Hostile Shores (20 page)

Those beam seas and winds were rough on the troopers of the 34th aboard
Ascot,
for she would wallow and reel, heeling over to larboard before coming back upright to do it over and over again, as steadily as a clock, sending those lubbers to the lee rails to “cast their accounts to Neptune” on deck, or into buckets below if they could reach one in time. That gave
Reliant
’s seasoned and strong-stomached tars perverse pleasure, and a cause for jeering following each meal served aboard the
Ascot.

The horses were another matter.

No matter how narrow the stalls were arranged aboard the horse transports to cut down on room to stagger, the continual rolling and wallowing, and the groaning of the hulls as they worked over the sea, quite un-settled the poor beasts. Some would panic and rear, frightened by the noise and motion, would break their forelegs and have to be put down. As strong and swift as they were, able to live twenty or more years, horses’ digestive systems were incredibly touchy, subject to twisted bowels, the strangle, or colic. At least once every two or three days, a horse would die, and be hoisted out of the holds, swayed out overside, and disposed of.

There were, perhaps, no other people on earth more fond of the horse than the English. From the meanest, poorest ship’s boy to the officers aft, horses were a part of their lives, for pleasure riding and hunting among the better-off, essential to the livelihood of the cottager farmer, the coachman, the street vendor or waggoner, or the punter at the races. Every loss of a horse turned
Reliant
’s sailors glum and quietly sad. Below over their meals, almost every Man Jack had an idea of how those poor beasts should have been handled, or treated; if
he’d
been over there, they’d not have died, by God!

The other oddity of the voyage to the Azores was the rare empty-ness of the ocean. The Bay of Biscay should have teemed with merchant traffic, with British ships outward bound, neutral American ships headed to Europe, and French and Spanish merchantmen hoping to sneak their way past the Royal Navy’s blockade, rare they were, though.

But, except for one trade of two-dozen East Indiamen bound North for English ports under a strong escort, one fast Liverpool slaver that flew past them on the first leg of the infamous Triangle Trade to pick up a cargo of “Black Ivory”, and one slow Portuguese ship headed to the Azores which they briefly spoke then left wallowing and plodding far astern, they had the sea to themselves.

Lewrie and his officers were relieved by that lack, though yet a touch uneasy. The Bay of Biscay ports were home to many French privateers which sallied from Brest, Quimper, Quiberon, L’Orient, St. Nazaire, La Rochelle, and the mouth of the Gironde river. And, there was still that large French fleet under Admiral Villeneuve to worry about. Villeneuve had been the bug-a-bear when
Reliant
was in the Bahamas in the Spring and Summer, when it had been rumoured to be down South in the Windward or Leeward Islands. That fleet’s sailing surely had drawn off the British blockading squadrons in the Bay of Biscay, as it had Nelson’s fleet, allowing French National Ships, their frigates and
corvettes,
a chance to put out and prey upon British commerce, too. Yet, there had been no sign of that threat, either.

So, it was with a great sense of relief when the cloud-shrouded peaks of the Azores loomed up on the Sou’west horizon, and those peaks became solid as they drew nearer to the island of Madeira. There was even joy as they rounded the Sou’east cape and could espy the port of Funchal and its wide, open roadstead, where they could meet up with the rest of the expedition, and turn their charges over to Commodore Popham, then come to anchor, and a quiet and peaceful, motionless rest.

*   *   *

“Well, where the Devil are they, then?” Lt. Westcott asked no one in particular as they beheld the roadstead … a very empty roadstead.

“Senhor?”
the local pilot said, turning his attention from the approaches to the bay to Westcott. “The English expedition fleet? It has sailed, perhaps a week ago. They did not stay long.”

“For where?” Lewrie asked the pilot.

“South,
Senhor Capitáo,
is all I know of them,” the pilot said with a shrug.

“Perhaps we should continue on right away, sir,” Westcott suggested to Lewrie. “If we’re a week behind, and they’ll be needing our cavalry. To come all this way, yet miss
out
!”

“Miss out on the action, and the excitement, ye mean,” Lewrie replied with a smile. After three years or so, he knew Westcott’s need for any relief of boredom; combat,
or
women. “No, the beasts aboard the transports are runnin’ short on water, oats, hay, and straw, and a good place t’dump the stable sweepin’s. Our compatriots in the Army had planned to replenish here, counted on it, really. I fear we have no choice. We’ll stand in and anchor, and see t’their needs.”

“The stable sweepings, sir?” Westcott posed with a brow up.

“The Azores are rocky. They need all the manure they can get,” Lewrie told him, chuckling. “They might consider our arrival a gift from Heaven.”

“Rocky, and dry,
Senhor Teniente,
” the pilot chirped up, beaming wide. “Has been a drought for many years, and we do not have the pastures for enough animals. My mother’s gardens need more water and fertiliser. One point to starboard,
Senhor
Quartermaster,” he added, to the senior rating on the helm.

“Do you happen to know if there is a British Consul in town?” Lewrie asked their pilot.

“Oh,
sí, Senhor Capitáo,
” the perky fellow quickly supplied. “He is
Senhor
Gilberto Gilbao, a big merchant in Funchal.”

“Once we’re anchored, I’ll go ashore to call upon him, then,” Lewrie decided aloud. “Perhaps
he
knows where Popham has got to.”

“Full fig, sir?” Westcott teased, noting Lewrie’s everyday uniform, minus his marks of honour.

“He’ll have t’take me as I am,” Lewrie scoffed.

“The place I have for you,
Senhor Capitáo,
is close to town and the shore … deep water, five fathom, no worries,” their hospitable local pilot was quick to assure Lewrie. “You could come ashore with me in my boat, and signal for your own when you have done with
Senhor
Gilbao. I can even show you to his house.”

“For that office,
senhor,
” Lewrie responded, striving for the proper difference between the Portuguese and the Spanish for
señor,
“I give you my heartiest thanks. Uhm … good dining in Funchal, is there?”

“The finest,
Senhor Capitáo
!”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Once ashore, the pilot gave him a quick tour of Funchal’s small downtown features, pointed out a couple of restaurants, an upper-class tavern where music was played nightly for the entertainment of patrons, a laundress’s house, a vintner and a ship chandler, and a discreet brothel which he swore had the greatest selection of pretty doxies in all Christendom! Lastly, he saw him to a mansion one street up above the town’s docks and quays, facing a spacious and shady plaza, where the Gilbao family resided, and did their business.

Lewrie plied the large and ornate door knocker, and the door was opened by a woman in maid’s togs, a quite attractive young woman with sloe eyes which belied her prim demeanour, costume, and black hair that was severely pulled back and rolled into a bun at the nape of her neck.

Lewrie almost felt the need to take a second peek at the entry-way, and the plaque which announced the offices of the British Consul in both English and Portuguese; the maid’s attractiveness made him wonder if he’d found that forementioned discreet brothel!

He announced himself; she cocked her head over in puzzlement. When he managed to pronounce
Senhor
Gilberto Gilbao, she brightened and summoned him in, steering him to a large parlour, then padded off to seek her master.

It was a huge house, perhaps a century or more old, but well maintained, and full of costly furnishings, musical instruments left on display as if their users were merely taking a break, and artwork hung in profusion on every wall of the grand parlour, or stood upon plinths in the corners. There was a cool and shady atrium beyond a row of pillars and fine sets of glass-paned French doors, with a cool fountain plashing in its centre, surrounded with planted or potted greenery and flowers. Servants crossed the atrium now and then, on cat feet, without a sound. Above, the upper storeys were railed with intricate ironwork, the uppermost shaded with white and yellow canvas awnings. The only sound he could hear was the tinkle of water in the fountain. It was almost uncanny. Costly as all Hell, but uncanny.

“Senhor Capitáo?”
a well-dressed youngish fellow enquired, appearing from the opposite side of the wide entry foyer. “My pardons, but Concepcion has no English, and could not manage your name. I am Gilberto Gilbao,
senhor.
I serve as the British Consul for the Azores.”

“Captain Sir Alan Lewrie, of the
Reliant
frigate,
Senhor
Gilbao,” Lewrie told him with a smile, and a formal bow. “I was expecting to see Commodore Popham and his squadron in port, but missed him. I was told that Madeira was to be the assembly point.”

“Ah!” Gilbao said with an open-mouthed and cheerful grin. “Come this way,
senhor,
to my offices. Allow me to offer you refreshments, and I hope that I may fully inform you as to the whereabouts of your … incredibly energetic Commodore Popham.”

Gilbao’s offices were nigh as spacious as the grand parlour on the other side of the foyer, and just as expensively decorated. They took two upholstered chairs to either side of a low tea table, quite informally, rather than Gilbao behind his desk, and Lewrie plunked in front like a supplicant.

“Naturally,
Capitáo
Lewrie, all of Funchal took notice of your arrival in port,” Gilbao began as he tinkled a china bell for service. “As for Madeira being the assembly point for Commodore Popham, it was determined that the actual presence of his squadron, and his transport convoy, in harbour
could
be taken as a violation of Portuguese neutrality … a violation on our part of our
own
neutrality to the French. For that reason … reasons, rather … Commodore Popham only cruised close offshore as his transports arrived in dribs and drabs.”

“Oh Lord,” Lewrie groaned, sitting up straighter. “My bringin’ my ships into port could be deemed a violation, too? No one at Admiralty said a single word about that!”

To Lewrie’s relief, Gilbao threw back his head and laughed out loud, then looked at him with a merry grin.

“My dear
Capitáo,
could such a generous and hospitable people as we Portuguese deny mariners in need of succour
entrée
to our ports for firewood and water?” Gilbao amusedly posed. “As far as I can see, you have no hostile designs upon Funchal, or the Azores, you do not seem to be acting in any threatening manner to anyone as you convoy ships to somewhere else, which is of no consequence to Portugal, so, just what might the French or her allies have to complain about, or lodge a protest? Funchal is a neutral port, open to all.”

“When I called at Charleston, South Carolina, in the Spring, I got chapter and verse in high dudgeon from the French Consul there,” Lewrie told him. “Sail out within three days, or else … wait weeks before entering
another
American port … can’t lurk offshore beyond the Three Mile Limit?”

“The French once had a Consular representative here, but when the war began again in 1803, they ceased to pay him, so he resigned the office,” Gilbao said. “Ah! Concepcion! Will you have tea, or wine,
senhor
? From Lisbon, I recently received a cask of a splendid wine, very light, a touch sweet, and of a remarkable pale yellow tint. Most refreshing!”

“I will try the wine, upon your recommendation,” Lewrie said, secretly ogling the maid, who was casting shy eyes at him as Gilbao ordered wine for both.

“In point of fact,
Capitáo
Lewrie,” Gilbao went on as the maid departed to fetch the wine, “the English and the Portuguese people have always enjoyed the most amicable and mutually agreeable relations, in diplomacy, and in trade. We are a small nation, smaller than the British Isles, but have never possessed the large armies such as these of the French, or the Spanish in the old days. Neither did we ever have large fleets, not even approaching those of the Dutch, the Swedes, or the Danes. There is a general assumption that should any other power attempt to seize our colonies, even Brazil, or invade Portugal itself, our good friends the English would side with us, and come to our aid.”

“If only to have another good bash at the Frogs and the Dons,” Lewrie agreed with a laugh. “I am mortal-certain that did the French try to conquer Portugal, we’d be in it in an instant.”

Lewrie had never actually
been
to Portugal, but his father, Sir Hugo, had. Portugal was the only place that British debtors could run before their creditors could nab them and throw them into prison! Lewrie suspected that that was why the wine, port, and spirits trade had arisen in the long-agos; all those bankrupt British scoff-laws on their “skint bottoms” in need of a job, and quick profits! Why, most of the port in the world bore English brand names!

“You enquire about the whereabouts of Commodore Popham and his expedition,
senhor
?” Gilbao said. “He is bound for another Portuguese port on the coast of Africa, San Salvador.”

Lewrie had to shrug in ignorance; he’d never heard of it.

“It also is Portuguese,” Gilbao said with an airy wave of his hand, as if that was of no matter. “Any chandler in Funchal may sell you charts, including approaches and safe anchorages. It is a minor, out of the
way
place, you see? Of no interest to anyone.”

Meanin’, no enemy consuls t’spy Popham’s presence out,
Lewrie told himself;
Out of sight, and out of mind. Put in, load firewood and water, then out again before anyone notices. That’s
real
hospitable of the Portuguese!