12. The grave

Port of Veracruz, 12 of July of the year 1681 of our Lord
My respected Mrs Celia,
I am Benedicto, the nefew, of your friend Mariano the warrior. I found your leters in between his things and my friend that signs below put them in Cristian for me. I belive that you will want to know what hapened to him. He arrived to our town some years ago. He had a bad leg and he luked very old. He was very well recived by his family. The first thing he did was ask for his fathers. We took him to their grave in the family grave. He stood looking at their graves for much time. He did not crai. He talked to them. He said I am bak father mother. I never thot I was going to see you again. I pray the Lord has you in His Glory. He worked in our fields for some years. He marryed and had children. They were litle when he died. He told us about his travels. It was very interesting. We were many nights listening his stories with very atention. He never told us about you. We did not knew about you until I found your leters. He died with the consolations of the religion and we pray our Lord has him in His Glory.
This leter was writen for me by my friend the merchant Jose Maria Pintado y Gancenia and the escribano Jose Manuel Miranda y Martinez. He knows English very good and he is a very good friend.
I say goodbye your sure servant, I pray God keeps you.
Benedicto de las Mercedes Garcia y Bernal
Escribano Jose Maria Pintado y Gancenia
Jose Manuel Miranda y Martinez, Merchant

11. Jamaica

Thou can seest how my narrative comes close to our meeting, therefore to an end. Our correspondence has become sparse as thou rightly sayest. It is a veritable miracle, a show of the unbound dictates on our lives by the Almighty. How are letters have reached one another is as unlikely an event as the rise and fall of my fortunes, the reasons behind His will in this particular development still obscure to my limited understanding of His Unquestionable Authority.
I have left the sovereignty of King Goodman, most properly named so. Travelers from a neighbouring realm brought me lights of a situation suspected by me from quite a number of years herefore. They declared themselves subjects of His Majesty the King of Spain. Their speech was sprinkled with utterances that brought forth a distant familiarity, veiled by the mist of years. Upon my request they disclosed their speech as Nawatel, a tongue I recalled as being of widespread use among the various parts of the land were I was raised as a child. Such news brought an irresistible stirring in my spirit and, once again, I took my leave from a generous protector unto what I foresaw as the last leg of my unexpectedly and formerly inconceivable lengthy perambulation. Setting forth with the carriage of those who have become my latest traveling companions, we have reached the port of Veracruz, most conveniently placed at the head of a trade route reaching the Spanish homeland on the other end. Which will be the hands that, through the Will of the Lord of all nations, will carry this letter to thine, will most likely remain as hidden as His Means for enforcing His Will.

Resuming my narrative, my fortunes were again on the rise upon reaching the household of my new Master. As soon as he could spare the time he called me to his presence in a well-kept garden were he pressed my memory for further details on the stages of my travels and the nature of my exploits. He didn't disguise his intention of unveiling a supposed deceit of mine by a close examination of my words, their accordance a test of my truthfulness. Surmounting his suspicion, my recollections strengthened in quality. I was assigned light menial chores in the house servant's quarters, a significant improvement from those of the field hands. My complexion being different from that of the African slaves, they looked upon me as someone out of the usual order if things, and treated me as a quaint carrier of ancient wisdoms from this land. The initial fire in my new Master's curiosity ebbed low without extinguishing. I was still regularly called upon his presence and that of his guests to repeat some part of my narrative and satisfy their curiosity on various matter. The society of his visitors was another means for a continuing polishing of my use of the English tongue.
Here is it that I may put my quill to rest, for it was under this roof that thou granted me a place under the abundant foliage of thine kindness. The steady flow of verse I eagerly received from thine library gave me the means to be worthy of thine correspondence.

My greatest reward has been to be of service in thine desire to keep a first hand account of what we're only loose anecdotes in the house of my, I dare say, last Master to be.

4. Swordsman again

Thine generosity towards this humble servant shows itself to be of the most noble nature. I will not digress at this point in my narrative on matters pertaining a later development, but thou extending your forbearance to a foreign Faith, giving to the Company of the Believers an opportunity to prove their worth despite being steadfast in the religion of thine fathers is a mark of thine born distinction among thine kind.
Concerning thine eloquent expounding on the Lordship of the Son of the Spirit, may the peace be with him, rest assured that when The Holy Koran is perused, with no need for elaborate interpretation, His Station is Exalted to a degree that is not surpassed by any of God's Prophets. It is on our discredit how many of our soldiers have been driven by their baser nature and an unpolished understanding of the Teachings of the Seal of the Prophets, to show a disdain to the People of the Book against His Teachings.
The books thou hast been so gracious to keep bestowing upon me as an addition to the library I have been building with thine help in these torrid climes are the strongest balm that assuages the sadness of the news thou givest me. Yet I know thou hast a homeland to long for and a bright future to embark upon, Miss Celia, soon to be Mrs Edward Black. Thou canst count on my steadfast friendship and my eager interest in sharing every detail of my travails and adventures, all as a most devoted and humble friend. That our letters will be longer interspersed is only a minor inconvenient if they will still count with thine appreciation from the distance of Mr Black's estate.

As I remember mine last telling thou, the Shayk had become attached to my chanting, so I received and sought instruction in the Mahometan lores. As I put the stanzas into improving melodies, the standing of my liege grew worse to the point we were given the news of a coming embarkement thiter the land of his forebears and of his younger years. We were to travel in a small fleet headed to the Mogul Empire, a domain of unrivalled splendour, sharing the Atxenese religious persuasion. The Sultana was concerned with the Portuguese conquests around her realm, the reason behind the alliances made with the Dutch by her and other rulers in those lands. As welcome as their help was, a shrewd statesman like her did not fail to foresee the ulterior motives of her allies, to replace the Portuguese as the paramount European presence, with even more forts along the coveted spice routes, all to the detriment of her standing. Thus this embassy seeking the protection of the aforementioned Empire.

Boarding as his disciple, once at sea, the swaying of the ship's deck brought in me stirrings of my warring years, not so far away gone. It took some careful persuasion to prove myself in practice as an apt swordsman and agile with the ropes too. My standing as one of Nuradin's bodyguard complemented my prior duties, and my soft body regained some of its early force. They called me the warring-scholar, since I still donned my old clothes, with trimmings that kept growing to lessen the I hindrance. We travelled in a large convoy of medium vessels, well provided with light artillery. Out fleet was assured to come across the Portuguese, and upon those news I could feel inside me the fire of combat among ropes and boards, a testimony on how far my allegiance had shifted. I learned that if under attack this convoy was meant to disperse, so as to conceal the Shayk's ship's, a risky strategy to my understanding. So it was that finally my reawakened eagerness found its satisfaction when we sighted a small fleet heading towards us. Guns got loaded and we held our swords tightly as our small detachment of three ships was followed by a similar one from the enemy. We held the worst part from the artillery exchange by the time we were close enough to board one of their ships. As much as you praise my choice of words so generously Miss Celia, I find it hard to describe the swirling chaos as men fight for the control of two ships. As I was engaged in combat on the enemy's deck, my eyes glanced at ours and I jumped back to cover the entrance to my master's quarters, endangered by a group of rascals. My newly gained weight seemed to have disappeared as my sword swung out my way among them. During those few fast manoeuvres, our attackers saw their spirits begin to waver. They faces were wrought with angry desperation, for if escaping a swift death, it may be looked back as an improvement over the slow one when chained as slaves to the oar of a larger vessel. I later learned they had been keen on the slave trade, but usually too proud to let themselves be taken alive for like treatment. As we finished taking over and manning their ship, we set both afts to the closest of our companion vessels, still exchanging shots with their attackers, masking the significant losses we had suffered during the fight with wild shrieks of war. Our hearts raced as we prayed for our enemies to fall under our ruse and flee, which, thanks to the All-seeing, they did. Upon gathering the whole fleet we counted only one ship in our losses and went on our way to the first leg of the journey to the land of my liege. I had had my fill of battle for a while and was content to mend my wounds. I was also grateful that our next meeting at sea was with a friendly merchant-ship, which shared news about the island of Sheereelanca, our first port of call in our route. Our embassy of goodwill carried a detachment of Atxenese warriors destined for the embattled Kingdom of Candee in that island, who were in the same state of alliance. The news we got was that the Candenese were on the verge of breaking up the said alliance, following their joint success against their common enemy, the Portuguese. The Shayk and his retinue were to follow ahead to his native land, while the embassy would stay in their dealings.
To my still growing sense of wonder, the island of Sheereelanca offered another array of fascinating novelty. Our port of call could hardly receive that name. I was told the major naval facilities were in the hands of the aforementioned European powers. Our fleet anchored on deeper waters, our landing proceeding in smaller local vessel. Hence we tred inland towards the realm proper.
The Court of Candee paled against the Atxenese in magnificence, without losing the dignity of a kingly Court. The surroundings were lush and the extravagant character of the island's natural life extended to the court itself. Birds of astounding beauty, bound animals of great power, and a banquet that brought surprise after surprise. Most of the dishes were palatable to our company, though some were of a disagreeable kind. I had been through hunger, having learned through hardship to value any kind of nourishment, which made me amenable to a greater variety than my fellow delegates, a welcome trait when my interest was caught by the lavish hospitality of our guests. The embassy and many of the Candaneese were proficient in a language of trade which I had not acquired during my stays, but this being just a short stop in our journey, I refrained from applying myself to its mastery. These people followed a different persuasion, of an idolatrous kind. They beheld carved images in great esteem and presented them with gifts and incense as if they were alive and reigning over them. They were familiar with the True Faith but had shown little interest in delving deeper into its verities, despite displaying an elaborate school of learning with their native script and profuse writings regarding their idols.