The King`s Commission

horses.'

'You should have said something then, sir.'

'Oh, I did enough carpin' for their likes. All that praise we got, like we're Drake'r Anson come back with flamin' swords… well, talk's cheap, and so are we. I'm the oldest lieutenant in the Navy, you're nobody, and Shrike and the sloop are expendable. Damned expendable.'

'You give me chills, sir,' Alan said, taking a deep sip of his own mug to fortify himself. 'But surely, the admiral has already placed his favorites into larger ships than ours. Everything makes sense to choose Shrike. It's a chance to do something really grand.'

'And get your name in the Marine Chronicle!' Lilycrop sneered. 'Hell, nary a word o' this'll ever get out. We're goin' to be as anonymous as spies, no matter how it comes out. Oh, maybe our Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty will make a note of it in our records, but I'll not be made post-captain over it, and you'll not go higher than you are now. There's no way to refuse this duty, but if there was a way, I'd consider it. All that talk of how the Spanish don't patrol. Well, remember, there's troops and a ship'r two at Pensacola, and sure to be a ship o' war workin' outa Tampa Bay. Spies along the coast, some Indian that'll run to the Dagoes to raise the hue an' cry. Sell us out for a fuckin' mirror! Jesus weep! Nobody I knew ever prospered who got tied up with damn foolishness such as this. You be sure to watch your back once you're ashore. If you learned anythin' up in the Chesapeake, use it. Take whoever you know is a woodsman an' a scrapper, 'cause you'll have need of 'em. And I'll pray every day for your safety, Mister Lewrie.'

'Thank you, sir, that was well said, and welcome,' Alan replied with a warm feeling inside for Lilycrop's regard for him.

'Hard enough to break in a first officer. No call to do it more'n once a year, 'pon my soul.' Lilycrop scowled, looking away at the antics of his cats on the floor. 'I've grown used to ya, d'ya see? Show us heel-taps on your glass, and let us get some rest. We'll need it.'

Chapter 3

''They are ingenious, witty, cunning, and deceitful; very faithful indeed to their own tribes, but privately dishonest, and mischievous to the Europeans and Christians. Their being honest and harmless to each other may be through fear of resentment and reprisal-which is unavoidable in case of any injury.'' Alan read half aloud from a volume that McGilliveray had recommended to him, James Adair's History of the American Indians, published in London in 1776. ''They are very close and retentive of their secrets; never forget injuries; revengeful of blood, to a degree of distraction. They are timorous, and consequently, cautious; very jealous of encroachments from their Christian neighbors; and likewise, content with freedom, in every turn of fortune. They are possessed of a strong comprehensive judgement, can form surprisingly crafty schemes, and conduct them with equal caution, silence and address; they admit none but distinguished warriors and beloved men into their councils.''

'Well, that let's me out,' Captain Cashman of the light company of the 104th Regiment of Foot laughed easily as they sat at table their second day out from Kingston.

'I quite look forward to our meeting them,' Cowell said. Without his wig, and with his shirt collar open, he looked like a balding club waiter out on holiday. 'They are an admirable people, much abused by contact with the white man. As the French philosopher Rousseau said, they have a natural nobility. Read on, Mister Lewrie, do.'

''They are slow but persevering in their undertakings'-Sorry, Mister Cowell, but negotiations may take longer than you think if that's true-'commonly temperate in eating, but excessively immoderate in drinking.' Hmm, sounds like half my relatives. 'They often transform themselves by liquor into the likeness of mad foaming bears.''

'Can't take someone like that to Covent Garden,' Cashman observed.

'Ah, here's the best part. 'The women in general are of a mild, amiable, soft disposition; exceedingly modest in their behavior, and very seldom noisy either in the single or married state.' Hmm, well, maybe it's not the best part at that.'

'Adair is amusing,' McGilliveray said, looking up from carving his salt beef. 'He got that part wrong, at least among the Muskogee.'

'Oh, are the women better than he said?' Alan asked.

'Once married, they are subservient to their husbands. That doesn't mean they cannot nag, or raise their voices. Frankly, the older they get, the more they resemble Billingsgate fishmonger women. Very earthy.' McGilliveray gave them a tight smile.

'What we're interested in, my dear sir, is what sort of rattle they are,' Cashman drawled.

'Lay hands on a married Muskogee, any married Indian woman, and her male relatives will hang you up on the pole and butcher you for three days. One does not even cast a covetous eye on them, for fear of retribution. It's a blasphemy.'

'You mean we can't even bloody look at 'em? Here, Lewrie, this is a rum duty,' said Cashman, frowning.

'You may notice them, but you can't ogle them, or follow after them, or try to talk to them. If they're in their monthly courses, you won't see them at all.' McGilliveray went on sternly lecturing, as he had since he had come aboard. 'They hide themselves away from their families and their village, and anything they touch is polluted. A man who looks on a woman in her courses, gets downstream of one, has to go through severe purification rituals to restore his spirits.'

'Don't sound like they run to whores, neither.' Cashman winked at Lewrie, who was as tired of McGilliveray's pontifications as anyone else aboard.

'No, we don't, and you're becoming tiresome, Captain Cashman,' McGilliveray said, controlling his temper, which Alan had just read was supposed to be 'immoderate.'

'Seriously, Mister McGilliveray, we're going to have seamen and soldiers running about who haven't had anything better than a harbor drab or a toothless camp follower since their last payday. There must be some release, surely. The whole tribe can't live in chastity belts.'

'Indian men do, you know,' McGilliveray said smugly. 'For the good of the harvest, the planting of the crops, good fortune in hunting, success in battle, when someone dies. That's why sexual relations are so strictured. Also, how do you control the urge to adultery among so many people in such a small village unless the whole thing becomes some form of magic ritual?'

He gave them a deprecating smile to show that he was human, which did nothing to convince either Lewrie or Cashman that he hadn't been got at by Baptists.

'At least, once they become warriors, they do, and once they wed. Before, there is allowed a certain license. Among the younger women as well. They can be rather… enthusiastic about men before they wed.'

'Well, how do you tell the difference, then?' Cashman demanded. 'And what do you do, bring her a plucked chicken? Flip tuppence across the fire? Tell 'em to wash the mehtar's daughter?'

'The what?' Lewrie goggled.

'Sorry, I was in the East Indies once. It was a lot easier there, let me tell you. Cheaper too, if you like nautch girls with bums and legs like farrier sergeants,' Cashman said irrepressibly.

'There's a lot of ceremony in village life,' McGilliveray told them, sipping at small-beer, which was all he would allow himself. 'At each ceremony, there's dancing in circles around a central fire, and all the unmarried women sort of cluster together and show off their finery. I shall point them out to you. If they fancy you, you'll know it right off. They run things, long as they're single.'

'And if Indian men restrict themselves as you say, they must have to make up for lost time after they're married,' Cashman said, grinning. 'So if she's there, she isn't polluted, and if she fancies a tumble, she'll come over and flash her poonts?'

'It's a bit more subtle than that, Captain,' McGilliveray said with a sigh of the truly long-suffering. 'Believe me, you'll know.'

'I should think it best if we forswore conjugal relations with the natives,' Cowell said, a bit prim. 'It would be easiest.'

'Hardly possible, I'm afraid, sir,' Alan stated. 'You haven't seen my sailors a'rut.' Or me, Alan qualified to