1636: Seas of Fortune Read Online Free PDF Page A

Henrique didn’t respond.
    “Henrique? Did you hear—”
    “Freeze!” Henrique shouted.
    Maurício froze.
    “Don’t move your arms, or your head. Not even a muscle. You can move your eyes . . . slowly. Look a little above, and slightly to your left.”
    Maurício scanned the foreground. Then he saw it, a jararaca verde , a leaf-green-colored viper, perhaps two feet long, hanging from a branch nearby. Close enough to grab. Not that grabbing a fer-de-lance of any kind was one of the options Maurício was considering.
    “Very slowly, put your left toe back . . . not so far . . . now slowly, bring your heel down, without bobbing your head. Good, now, same with the right. Keep your eyes on the snake at all times.”
    The fer-de-lance, untimely awakened by Maurício, was eyeing him suspiciously.
    “Can’t you kill the snake?” The words were mumbled; Maurício was trying not to move his jaw as he spoke.
    “With a machete? While it’s hanging on a tree? Not a chance. Need to club it on the neck, while it’s on the ground. With a long club, mind you.
    “Keep up your little dance backward, please.”
    Gradually, Maurício inched away from the serpent.
    “Okay, you can relax.”
    Maurício fainted. Henrique poured a bit of water on his lips and forehead. After a few minutes, Maurício revived. “How did I miss it?”
    “In the rainforest, you can see perhaps fifteen feet ahead. But you can cover that distance in ten seconds, even at a walk. You can’t afford to relax your vigilance, even for a moment.”
    Maurício, his spirits somewhat restored, harrumphed. “You’re just looking for an excuse to keep me from talking.”
    * * *
    Bento grinned. “So dear Henrique is a pig-loving Jew. Well, it is my duty, my sacred duty as a son of the Church, to bring him home and teach him the error of his ways. Or perhaps the other way around, yes?”
    His fellow thugs laughed. Bento had just returned to Belém from a slaving run down the Tocantins, and in town there was much gossip about Henrique’s disappearance, and the stymied search for him.
    “We’ll take three boats, I think. Might as well do a little enlistment of native labor, while we’re up the Amazon. Be ready to leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow.”
    * * *
    “Sing, Maurício.”
    “I thought you didn’t like my singing.”
    “I don’t. But you have a loud voice, and that’s what we need right now.”
    “How come?”
    “We’ve never been in this part of the sertão . This is a well-marked trail, almost certainly leading to a village. We want them to know we’re coming.”
    “But wouldn’t the Indians sense us? Being wise in the ways of the bush, and all.”
    “Let me rephrase that. We want them to know that we know that they know we’re coming.”
    “I am not sure that was an improvement. You are as clear as a philosopher.”
    “If they think we’re trying to sneak up on them, they’ll think we are up to no good. And either flee, or prepare an ambush for us. Whereas, if we approach them openly, they’ll assume we’ve come to trade.”
    A couple of dogs came down the trail and barked at Henrique and Maurício. They stopped, and let the dogs sniff them. Then they continued walking, and the dogs, still barking occasionally, followed.
    The village was just a circle of conical huts. Various animals milled about the central clearing, but no people were there. Occasionally, a head would look out of a hut, then pull back in.
    “Hey, that was a pretty girl, over there,” Maurício exclaimed. “Hope she comes out again.”
    And, a moment later, “Ugh, look at that crone. Hope she’s not the mom, wouldn’t want her for a mother-in-law.”
    Henrique didn’t respond; he was studying the village. “Maurício, we need to leave. Now.”
    “What about trading for food? What about getting better acquainted with the young ladies?”
    “Didn’t you notice? There are only women in this village.”
    “Hey, you’re right. Wow, we found the village of