At length all the news was told, and I could eat no more and drink no more, and Barbosa summoned slaves to take me in a hammock back to my cottage. As I rose to depart he caught me lightly by the arm and said, smiling, “It cheers me that you have fared so well in this land. When first I saw you and the other Englishman lying chained on the deck, as we set out from Brazil to this place, I grieved for you, for your lot seemed dark, and I did not think you had the look of a rogue. I hoped you would withstand your pains, and I said a prayer for you; but I did not think you would achieve what you have achieved in your captivity.”
“It has been God’s blessing, and mine own very good fortune.”
“And so may it continue. But beware: there are true villains all about you here.”
“The Jaqqa man-eaters, d’ye mean? Or Don Gaspar?”
He laughed. “The Jaqqas! They are but bad dreams, nightmare-monsters that will do you no harm if only you stay out of their jungles. Nay, I mean closer to hand. I know not how much substance there is to Don Gaspar’s threats. But there are many here who would sell you for their own advantage. This is no city of saintly men, nor saintly women, neither. Watch your steps.” And so saying, he released me and let me be borne away into the night.
His parting words did trouble and alarm me as I crossed the city under a sliver of a moon. A veil of warm air draped me heavily; great green moths and dark hairy bats and the strange birds of the night fluttered close past my head; I heard a distant thick sound that might have been the trumpeting of an elephanto, or the bray of some ugly hyaena, I knew not which. I reached my cottage weary and much jangled, with my mind full of Barbosa’s talk of enemies, and of assassins and lost ships and hangings and the deaths of Popes and kings. What had been a delightful evening had somehow ended in quite another way. But though I lay down troubled, the wine soon mastered me and I fell into a heavy sleep, and when I woke I was cheerful once more, with gratitude toward God for having spared me nigh unto thirty-five years, and humbly did I entreat Him to grant me thirty-five more, and show me all the lands and wonders of His great empire.
It was many days before the new governor summoned me. In that time a ship arrived from Portugal, bearing letters and parcels and casks of wine, and other pleasant things, and also some priests and a few soldiers and a supply of muskets and shot. When its cargo of ivory and hides and copper and such had been put aboard, it would return to Lisbon, and Don João de Mendoça would sail with it.
As well as one other person, whose leaving gave me great grief.
This other voyager was Dona Teresa da Costa. I had not thought that she would accompany Don João, since that it might seem improper for him to appear in Portugal with a woman of mixed blood who was his mistress. But Don João had other thoughts on that.
I learned this from Dona Teresa herself. Her visits to my cottage had been fewer and farther between in these days of uneasy politicking in the city, with spies everywhere on the governor’s behalf. But on the eve of the sailing of the Portugal ship, almost, she came to me at midday, and as we made ready to lie together she said, with a strange and mischievous look to her, “Let us take our pleasure slow and cunningly today, Andres, for I think it will be a long while before we embrace again.”
“And why is that?”
Her lips trembled and her eyes sparkled, and she could barely get her words out, until finally she said in a wild blurting way, “I shall be in Portugal! I travel with Don João!”
That news unmanned me, and I could not conceal my misery. I rolled free of her and gaped at her.
“What, will you leave Angola?”
“It has ever been my dream to see Europe. I begged most piteously, and Don João granted it. I will behold true cities, and great cathedrals, and the high fidalgos of the court in their fine robes.” At these prospects was she all aglow. “Perhaps we will visit Rome, or Paris! Have you been to these places? Are they greatly distant from Portugal? Why, Andres, why do you look so downcast at this my great joy?”
“Because I shall never see you again.”
“Nay, I will be back! Six months, seven—the time will go by like a moment!”
“Not for me,” I said. “I would not gladly spend even six days without you. And I think you will never return.”
“That is untrue.”
I shook my head. “Don João has fallen from power here, but he is so great a man that Don Jeronymo cannot allow him to remain. You do not realize it, but this journey is intended to take Don João forever from Angola. He will be permitted to come back never. And if you go with him, you will be exiled all your life.”
“None of what you say is true,” said Dona Teresa coolly.
“They have kept the truth from you. And what will become of you, in Portugal? You will be a curiosity, a nine-days’ wonder, and then be forgotten. And the first winter will kill you, for even the mild winters of Portugal are like nothing you have ever known. I pray you do not go, Teresa!”
“You are ignorant of our purposes,” said she, all self-possession and confidence.
“Which are?”
“Do you not think we know why Don Jeronymo wishes Don João to make this journey to Portugal? That is, not to obtain reinforcements for the armies here, but only to be rid of him: yea, we understand that. But can you not see what value there is to Don João to be in Portugal, and how he can turn it to his own uses?”
“I see it not,” I said.
“Why, Don Jeronymo has no royal commission to govern, but was merely elected by the council in his brother’s place, after the folly of Don Francisco had put an end to his rule. When we are in Lisbon, Don João will apply to certain powerful allies he has there, and gain for himself the royal warrant to hold authority, so that when we return he will at last be governor. And Don Jeronymo will be the one to fall.”
I had not thought of that.
“It is an excellent plan, Teresa.”
“So we think. He who is closest to the throne is the one who emerges with the highest rank. That was Don João’s mistake, when he did remain here before, after Governor Pereira fled, and let Don Francisco come from Portugal bearing the royal seal. Don João does not make a mistake twice. So we will be back, I assure you, and it will not go well for Don Jeronymo when we are.” Her eyes flashed with the familiar wickedness. “Come, now, take me in your arms, Andres!”
“I cannot,” said I.
“And why is that?”
I indicated my lap, and the limpness of my member.
“All this talk of your going has discouraged him,” I told her.
“Pah! A moment’s work!”
And she bent over me, so that her breasts did hang like heavy moons above my thighs, and drew them swaying from side to side, laughing, and I felt her hot breath on my belly and the tips of her teats on my yard. And it rose at once, as always it did in Dona Teresa’s proximity. And when it did she mounted me, sitting astride, lowering herself to my spear until I was altogether engulfed in her, and crying out jubilantly. I cried out also, and seized her smooth buttocks in both my hands and rode her up and down on my shaft, until the sweat poured in rivers from both of us, and the natural oils of her body did flow and mingle with mine, and the gaspings of pleasure began in her. She was splendid to behold, with her head thrown back, her dark hair streaming long, her back arched, her breasts aimed high. In each our turn we took our pleasure, and rested, and began again, and more slowly brought each other again to ecstasy, lying now on our sides in the close warmth of the day, staring eye to eye. How precious she was to me then, in her alien beauty, her tawny dark-eyed glory! I could not bear the thought of her making so long a voyage away from me. I would burn for her all the while.