29/12 Voracious Sea

Sea chanteys all around my tavern. An expedition is just over. In our colony, this means problems, unless some dirty captain plans to sack something and is in need of sailors to waste in battle...

Those men appeared to be coming from the Pacific, so it has taken a long time for them to get here. No wonder they're happy to land somewhere, with some gold in their pockets... but soon I will hold such gold, and they will start to rip people's guts to get some, if they don't leave.

As I spot one of them, that sparks my curiosity, I ask him -"Aye Matey, Where's yer tatoo from?"

The man looks at me clumsily. He's drunk as a barrell. -"Arrrgh. Ye know about Siam?" I nod. A land just south to the inmense China whose opium is quite appreciated by the explorers and the sailors. -"Me does". I say -"What's new from those lands?"

The sailor laughs loudly. But there's no joy in his laughing -"Earthquakes that bring the waves deep into land, my lad. The wave came without warning, and ravaged the town we were heading to, Ayuttaya".

I reply : "Isn't it a dutch trading post?" -"Aye... We were in numbers and armed to kill dutchies, shall they try to stop us..." Me realizes they're Pirates, not merchants.

-"Arright... Ye want more rhum". -"Aye" He says.

A big wave... must be what the japanese call "Tsunami". I've heard some about them. Devastating, destructive... Nothing to laugh at. I see the very captain of the expedition approach. A young Baron that earned himself a name sinking spanish ships on the gulf of Mexico some years ago.

-"Baron Huntington! Good wings bring you here!" The man smiles and approaches the bar.

"Still have that rhum of yours that makes me stay in bed for days?" -"Aye, Baron", I smile. I show him a selected bottle from my reserve and we share a drink. -"Ye come from Siam coasts, yer men say".

The Baron nods and replies -"Yes, yes. But the bloody wave my frigate had to ride was almost unworth the trip. It came when we were about to reach the coast" -"Good plundering?" Me asks.

-"Nay". "Everything was in ruins. Lots of indigens, not many dutchies... a coup turned bad". No wonder his men were wanting either gold or blood from him... so I ask -"Anymore plan in the Pacific, then?". The nobleman smiles anew... -"Raiding Panama!" He laughs.

I decide to retire now. It's been a lonely nite without Smitty around. I think he's been enroled, somewhere.