Heffer began to look shifty, and Ned thought he guessed what had happened. Several days ago, when the ship called and delivered the packet of orders and instructions, Heffer had read them and in the wording had seen something which gave him an excuse for arresting one Edward Yorke and one Sir Thomas Whetstone. And the muddle-headed Heffer had thought that with the buccaneers’ leaders locked up, he would be able to give orders to the buccaneers. It was just the sort of – oh, well, Ned thought to himself, let us play out the present game until the last card is on the table.

Heffer took a deep breath, his tongue made a wild movement over his teeth, and he said: “The government’s attitude towards Spain has changed. The King spent some of his exile in Spain. He has made certain promises to the king of Spain. New treaties, I suppose they are.”

There was now a glint in Heffer’s eye which warned Ned. “He is going to return Jamaica to Spain?”

Heffer nodded.

“He was not the king when he made the treaties,” Ned murmured, “so they are probably not valid. Anyway, show me the letter that says that.” Ned picked up the pistol. “You might wonder why I am holding a pistol, Heffer. If you knew as much as I do, you’d realize that here in Port Royal a good deal more than your pride or neck is at stake. Now, the letter.”

Heffer pointed to a cupboard behind him. “The papers are in there. It is locked.”

“Give Sir Thomas the key.”

For the next fifteen minutes Thomas and Ned, interrupted twice by Saxby, read through the papers. There were several letters, all lengthy and all complex. The Duke of Albemarle confirmed Heffer as Governor of Jamaica, and gave him detailed instructions on how the island was to be governed “until the final decisions are taking concerning its future”. All hostile acts against Spain were to cease forthwith, and Heffer was to take vigorous steps to prevent pirates and freebooters using Jamaica as a base “from which to make raids on Spanish ships”. Money would be forthcoming to pay the army but, Albemarle said, it would not be possible to send any ships of war from England for the present. The rest of his letter concerned setting up a form of judiciary and a legislative council “which will advise the Governor”. The rest, as Thomas said contemptuously, concerned “milk and water matters”, except that the Duke said the value of a Spanish piece of eight had now been fixed at five shillings. In another letter, the Duke of York, as Lord High Admiral, informed Heffer that the King was to receive a tenth and the Lord High Admiral a fifth of the value of all prizes brought into Jamaica.

Ned had tapped this part of the Duke’s letter and read it out to Heffer. “If you are to stop all pirates and freebooters using Port Royal, how do you collect any royal prize money?”

Heffer shrugged his shoulders. “It does seem contradictory,” he admitted.

Ned gathered the letters and put them down in a neat pile. “Where are the rest of them?”

“They are all I received,” Heffer said.

“Come on,” Ned said calmly, “you are hiding some, you naughty boy.”

“No! Upon my honour,” Heffer protested.

“Very well, answer some questions. First, what in those letters and orders leads you to think England intends to return Jamaica to Spain?”

“Well, the Duke refers to waiting ‘until a final decision is taken concerning its future.’”

“Which you construe as meaning it goes back to Spain. You have not thought the Duke might be referring to the proposed type of government – an elected assembly like Barbados, for instance, instead of a military governor?”

“It could be, I suppose.”

“Or, if returning it to Spain, do you think the King has enough ships to bring home all the garrison? Anyway, the Duke says there’s no money at the moment to pay them. Do you expect the King to hand ’em over to the Dons, to be used as slaves?”

Heffer stared at the top of the desk.

“Very well, the second question. Under what sentence or paragraph do you propose arresting us?”

“The Duke’s orders,” Heffer said promptly, though careful not to look up. “Where he says I am to take ‘vigorous steps’ to prevent pirates and freebooters using the island to make raids on Spanish ships.”

Ned sorted out the particular letter and nodded. “Yes, he says pirates and freebooters, and I notice he specifically mentions ‘ships’ not ‘ports’. Quite right too; pirates and freebooters would give Jamaica a bad name.”

“So you see,” Heffer said triumphantly.

“So I see
what
?” Ned asked.

“I have to arrest you. You must submit.”

“Heffer,” Ned said sharply. “I, Sir Thomas and the masters of all the ships now in the anchorage, except five prizes, possess letters of marque signed
by you
. We are legally privateers, most certainly not pirates, and we sailed on this last expedition at your request, because you were afraid the Spanish would land.”

“But they did, they did! You didn’t stop them!” Heffer said excitedly. “Three or four thousand of them landed at Runaway Bay, on the north coast, but I was there to meet them, by the grace of God, and I drove them back to their ships. Killed hundreds, my men did, and without your help we drove off the ships!”

Ned nodded. “Thousands of Spaniards, eh?”

“Three or four thousand, at least. Perhaps five. All well trained and heavily armed, too.”

“Before you make more of a fool of yourself than you have done already, Heffer, why don’t you look across the anchorage and see if you recognize the five largest ships.”

“Why should I recognize them?”

“They are the ones which carried the ‘three or four thousand…perhaps five’ Spaniards you drove off. There were in fact fewer than a thousand men landed, commanded by the mayor of Portobelo, made a major for the occasion. We captured him and released him after he paid a goodly ransom. We took his ships and left the rest of his soldiers, five hundred of them, locked up in one of their own dungeons. That was why we left one fort intact; we don’t murder prisoners.”

“I can’t believe it,” Heffer muttered.

“You sent a dispatch to the Earl of Albemarle describing your great victory at Runaway Bay?”

“Well, as the ship was leaving at once to return to England, I did mention the invasion attempt.”

“Did you mention that when we returned you intended to arrest us?”

“When I assured the Duke that I would carry out his orders promptly, I may have mentioned your names.”

“You didn’t mention all those letters of marque you had signed?”

“I don’t recall if I did or not.”

Ned eyed him but Heffer kept his head down.

“I see the value of a piece of eight is fixed at five shillings.” Ned said, in the same tone of voice one discussed the day’s weather.

“Yes, but as I’ve told the Duke, there is no money in the treasury. Not a penny piece. I can’t pay the soldiers or buy them provisions.”

Equally casually, Ned said: “Have you ever looked at about half a million pieces of eight? Or seen 280 pounds of silver in loaves, wedges or cakes? Or sacks of cobs, or chests holding two hundredweight of rough emeralds? Or a hundred and fifty pounds of pearls? Or chests containing seven hundredweight of various gold and silver items: plate, candlesticks, ornaments, jewellery and the like?”

“Of course I haven’t!”

“Would you like to?”

Heffer’s head came up, like a wild ram startled by the bark of a hunting dog. “What do you mean?”

“All those things are out there, stowed in those five ships you drove out of Runaway Bay. Our purchase from Portobelo. And now the splendid Duke of Albemarle has helped us put a price on some of it by valuing a piece of eight at five shillings. A piece of eight is the same as a peso or a dollar and equals eight reals. So a real is worth an eighth of five shillings. The trouble is the men will have to share out the bullion and gems, and since you have no money they won’t be able to spend anything here.”

“But the pieces of eight – they can spend those!” Heffer said eagerly.

“What are you going to use for change – or is everything going to be priced in round numbers?”

“I shall of course claim the King’s share, and the Lord High Admiral’s,” Heffer said sternly, trying to reassert his authority.

Ned laughed and was joined by Thomas, who slapped the top of Heffer’s desk. The sudden thump made the general leap to his feet and then subside again sheepishly.

“General,” Ned’s voice dropped confidentially, “you have offended us. We have brought you a present of nineteen bronze guns and shot, fourteen falcons, more shot for the guns we took at Santiago, and a privateer squadron now comprising thirty-three ships. In return you wanted to arrest us, quoting orders which you did not have when we sailed – at your request – to deal with your enemies. Yours, not ours.”

Ned stood up and tucked the pistol in his belt. “Well, I must bid you a final farewell, General.”

“Final? Why, where are you going?”

Ned shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows – we’ll have a meeting of captains and decide. When we came in here this morning we expected to stay. We hardly anticipated you’d behave like…well, like a pirate!”

“But where
can
you go?”

“With this much bullion and gems we’ll be welcomed anywhere. We can even go back and sell it to the Dons. But Antigua, the Bermudas, Barbados, Curaçao, Dominica – we can make a progress through the alphabet. Just think of what tradesmen would say, all that money being spent in their shops, taverns and bordellos.”

Heffer took a deep breath. “Won’t you sit down again? I’ve just remembered another letter from the Duke which you should read. I forgot it because I was reading it earlier and just slipped it into a drawer.” He glanced in alarm at Ned’s pistol, not realizing that he had taken it out of his belt because when he sat down it stuck into his ribs.

“May I get the letter out?” Heffer asked warily.

Ned nodded and a few moments later was reading what was obviously the most recent and by far the most important of Albemarle’s letters which, he remembered from the dates, had been written over a period of a month, obviously while waiting for a frigate to become available to carry them out to the West Indies.

The letter told Heffer in detail what he as a governor must do to establish Jamaica as a flourishing colony. There was no mention of handing the island back to Spain: on the contrary, he was instructed to appoint a legislative council of eight men who would advise him on day-to-day matters. He must at once establish a Jamaican currency, based on five shillings equalling one piece of eight. He was to encourage local tradesmen by allowing them to import goods from England (but nowhere else) free of customs and excise for a period of five years, the only exception being liquor, on which duty and excise was to be levied, whether it was imported or made in the island.