Patrick O'Brian - The Wine-Dark Sea

'I am so sorry, Father,' said Stephen. 'They have never behaved like this before: I should have whipped them had it not been Sunday.'

'Not at all, not at all, God love you, sir. It would be the world's pity if they were kept to a Carmelite silence - sure a healthy child must laugh from time to time; it would be a dismal existence otherwise. Indeed they were very good, sitting up straight with their napkins held just so.' He passed almond cakes, poured coffee, and went on, 'As for public opinion here in Peru, I should say that there is reasonably strong feeling for independence, particularly as the present Viceroy has made some very unpopular decisions in favour of those born in Spain as opposed to those born here. In some cases it is combined with a desire to see the end of slavery, but I do not think this is so much so as it is in Chile. After all, there are perhaps ten times as many slaves here, and many of the plantations depend entirely on their labour: yet there are many highly-respected, influential men who hate it. I have two friends, two colleagues, who know very much more about the matter than I do: the one is Father O'Higgins, the Vicar-General and my immediate superior - he is very, very kind to me - and the other is Father Inigo Gomez, who lectures on Indian languages in the university. He is descended from one of the great Inca families on his mother's side - you know, I am sure, that there are still many of them, even after the last desperate rising. That is to say, those who were opposed to the rebellious Inca Tupac Amaru; and they still have many followers. Clearly, he understands that side better than any Castillian. Should you like to meet them? They are both abolitionists, but they would do their best to speak without prejudice, I have no doubt at all.'

The chiming watch in Stephen's fob, so often his conscience before, now warned him once again. He started up and in a low hurried voice he said, 'Listen, Sam, I do not wish to abuse your friends' confidence, far less your own. You must know that I am not only bitterly opposed to slavery but also to the dependence of one country upon another - you may smile, Sam, brought up as you were by Irish missionaries, God be with them - yet I mean the dependence of any country at all upon another; therefore I may be suspected of political, even subversive motives by those in authority. Do not run yourself or your friends into danger; for where those who are called intelligence-agents or their allies are concerned the Inquisition is mildness itself in comparison with those who maintain the established order.' He saw the half-suppressed, not wholly unexpected smile on Sam's face, heard him say, 'Doctor dear, you are beyond measure more candid than the Frenchmen here, the serpents,' and went on, 'But tell me now, Sam, where is the calle de los Mercadores? If it takes ten minutes I shall be twenty minutes late.'

'If I let you out by the stable door it will be the third on your right hand: and I will give the little girls over to the sailor when he comes with the gig.'

In spite of his name Pascual de Gayongos was a Catalan, and when by a series of arbitrary questions and answers Stephen had established his identity it was in Catalan that he said, 'I had expected you long, long before this.'

'I regret it extremely,' said Stephen. 'I was caught up in a particularly interesting conversation. But, my dear sir, does not a long, long time almost border on the excessive for twenty minutes?'

'I was not speaking of twenty minutes, no, nor of twenty weeks. These funds have been in my hands for an even greater time.'

'Certainly. Some information about our undertaking had been betrayed to Spain' - Gayongos nodded - 'and it was thought expedient that I should change to another ship, rejoining the Surprise at a stated rendezvous. An intelligent plan, and one that would have caused no great delay; but it did not foresee that this second vessel should be wrecked in a remote part of the East Indies, nor that the inevitable pauses in Java and New South Wales should eat up days, weeks, months that will never return.'

'And in that period,' said Gayongos in a discontented voice, 'the situation here has changed radically: Chile is now a very much more suitable plan for the enterprise, the whole series of undertakings."

Stephen looked at him attentively. Gayongos was a big heavy man, well on in middle age; he gave the impression of general greyness and he was over-weight: at this point his fat trembled with passion, fairly well concealed. His commercial dealing had already made him rich: he had nothing to gain and his motives seemed wholly pure, if indeed hatred could be called pure: hatred of the Spaniards for their treatment of Catalonia; hatred of the Revolutionary and Bonapartist French for ravaging the country.

'Is Government aware of this?' asked Stephen.

'I have made representations through the usual channels, and I have been told to mind my own business: the Foreign Office knows best.'

'I have known the same treatment.' Stephen reflected and went on, 'But at this point I am necessarily bound by my instructions: any alteration must take six months to reach me and those six months, added to the present delay, will see the decay of the whole structure built up here and in Spain. I shall have to do the best I can: yet at the same time I shall endeavour to avoid committing what we have at our disposal until we see some strong probability of success.'

After a silence Gayongos made a gesture of resignation and said, 'If the Foreign Office were a firm of marine insurers they would be bankrupt within a year. But it must be as you wish, and I shall arrange the agreed meetings, or at least those that are still of any consequence, as soon as possible.'

'Before we speak of them, be so good as to tell me, very briefly, how the situation has changed.'

'In the first place General Mendoza is dead. His horse threw him and he was picked up dead. He was one of the most popular men in the army, particularly among the Creoles, and he might well have carried half the officers with him. In the second the Archbishop is now - I hardly like to use the word senile about so good a man and so outspoken an abolitionist: but we are deprived of the full force of his support. In the third place Juan Munoz has returned to Spain, and he has been replaced as far as governmental enquiries, secret service and unavowable activities are concerned by Garcia de Castro, too timid to be equally corrupt and in any event wholly unreliable: clever perhaps but oh so weak - terrified of the new Viceroy, terrified of losing his place. He is not a man to have anything to do with, near or far.'

'The absence of Munoz disturbs me,' said Stephen. 'If Castro has access to his papers, my position is very nearly untenable.'

'I do not think you should feel anxious,' said Gayongos. 'We did handsomely by Munoz; and quite apart from the presents he was wholly on our side. I do not pretend that handsome presents, or places in my concerns for his nephew and natural sons, did not have their effect on him, but he was not a weak unprincipled man like this Castro, and he was capable of taking decisive action in support of his friends. The reports about our possible intervention here - never taken very seriously in Madrid, by the way - passed through his hands in the first place and he virtually smothered them: it was easy enough, since the then Viceroy was about to leave, very ill, sick of the country and everything to do with it. And when the Surprise appeared - I mean when she came in first without you - he went privately down to Callao, ascertained that she was what she purports to be, a privateer, and had her officially inspected and passed the next day. Before he left Peru he destroyed a great many files. If any of the more bulky routine commonplace innocuous registers were kept you would appear only under your name of Domanova: but I very much doubt it. And I do not believe the privateer's captain was ever named at all.'