Grantville Gazette.Volume XVI Read online

  "I am worried about the waste," Philip admitted. "Cutting down these Castilla trees, I mean. Yes, we get a lot of latex out of them all at once, but if we could just tap them, we could keep coming back each year for more."

  "It's not practical, Philip. This is too close to Spanish-controlled territory. All they need to do is put a real fort at the mouth of the Rio San Juan, and the rubber trees will be as inaccessible to us as if they were on the Moon. And I really can't shed a tear over depriving the Spanish of their Castilla trees."

  "Well, if they don't build that fort, it means that next time we visit, we're going to have to go deeper into the rainforest to find more trees."

  "We'll deal with that if we must."

  ***

  Philip brooded about the problem. He wasn't worried about the yet-to-be-built fort-he figured that in a few years, the USE would have battleships in the Caribbean, and that would solve that problem. But battleships couldn't grow back trees that had already been cut down.

  He decided to experiment. He had one of the Miskitos cut V's into the bark, not just near the ground, but all the way up the trunk. The "milk", as the Miskitos dubbed the latex, came running out. A tree with a five foot diameter might yield twenty gallons of milk. Which was about as much latex as they collected the original way. Whether the tree would in fact survive the heavy cutting, he couldn't be sure. What he was sure was that it wouldn't survive being felled. So this had to be an improvement.

  It had the unexpected effect of increasing his labor force. His original guinea pig was one of the topmen from the Walvis. Accustomed to climbing a seventy five foot mast, he wasn't exactly afraid of heights. The novelty of Philip's experiment attracted observers, both Dutch and Miskito, and Philip overheard what they were saying. And decided to stage a race. The Walvis beat the Koninck David.

  Then the Miskitos wanted in. They had their own climbing tricks. There was a risk of falling, of course. A mature Castilla was many feet high. But so far as the Miskito were concerned, the risk was what made the new rubber tapping a desirable activity for a warrior.

  ***

  Rather than draw on the ships' provisions, David preferred to pay the Miskitos to hunt for them. The Indians ranged along the coast, and up the river, bringing back turtle meat, fish, fowl and other dainties. Blauveldt had told David that in their home territory, two Miskitos could feed a hundred Europeans. It wasn't much of an exaggeration.

  ***

  "One of the hunters is back, seems anxious to speak to you, Captain," Cornelis reported.

  "Bring him by, let's find out what he has to say." David was sitting on the stump of a rubber tree, munching on some fruit.

  The report brought him to his feet. "Cornelis, pick the steadiest men. Have them go around, tell the other captains to have their men to quiet down, collect weapons, and assemble by the canoes. There're Spanish upriver."

  David pulled a ring off his finger, and handed it to the hunter. "For you, good work!"

  He then turned to Philip. "Go with him, get the Miskito chiefs together."

  Some minutes later, there was a quick Dutch-Miskito council of war on the bank of the Rio San Juan. The Dutch, with swivel guns brought over from the ships, blocked the path downriver. The Miskitos fanned out in small groups, heading into the rainforest. They would cut off the Spanish escape route.

  The ambush was completely successful. It was also completely anticlimactic. The two mestizos the Indians had spotted weren't scouts for a Spanish expedition. They were the expedition. In a manner of speaking.

  More precisely, they were stragglers from a canoe convoy that had come down the river some months earlier, at the end of the last rainy season. The two had gone hunting one day, gotten lost, and discovered, when they made it back to the river, that they had been left behind. They had built a raft and tried paddling upriver, but decided eventually that it was too difficult and headed back downstream.

  The mestizos were from the town of Granada in the interior of Nicaragua. Their convoy's cargo was their region's annual export of cochineal, sugar, indigo, hides and silver; it had been headed for Portobello, 300 miles to southeast. There, it would have been transferred to the great flota, which sailed in January or February to Cartagena, Havana, and finally home.

  There was much moaning and wailing among the Dutch when they realized that they had missed an easily captured treasure by just a few months.

  The Miskitos were disappointed, too. While the Miskitos did cultivate crops, their general altitude was that it is easier to let someone else do the farming and then rob them. In this regard, they were not very different from their English and Dutch allies.

  ***

  David thought about the treasures of Granada, and its sister city, Leon. He couldn't afford to hang around the mouth of the San Juan until next December or January, waiting for the 1635 convoy. His investors would be unhappy about the delay in the delivery of the oil, rubber and bauxite, and a wait would increase the danger that a roving Spanish squadron would spot his ships.

  But… If the convoy left the town half a year ago, that meant that the town's warehouses were half-full again. Right?

  Could he ascend the San Juan and assault the two cities? He had started the voyage with perhaps one hundred sixty men. Some of those had been left behind in Suriname, to help the colonists; others had died, through accident or disease. If he were to be away from the ships for a month or more, he would have to leave a strong guard behind, or he could return with much loot, only to find that he had no ships to sail home in. So that meant oh, perhaps, a hundred effectives. That was the bare minimum.

  But if Blauveldt joined in… and the Miskitos… he might reasonably lead two hundred men into action. That made the idea… quite practical.

  ***

  "Captain?" Philip was anxious to report on his successes.

  The captain stared into the forest, without a word.

  "Captain?"

  David grimaced. "I have rethought the situation. We have done enough rubber collecting. It is time to take more direct action against the Spanish."

  "The USE military use rubber-"

  "Yes, yes, it will be used by your APCs. But we Dutch need to damage the Spanish more… directly. The Spanish are confident they can do anything they please with our ships and colonies, because they are winning the war in Europe. We need to remind them that the Dutch are not impotent."

  "This expedition is funded by USE investors, and flies the USE and Swedish flags."

  "And carries Dutch captains and crews. Who want to see the Spanish taken down a peg. Which will make both the Swedes and the Americans happy enough.

  "So this is what we will be doing. We will take canoes up the Rio San Juan, to the Lago de Nicaragua. And across it… to Granada and Leon.

  "They are towns rich in silver and other treasures. They have never been attacked, and hence are unwalled and poorly garrisoned. I feel confident that they will pay a heavy ransom to be spared the torch."

  It was Philip's turn to stare silently at the wilderness.

  David put his hand on Philip's shoulder. "You Americans don't seem to have much taste for plunder, I know. When I formed my Company, I was shocked by the up-time lack of enthusiasm for privateering." He stifled a chuckle. "Of course, the down-time investors made up for it.

  "So don't worry. I don't need to take you with me. I have to leave a guard for the ships, and I will give you a few additional men to help you continue your rubber harvesting. The ones too old or too sick to be fit for my little excursion to Granada, of course. And you will have some of the Miskitos."

  "How long will this take? I am no expert on the Caribbean, but I do know that the hurricanes come in August and September."

  "Oh, we'll have you back in the Thuringen Gardens, with your friends buying you drinks, and an admiring young fraulein on your lap, well before then."

  ***

  It didn't work out that way. Blauveldt urged that they if they couldn't wait for the 1635 convoy to come
to them, they could at least give the Granadans a few more months to accumulate treasure. Besides, if they waited, he could sail up to Bluefields, and Cabo Gracias a Dios, and recruit more Miskito allies, increasing their chance of success.

  The Miskitos told the Dutch that there were several rapids upriver, and that it would be best to make the journey to and from Granada when the rains elevated the water level-July or August.

  The captains finally agreed to launch the attack in July-virtually guaranteeing that David would be returning to Europe during the height of hurricane season. Not that David seemed especially worried. "There are only four or five hurricanes a year in the entire Atlantic."

  Nor could Philip conduct rubber tapping business as usual while David was off freebooting. The nigh-universal Miskito reaction was, "You expect me to fuss around collecting sap from trees when I could be impaling a Spaniard or two on my cane lance? And when your Admiral David says that we can keep the Spanish guns and ammunition we capture? You are a funny boy." It was also quite apparent that Philip would diminish in their esteem if he remained behind.

  "Arggh," said Philip to the jungle. "Now all I need are a parrot and an eyepatch." The jungle didn't answer.

  July, 1634

  At last, Blauveldt's ship glided back into the mouth of the San Juan. Some native canoes were carried on its deck, which was crowded with the new Indian recruits. The canoes and longboats were lowered into the water, and they all joined David's group.

  The assembled crews and their Indian allies milled about in excited confusion as they waited for David and his fellow captains and chiefs to give the order to begin the ascent. Philip watched as first one, then another alligator wriggled out of the water and onto a sandbank some yards away. Soon, a score of the big reptiles were sunning themselves. Most of them had their mouths agape.

  A sailor from Blauveldt's ship was sure of the reason for this behavior. "They hold their mouths open so as to catch flies," he sagely remarked. "The saliva attracts the insects, and they swallow 'em when enough have landed."

  "That makes no sense," said Philip. "Look how big they are! How many flies would an alligator have to catch in a day to keep himself alive?"

  "Are you calling me a liar?"

  "Certainly not. I'm just pointing out that you are being illogical."

  "I think you're calling me a liar." He put his hand on the hilt of his cutlass.

  There was a cough behind him. "Is there a problem?" asked Cornelis, his own meaty hand squeezing the man's sword arm into immobility. He was heavily built for a sailor; the sort of fellow who, had he gone to high school up-time, would have acquired the nickname "Tank." He had his share of knife scars and powder burns, too.

  Mr. Fly Catcher turned and gave Cornelis a slow once-over. His face took on a more calculating look. The sailors nearest him edged away, ever so slightly, and he shrugged. "Just a friendly conversation."

  "That's what I wanted to hear. But we talk when there isn't work to be done. Should I find some work for you to do?"

  Fly Catcher shook his head, and, as soon as Cornelis released him, sidled away.

  "Thanks," said Philip. "That wasn't looking good."

  "Captain told me to look out for you, you being so knowledgeable in some things, but mebbe not in others."

  "I was just explaining about alligators."

  "Captain also said that if you talked someone into blowing your head off, I was to make sure I retrieved your wristwatch. You want to show me which arm you keep it on, to save me some time?"

  ***

  While Philip was still worried about whether hurricanes would interfere with their return to Europe, he was happy enough to be ascending the Rio San Juan during the height of the rainy season. The rapids were bad enough even at high water; he didn't like to think about what they would have done to the canoes if the rocks were exposed.

  Seeing the rapids reminded him of Maria. "She'll be so freaking mad to find out that she missed out on the chance to run some whitewater," he mused. "On the other hand, I am not sure she fancies playing Anne Bonney, so perhaps it's just as well."

  ***

  The source of the Rio San Juan was the Lago de Nicaragua. Were it not for the maps, they would have thought that they had reached the Pacific Ocean. To their left, they could see nothing but water. Ahead, looking northwest, were several small islands, the Solentinames. Beyond them lay the cone of Ometepec, and further still, as far as the eye could see, more water. On their right, the lake was hemmed in by a long chain of cloud-capped mountains, but of course you could say the same about the Pacific coast of Peru or Mexico.

  The oceanic impression was reinforced when the Dutch-Miskito expedition spotted the telltale dorsal fins of sharks. Bull sharks did enter rivers, but they were now almost a hundred miles from the Atlantic.

  The only sign that they were on a lake was that the water was fresh, not salty. No one expressed an interest in swimming.

  "About a hundred miles to Granada," David told the other leaders. "I don't know how much lake traffic there is, so we'll hide by day, and paddle by night." They didn't argue. The greatest weapon in warfare was surprise.

  "Do your maps show good hiding places along the coast?" asked Blauveldt.

  "They're not that detailed. But we have three choices. We can hug the southwest shore. I'm afraid that might be populated, because the land is flat."

  "So that's out."

  "Or we can go along the northeast coast. There's just a narrow strip of land between it and the mountains."

  David swatted, ineffectually, at a mosquito which had dive-bombed him. "But the route I favor is almost directly across the lake."

  "Short, but won't we be seen?"

  "Besides these specks in front of us"-he pointed at the Solentinames-"there are two big islands along the way. The second gets us to perhaps twenty miles from Granada. Then we can edge a bit west, to put a little cape between us and the Granadans, and once we round it we're only five miles out."

  "Sounds good to me. We could cut across the cape, if that would keep us out of sight longer."

  "We'll have to see. It looked like there might be a mountain spur there. That could turn a short cut into a long cut."

  The sun set, and the canoes advanced. They fought to avoid a westward drift; the waves came mainly from the east, no doubt driven by the trade winds. That, too, was a sign they weren't on the Pacific.

  It took another week to cross the lake. Several times they encountered fishing boats, but none were allowed to escape and bring warning to unsuspecting Granada. Granada had been founded in 1524, and it had never been attacked by a European force. No mother of Granada warned children that if they didn't go to sleep, the English or Dutch would eat them.

  Granada, Nicaragua

  David's raiders made the final advance in the darkness and solitude of the wee hours. The city was unwalled, so they marched directly to the great plaza. The few soldiers in the barracks were forcibly awakened, and placed under guard. The powder magazine was emptied. The cannon in the vicinity were appropriated and set up to command the plaza and its approaches.

  By the time the civilians knew that there were invaders in their midst, it was already morning. The rays of the rising sun gave the stone outer walls of the Granadan buildings a golden glow. David hoped that this was a portent that they would find gold inside, too.

  Several detachments guarded the entrances to the city, to make it more difficult for the inhabitants to escape with their valuables. Others patrolled the main streets and, as the Granadans emerged from their homes, prodded them toward the plaza and into the cathedral. It was soon filled with hundreds of citizens. Some screamed imprecations at their captors, some wept, and others just sat in a state of shock.

  The Miskitos had, by this point, taken possession of the weapons in the armory, and were happily firing their weapons at Spaniards so imprudent as to poke their heads out of a door or window, or, if not given the opportunity for such sport, into the air. David's control ov
er them was tenuous, and he thought it best to give them the chance to work off their excitement, as long as they didn't resort to wholesale slaughter.

  The Dutch, on the other hand, were more interested in collecting plunder. They did it systematically, starting at the cathedral and the city hall, and then checking out any building which looked well-appointed enough to warrant investigation.

  Nor were the Dutch and the Miskitos the only ones taking advantage of the helplessness of the town. The native Indians, and black slaves, had clearly decided it was payback time. It was futile for a resident to protest that he or she was penniless, or that all his or her valuables had already been taken, for a slave or servant would happily deny the protest, and guide the invaders to the missing items. Perhaps collecting a finder's fee in the process.

  ***

  When the looting was complete, the invaders cheerfully recruited the townspeople to act as beasts of burden, making them tow the municipal cannon to the lake, and dump them in. Much to the amusement of their former servants and slaves. The invaders also seized the boats at the waterfront, to prevent pursuit and also to transport more treasure.

  Some of the local helpers decided that the invasion offered an excellent opportunity to permanently leave Spanish service. A few decided to see what Miskito or Dutch life had to offer; the rest fled to the hills.

  David and the other leaders then had to decide whether to continue on another sixty or so miles, to Leon. Like Granada, Leon had never been attacked, and it lay even closer to the great silver mines of Nicaragua. It was tempting, and, curiously, even the Granadan merchants urged them to do this-apparently there was a serious rivalry between the two cities.