The Delfe Treasure

34. The Route Onward

The wind had veered, and the high clouds gave a halo to the sun as Elizabeth settled into her new course of south-southeast. Now both the wind and the seas were in her port bow, and there was a strong blow across her decks with frequent sprays of water. When the taffrail log was reported as a quarter past nine knots, Aldrick again gave control of the ship to Wilson. "Keep her as close to the wind as allows nine knots." 

"Aye, Sir. Tight to the wind for nine."

Aldrick walked aft to rejoin the women, pointing to the hatch coaming when he arrived. "We will be more comfortable below."

Once they had descended to the great cabin, Elizabeth said, "What a large change by altering course. From wonderfully pleasant to rather uncomfortable so quickly. How long will we remain on this course?"

"We must beat into the wind for the remainder of the day and through the night, and by nightfall to-morrow, we will be in a quiet anchorage." He pointed to the mercury glass on the bulkhead by the chart table. "The level continues to fall, and it appears likely we will be in for a storm."

"When? How bad?"

Aldrick examined the level in the glass tube, reading the scale behind it and the entry in the log. "We are now at twenty-nine point two inches. Down three points since six bells of the forenoon." 

As he recorded the new level, Elizabeth asked, "What is normal?" 

"This is as yet undetermined, but most calculations place it around thirty inches, so this is what I use. Higher, we have fair weather, and lower, we have rain and glum. The faster the change, the stronger the winds."

"To what did it fall during the hurricane last week?"

Aldrick leafed back through the log. "Twenty-seven point six."

"So, we are one-third of the way there. How far to the anchorage?"

"In a straight line, about a hundred and twenty miles, but tacking up into the wind, we require double that and more." He selected a chart from the drawer and laid it on the table.

"We are just off the western edge of the chart, and our destination is the northwestern point of Inagua in a broad bay here." He tapped his finger on the place. "Directly north of the passage between Cuba and Hispaniola."

"Why the different map? This is not what we used on our way in."

"This is one of the new charts commissioned by the King, drawn by Charles Price and published three years ago. For portions of it, he made use of our observations and notes." Aldrick ran his finger along from the Caicos Islands westward. "This is the passage we took through the night after we had made landfall. He shows it here as broad and unobstructed, unlike on Moll's map."

"This looks so different from what I remember." Elizabeth rifled through the portfolio in the drawer and pulled out Moll's map, folded it to the area and laid on the tabletop. "Why did we use this one for our landfall instead of the accurate one?"

Aldrick pointed to Moll's map. "His latitude of the northern coast of the Caicos group and of its westernmost point are accurate, while Price's are not. So for our landfall and departure point, it was the safest."

Elizabeth studied the two charts, shaking her head. "How does one know which is accurate and which is not? Different shapes, different locations, even different names."

"By paying close attention to what is around us and navigating based on what we see. What others have reported and drawn serve only as a guide; they are not reality." He pointed out through the stern windows. "Reality is out there, not on assorted sheets of paper."

"So, what do we call the island? One has it shown as Heneago and the other as Inagua."

"I think Inagua is the more common name now. Both words seem to be approximations to what the natives had called it."

"There are people there? I thought you had said the small islands are unpopulated."

"Depopulated is a better term."

Elizabeth grimaced. "Taken as slaves by the Spanish. What horrid fate. What horrid people, the Spaniards." 

"We now do the same, buying dark-skinned people by the shipload in Africa and bringing them here to work on the plantations. We are no better than the Spaniards, and if the English had arrived before them, I am sure all the Tainos would also have been taken into slavery." 

"True." She pointed to the chart. "Would it not make sense to head to shelter on the coast of Cuba? It is closer than Inagua and across the wind rather than into it."

"This would have been by far the best option until four years ago. But now, the treaty which settled the war over our possession of Gibraltar prohibits us from trading with the Spanish colonies in the Americas. They have been given the right to board and search British vessels to ensure our compliance with this provision, and we would not want them to find thirty-six or thirty-seven tons of gold and silver aboard."

"But it is not trading. It is recovered treasure."

"Yes, but all identifiable with Spanish stamps and mint marks. If we were boarded in their waters, they would quickly identify it as theirs. Their records of shipments from the Mexican and Peruvian mints would prove its origin, and we would be caught up in a diplomatic struggle over ownership. With them in de facto possession, it would not be in our favour, particularly with the sting of losing Gibraltar so recent."

Elizabeth nodded, remaining silent for a long while, then she asked, "So you think tacking eastward into the coming storm is our best option?"

"I do."

"What about sailing across the wind to here?" She tapped her finger on the chart. "You said you regularly anchored in the lee of Long Island and searched from there in the longboats. It appears not only closer, but on a more comfortable course from here."

"But farther from Kingston."

"Yes, but safer. Why not anchor there and await better conditions?" She took the dividers and measured. "Sixty miles." Then she measured from Long Island. "And one hundred thirty from there to Grande Inagua. Less than two hundred in total compared to your two forty tacking into the wind. Five hours rather than a day and more. Does it not have protection?"

"It has excellent protection, in the lee of a ridge of hills almost twice the height of our mainmast." He wrapped her in an embrace. "And you have superb logic. Far better than mine. I shall go aloft to see whether the water is safe now to come to northeast."