• Complain

Nikki Marmery - On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind

Here you can read online Nikki Marmery - On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2020, publisher: Legend Press, genre: Adventure. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

No cover
  • Book:
    On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Legend Press
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2020
  • Rating:
    5 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 100
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

April 1579: When two ships meet off the Pacific coast of New Spain, an enslaved woman seizes the chance to escape.
But Maria has unwittingly joined Francis Drake s circumnavigation voyage and he s about to set sail on a secret detour to find the fabled Anian Straits in the far north.
Sailing into danger, fog and ice on the Golden Hind, a lone woman among eighty men, Maria will be tested to the very limits of her endurance. It will take all her wits to survive and courage to cut the ties that bind her to Drake to pursue her own journey.
How far will Maria go to be truly free?
Inspired by a true story, this is the tale of one woman s uncharted voyage of survival.

Nikki Marmery: author's other books


Who wrote On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
Legend Press Ltd 51 Gower Street London WC1E 6HJ Contents Nikki Marmery 2020 - photo 1
Legend Press Ltd 51 Gower Street London WC1E 6HJ Contents Nikki Marmery 2020 - photo 2

Legend Press Ltd, 51 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6HJ

Contents Nikki Marmery 2020

The right of the above author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available.

Print ISBN 978-1-78955-113-6

Ebook ISBN 978-1-78955-114-3

Set in Times. Printing Managed by Jellyfish Solutions Ltd

Cover design by Simon Levy | www.simonlevyassociates.co.uk

All characters, other than those clearly in the public domain, and place names, other than those well-established such as towns and cities, are fictitious and any resemblance is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Nikki Marmery has been shortlisted for the Myriad Editions First Drafts Competition and the Historical Novel Societys New Novel Award. She previously worked as a journalist at Incisive Media.

Nikki lives in Amersham with her husband and three children.

Follow Nikki
@nikkimarmery

Book One NOVA HISPANIA MARCH MAY 1579 MARCH 1579 ACAPULCO 1650N 1 On the day - photo 3
Book One
NOVA
HISPANIA
MARCH MAY, 1579
MARCH, 1579
ACAPULCO
1650N
1

On the day the treasures of the East are unloaded in the harbour of Acapulco, the feria begins. When the cloves, cinnamon and nutmegs, musky sandalwood and camphor oil, the silks, porcelains, ebony-wood and elephants-teeth carvings when all has been weighed, taxed and released to the merchants, the husks of the galleons inspected for contraband and sent on to the shipyard for repairs when the scurvy-sore crew are released at last to pray thanks for their lives: only then can the Fair of the Manila Galleons begin.

Now, the scorched and dusty town doubles in size. Here come the arrieros, three-legged with their staffs, leading mule-trains down the treacherous mountain path. In iron-wheeled carts come the merchants of Mxico and Jalapa, shaded under rich awnings. Soldiers to protect the cargo, and the Viceroys officials to inspect, oversee and record. On foot come the Indio hawkers and begging friars, the gamblers and the whores. By sea, the masters of the Lima ships come to fill their holds with silks to cover the calves and perfumes to scent the temples of lusty Limeos.

And here too, come I, borne here on a Lima ship, unwilling and unasked. I slip through the crowd, among these knaves and sinners, past prodding elbows and bony knees, squeezing myself wherever there is space, to bid and barter, as they do, for the cargo laid out upon tables, rugs and stalls.

Yes, I will fight for these treasures too, because only a fool sees the sun and does not ask why it is there. My grandmother was right in this as in most things. I know the sun is there to warm and delight me, as I know what can be bought here for ten pesos may be sold in the ports of Guayaquil, Paita and Lima for twenty.

If I am careful, that is. For it is not permitted. Everything I earn belongs by right to Don Francisco, since all that I am, my labour and my body, are his, may the Virgin spit on his sword and the Devil shit in his face. But if I am not discovered, it gains me some few pesos to put with the little I have in my pouch. One day it will be enough to pass to an agent to buy my freedom.

And I must be quick about it, for soon we sail. The bell of the Cacafuego rings out from the harbour. Already, her banners and pennants are raised and kicking at the wind. The red and white cross of the King of Spain flutters from the topmast. The marineros leap like monkeys about the rigging.

I run. To the back of the plaza, beyond the Hospital de Nuestra Seora de la Consolacin. I push past merchants snatching, haggling, outbidding past porters and slaves stumbling under the weight of their parcels, the painted women weaving their way, bold-eyed, through the crowd. Past the children squealing with delight at the acrobats tumbling on the wooded hill, and the Indio musicians, whose song of harps and flutes floats above it all. But the scaffold stops me. Two slaves await there today. Both men at least not children. Chained by collar and cuffs, ready for boiling fat to be poured upon their naked flesh. Runaways, then. Caught running for their freedom in the hidden places of the mountains. Their eyes are fixed there now: on the steel-grey rock rising behind the town and beyond; to the unseen narrow passes and secret valleys that would have shielded them.

I will not look. I fly. Past the torture of the slaves, to the alley where the meanest merchants linger. To the stall of the mestizo Felipe, who will keep some offcuts for me. I see him through the crowd from afar. Fuller in the belly than when I saw him last: he prospers. Bales of Chinese silks, cottons of Luzon and muslins from India overflow from three full barrel tops.

Maria! He welcomes me with outstretched arms and I fold into him. He still smells of the long voyage from Manila: the sour sweat crusted into his linen and the pitch that can never be got out of canvas.

I pull away from the stench of his armpit. What have you for me?

Nothing, moza, I thought you dead. Where were you last year?

I do not wish to think of where I was last year. I reach out to feel a beautiful silk of emerald green. God has been good to you, Felipe.

I have been good to me.

How much for a piece of this?

He snatches it away. I cannot discount that, he shakes his head. I have a family. He raises his brow and I realise I have not asked.

How is Nicols?

Well, he nods. He misses you. He looks both ways to see who is about.

Come back with the ship, he urges. Give your master the slip.

I fold my arms. Four times I have made the crossing to or from Manila and four times I made my peace to die. Twice I sailed in a fleet that lost a ship and all who were in it. Twelve weeks or more of the eternal grey sea and unblinking horizon. And what is the point? Nicols is all very well. He is a dear sweet child but he is not my own. And Manila is no different from Acapulco, or Mxico, Veracruz or Valperizo. I am a slave in every corner of this New World.

Felipe shrugs. This one I can give you for eight pesos. He offers me a bolt of black silk. A little embroidery, make a mantle of it. You can sell it in Lima for fifteen.

I scowl at him. Four.

Five, he smiles. And this for your hair. He shows me a length of calico.

I eye it greedily. My hair has been uncovered, at the mercy of every marinero who would tug and grab at it, since Gaspar the cooper pulled off my silken wrap and threw it in the sea.

I take it and gather up my salt-stiff curls into a fine double-knot at my forehead. Such relief. I fish out five coins from the pouch at my waist, poking about to check how many remain. Some forty, or thereabouts. One hundred and twenty I will need, this far from the North Ocean ports and that is if Don Francisco will take the money for my freedom, which I cannot think likely. I fold the silk and put it inside. On second thoughts, I tuck the pouch inside the waist of my skirt and arrange my camisa to hide it.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind»

Look at similar books to On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind»

Discussion, reviews of the book On Wilder Seas: The Woman on the Golden Hind and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.