The Triple Goddess (43 page)

Both items intrigued him greatly, and he admired the gas Dunhill lighter’s japanned inlay, which was engraved with her initials, while she explained how it worked. When she demonstrated how to make the flame spring up he asked to try it himself; but having inadvertently moved the flame control to the maximum setting as he played with it, he nearly singed his beard, and Arbella took it back.

Adjusting the jet, she offered him the lighter to keep, and after a moment’s hesitation he politely declined. ‘My beard is more important,’ he said, ‘and I am accustomed to using a spill from a flame.’

However he readily accepted a cigarette; sniffing the unfamilar Turkish tobacco, he tore off the paper and tasted some shreds, nodded in appreciation, stuffed it into his pipe, and asked for two more with which to fill up the bowl.

When the pipe was alight Ralegh told Arbella that, when she arrived, he had been reminiscing about his youthful experiences in the company of his mentor Sir Francis Drake, on the third of that most famous man’s voyages to the West Indies.

‘I find it soothing,’ he explained, ‘to recall the marvellous events that took place before the hardships and tragedies of my later life.’ Arbella apologized for interrupting his reflections, but he said that it was no great matter; and she was emboldened to ask if he would resume his review of the events and favour her with some of the details.

The knight was flattered. ‘I was at the point of recalling how, as we slid slowly along the shore in our man-of-war past rocks, shoals and sandy islands, I gained a lofty impression of steep mountains, deep rivers, and thick brakes. Fearing as we always did an ambuscado, we made wary pilotage into the best channel and moored in ten or twelve fathoms betwixt an island and the main, about five leagues from the nearest town.

‘Disembarking, we made camp for the night; being uneasy as to the disposition of the natives in that part, we were careful to set many watches and to sleep with our arms primed and by our sides.

‘Over the next several days we felled a number of great trees to make a fort, wherein to store our ordnance and artillery and other provisions, and went in search of water for immediate use and to take on board. We built store-houses, and prepared to defend ourselves if necessary against attack from the sea as well as inland. There was considerable work to be done, and as a result no time to disport ourselves at bowls and quoits and keiles.

‘Our ship was equipped with all manner of cannon and guns. Our “twelve apostles” fired roundshot weighing sixty pounds, and we had many lesser pieces ranging down to the eight-inch robinet. There were falconets and falcons, culverin, demi-culverin, sakers, minions, and demi-cannon; these took balls both large and small, as well as the chain-shot with which we might bring down the masts of any aggressor.

‘To withstand a siege or campaign on land, in addition to our heavy portable guns and much quantity of shot and gunpowder and saltpetre, we were equipped with magazines and flasks, match, touchboxes, bandoliers, bullet moulds, melting ladles, musket rests, shovels, spades, crowbars and pickaxes. We had chests of muskets and calivers and small arms, body armour, bows, pikes, swords, rapiers, and cutlasses…even the canvas for binding our halberds, or partisans. Included for peaceable purposes were felling axes, hedging bills, scythes, reaping hooks, and tarred and white rope.

‘The laying-in to our fort of so comprehensive an inventory of hardware involved much work. Because we could expect to make use of each item, everything down to the nails and tallow was listed; but even so as time went on we ran short of many essential items and found ourselves without others.

‘To keep such deficiencies to a minimum, travelling with us were many artisans, including bowyer, fletcher, cooper, carpenter, wheelwright, blacksmith, and sailmaker. A plumber spent the outward journey making shot. There was a furbisher to clean the weapons and polish the armour, to maintain them against the effects of the salt air; and a master of ordnance, who, in addition to being in charge of munitions, was responsible for keeping the men in training.

‘As soon as we landed the smith set up a working forge, equipped with anvil and iron and fuelled with coals. On the voyage over, with assistance from the plumber he had amazed us by producing a spear and a shield, which, in addition to their common usages, were capable of firing off rounds of ammunition.

‘Our arrows were of a special kind, not great sheaf arrows, but fine roving shafts produced in England and supplemented by the fletcher as we travelled. We later discovered that the arrows of the natives are of two varieties: one which they use to fight and defend themselves with, and the other for the killing of their victuals.

‘The first are somewhat longer than the Scottish arrow, and headed with iron, wood, or fishbone. The second, those for the procurement of meat, are of three sorts and made exclusively of iron. They seldom break, and are so cunningly tempered as to maintain their edge for a long time. The men who are most proficient in working the metal, which to them is more highly prized than gold, are esteemed amongst their community.

‘The largest of these hunting arrows has a massive head of iron, which is fully a pound and a half in weight. It is thrown like a javelin to kill large beasts such as stag and wild boar, and the wound it makes is hardly to be believed. The next weighs three-quarters of a pound; it serves for lesser beasts, and can for the most part be fired from a heavy bow. And the tip of the last, of no more than an ounce, will bring down the most delicate and fast-moving birds.

‘Turning to the natural resources that the land offered for our subsistence and with which to reprovision our ship—for our supplies were greatly depleted—it is, to say the least, bountiful. The country’s store of plenty is announced by the many species of tree and plant, a number of which were identified by the ship’s doctor, who was also something of a botanist and scientist. Amongst the largest are tamarinds, cedars, palms, and the enormous ceibas; at the other end of the scale are fuchsias and mignonettes, Cape jasmines, and night-blooming cereus.

‘We spent our nights under diamond-studded skies, and were awoken in the mornings by the chorus of a thousand birds in the trees. Herons, cranes, and rails were to be observed at the water’s edge. So strong and vibrant are the natural colours of the vegetation that they seem to have permeated the plumage of the birds: amongst the parrots, macaws, and cockatoos we could pick out crimson, carnation, orange-tawny, purple, watchet, and a white of unparalleled brightness.’

‘Watchet, Sir Walter?’

‘Pale blue. For native vegetables, fruit, and nuts, we found ourselves well provided, and after the privations of the voyage we fell upon them eagerly. There was great quantity of
piñas
, or pineapples, the princess of fruits that grow under the sun. There were
piñons
, or nut-pines, pomegranates, and plantains aplenty; lemons and limes, sweet and sour oranges, coconuts, mangos, and almonds.

‘Over the weeks that followed we were introduced, by the natives who turned out to be disposed kindly towards us, to sweetmeats and conserves made from these, as well as from guavas, soursop, mammee apples, and sapotes. They showed us olive groves, and where sugar-cane was growing, and long pepper. We were offered molasses, cocoa and cafetal, allspice—it is from the berry of the pimento tree, which is of the myrtle family—ginger, and nutmeg.

‘For our bread we were able to pack an abundance of wheat-meal in wine-pipes and other casks. We also took maize and cassava or manioc, which we call yucca, the juice of which is poisonous but the substance good and wholesome; sweet oil and vinegar.

‘To drink we had good strong wine as well as cider, and enough fresh water to replenish the ship and maintain those of us who were to travel overland.

‘For metals to fashion implements and domestic utensils, there were tin and pewter. Woollen and linen cloth provided us with new clothing, and the means to repair our old and worn garments; and we obtained hides of the cattle and sheep, goats and hogs, which the natives domesticate for a ready supply of meat and milk and cheese.

‘The fresh and dried flesh of these animals we delighted in after the monotonous salt beef diet of our voyage, and we used them extensively for roasting and in stews. In the wild were to be found deer, porks, hares, conies, and iguanas. Pheasants, partridge, and quail we caught and held in pens in order that we might gather their eggs. And we were able to shoot a good number of kites, which we prized for the delicate sweetness of their flesh.

‘In addition, which I mention to emphasize the diversity of the fauna, there were
paraquitos
no bigger than the wren bird; and one of the natives gave me a beast called by the Spaniards
armadillo
, and by them
cassacam
. It was barred over with small plates like a rhinoceros, with a white horn growing in its hinder parts as big as a hunting-horn, which they wind instead of a trumpet. A little of it ground to powder put into the ear is said to cure deafness…one of the few maladies of which I do not have cause to complain.’

‘Ah, yes, that would be the very specimen that the other day got...’

‘Of fishes and other seafare there were aplenty. Unlike the dolphins and bonitos that we had been able to catch with lines at sea—there were also flying fish which fell on deck of their own accord—in the coastal waters we succeeded in taking many other specimens. Amongst the shellfish were foot-long creatures that we called giant whelks. And if that were not abundance enough, we were able to dig
tortuga
or turtle eggs, which are excellent eating, from the sand.

‘Practically the only thing we did not dine upon were the mosquitoes, which to our great annoyance and discomfort were plentiful; it was often remarked amongst us as a poor jest that the insects made many a meal of us, to requite our voracity for other species.

‘But enough of comestible matters, and to return to our progress. In due course our land party, of which I was one, arrived at our destination and was received by the Governor, who was disposed to be more friendly than we could have hoped.

‘It was then that I became acquainted with how, in various cultures, different objects and commodities have value, and that what is deemed worthless by one people—gold and silver to these natives, for example—is by others fought over and esteemed worthy of hazarding life itself to win. For stored at the King’s treasure-house, where he took us, were riches wondrous to behold: piled against the walls of the building like argent bricks were innumerable silver ingots…all of which, after some small intercourse with our Captain, the Governor readily bequeathed to us in their entirety.

‘As pleasing as this was to us it was fortunate, for those of us who were responsible for carrying them away for loading onto the ship, that the treasure-house was close by the water’s side. Even so, in order to transport offshore so much silver and gold and jewels, each of our four pinnaces had to make many journeys, for in whole the measurement of the store was, as near as I could guess, some seventy feet in length by ten in breadth and twelve in height.

‘Each bar weighed thirty-five or forty pounds, and we reckoned that the total must have amounted to nearly thirty tons. So great was the quantity that it required one hundred and ninety mules, with each beast carrying a burden of three hundred pounds, to bear it the short distance to the boats.

‘However that trove of treasure, remarkable though it was, was not to be for me the culmination of the trip, for a short time thereafter I was to be made cognizant of a much greater, though intangible, wealth.

‘I speak of that which I was privileged to witness in the company of my Captain, at his invitation. So extraordinary was this vision that it furnished me with a cornucopia of the mind, with which I have always been able to revive my spirit when it is low. For all the multitude of the days that have passed since then in my life, the remembrance of that sight has not faded; and that Sir Francis Drake and I were the first to feast our eyes upon it, the two of us alone, has made it ever the more precious to me.’

Ralegh turned his eyes, which were bright at the thought of what he was about to describe, to the ceiling, and his voice was hushed as he continued.

‘It came to pass as follows. Our company proceeded into the interior of that land, as if drawn by a mysterious force, farther and farther from the ship and our link with the civilized world. Here the rivers were too flooded to cross, and the few paths through the jungle difficult to determine and negotiate.

‘But gradually the terrain began to alter and the luxuriant vegetation thin out, until we found ourselves in a forest of tall deciduous trees, the boles of which were massive and widely spaced. They were rounded like the flanks of elephants and rough but spongy to the touch. To our relief the mordant insects that had plagued us were gone, and the growls and cries and footfalls that troubled us at night.

‘The humidity, which previously had restricted our most strenuous activities to the earlier and later parts of the day, was replaced with temperateness. Underneath the high canopy of broad-leafed trees, mottled light ran up and down the tree trunks and across the forest floor like the maculations on a prowling panther’s hide.

‘Our company was now able to cover many miles a day on the springy humus of the forest floor; indeed the passage was so invigorating that we shed the last vestige of our tiredness.

‘It seemed most appropriate that, surrounded by such arboreal magnificence, the grail of our expedition turned out to be a tree: the greatest of them all, which occupies a lofty position midway across the isthmus of the Continent. According to the natives it commanded a view as far as the oceans upon either side: the one being the northern water whence we had come; the other the southern towards which we were headed, where, in the event of our deaths, no one would come to sing our obsequies. Whereas the cold and treacherous North Sea was known to us, and unattractive, those other waters drew both young and old amongst us with a siren-like allure, a tidal yearning.