Battle Fleet (2007)

Battle Fleet (2007) by Paul Dowswell Read Free Book Online

Book: Battle Fleet (2007) by Paul Dowswell Read Free Book Online
Authors: Paul Dowswell
Tags: Young/Adult/Naval
play,’ he said. ‘They put fresh cloves at the top of the barrel. But the rest are a mixture of fresh and distilled. They’ve taken them and extracted their juices – you can tell by their paler colour, shrivelled appearance and the fact that many have lost the bud on top. The Dutch sell their cloves by weight, so this makes them an extra profit. There’s another trick they play where they soak them in water tomake them heavier, but that’s easy enough to spot when you squeeze them.’
    When we returned to the harbour, Hossack had brought the
Orion
up to the quayside. I spent the afternoon helping to load spices into our hold, and making final preparations for
Orion
to leave Coupang. Richard had not yet come back and the thought of having to say goodbye to him lowered my spirits. Just as I was beginning to worry that I had missed his return when I was ashore with Captain Evison, I saw him hurrying down to the harbour.
    I asked Evison for permission to go ashore to say goodbye. As I ran down to Richard, he caught sight of me and stopped in his tracks. He looked suitably solemn for such a sad occasion but as I came close his face broke into a great big grin. ‘I’m not going, Sam,’ he said. ‘There’s an American ship just sailed, and they say there might not be another for six months or even a year. I don’t want to be stranded here that long. I’ll pick one up back in London.’ I cheered out loud and gave him a big hug. ‘Here, steady on,’ he said. ‘I thought you British were meant to be reserved.’
    We had one more stop before we could set sail for home – the port of Bencoolen in Sumatra. I asked the Captain what we might find there. ‘Pepper – can’t have too muchpepper, and more nutmeg, cloves, hopefully good ones this time, camphor, timber – the most beautiful teak in the world, and dragon’s blood.’
    ‘So whose job is it to catch the dragons?’ asked Bel.
    Evison wasn’t used to having his leg pulled. Perhaps he thought it was a serious question. ‘It comes from the dragon’s blood palm, lass. A very efficacious crimson powder. It’ll cure the pox or the flux and you can even use it to colour your paints and plasterwork.
    ‘There’s gold here too – somewhere up in the heart of the island.’ He looked over to the shore. Dense jungle began at the very lip of the sea, with just a short strip of sandy beach along the tide line. ‘But there’s headhunters too, and cannibals. So I wouldn’t like to go to the trouble of finding it.’
    Staring into that mysterious interior I felt a deep, almost overwhelming curiosity. Earlier we had sailed past steep mountains that plunged down into the water like the most formidable cliffs you’ve ever seen. I would go, I wanted to say, just to find out what was there. Headhunters with spears. Would they be any match for our pistols, muskets and cutlasses? ‘We could come back here, maybe, when we’re older,’ I said to Richard. ‘Go and search for that gold.’
    From the ship, Bencoolen looked much the same as Coupang. Evison took me and Richard ashore again, but this time we came with six of the toughest-lookingseamen on the
Orion
. ‘There’s plenty here who’ll be out to rob us, so we’ll need to have our wits about us,’ said Evison. We all carried pistols and cutlasses.
    They were quite a different kettle of fish in this port. The buildings here seemed to be in a poor state of repair and many of the natives dressed in filthy clothes and looked as though they never had enough to eat. These ragged people had a desperate look about them, and clamoured around us asking for money. I searched their faces, wondering who among them would turn on us when we refused them. I was extremely glad we had come as a gang.
    ‘Most of them are slaves to opium. It’s what they do instead of drink,’ Evison explained as we walked through dirt-strewn tracks to the merchant quarter. We passed one beggar lying in the gutter. It was difficult to tell

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