Chapter 3

The rum-carrying Portuguese merchant ship was a fine prize. Not so much for the cargo but for the fact it was carrying a contingent of four fine female specimens for marriage in the colonies. Of course, they all came with their personal female companions making a nice little pool of eight nubile females to tend to the crews nocturnal needs in various manner of happy and enthusiastic coupling. I took advantage of the situation to test the waters of the youngest bride-to-be and found her to be most dangerous when approached from the rear. Her lusty shouts of pleasure brought laughter to the crew and a smile to my face as well.

It was good to have a sex-satisfied crew for a change and we took the prize in tow to the nearest port and traded her for fresh provisions to last us the next six months. The men pleaded with me to not auction off the prime female flesh but it seemed the best course of action because their extended stay onboard would only make the parting more difficult and I knew our work would make life on the ship very dangerous for any female with a gentle nature.

They grumbled a bit but I advanced shares for them to celebrate in the tavern and they soon were mollified by the winsome lasses with easy virtue waiting for male attention and a few coins to feed the kitty.

On my last tour of the Portuguese prize before turning her over to the spirits distributor on the island, I happened across a small chest behind a secret compartment that contained a small purse of Spanish gold coins and a map written on an animal hide that might or might not be human. The map was nicely done in detail with the outline of an island in the shape of a female bum with two high peaks at each end and a deep ravine in the middle that exited in a stream of water that must be the scene of beautiful waterfalls and lush jungle growth. The skull and crossbones left no doubt that this was some pirate's treasure map but it did not name the pirate or the ship involved. I could tell from the aging of the skin that it had been drawn at least two decades prior and had been through some dangerous waters because of the burn marks on the edges and the bullet hole on the top.

I rolled up the map and put it inside my boot and left the chest where it was since it had no further secrets. I had recognized the two islands on the bottom left corner of the map as belonging to the far recesses of the Dry Tortugas and knew that a voyage to those waters was the only way to find out if it was real or just some silly sailor's idea of a joke on a gullible fool.

The crew was in fine form as we weighted anchor and set sail with the tide in the early morning. It was good to be back on a vessel free of cunt. The presence of cunt onboard a pirate ship was never a good thing. It invariably led to fights and petty jealousies that made the dangerous business of searching for loot even more dangerous than ever before. We made contact with a pair of French sloops that were under full sail and fighting to avoid us. I knew we could eventually catch up with them but it would mean diverting a couple of days from my course to the Tortugas and I was loath to deflect my direction. The crew grumbled a bit because they had no idea I was heading straight as an arrow to the hidden treasure. Of course, I could have told them but that would mean I would look weak if we came up empty-handed.

The two strips of land that I immediately recognized as Bone Key and Long Key were both off our port bow early on a morning that was marred by the sporadic falling of squally rain that soaked the skin and left one with a chill in the bones. There was another narrow island that was not on the map and not in my memory and I cautioned the helmsman to beware of underwater shoals. A contingent of the crew was watching me intently and I knew they were trying to figure out what it was that I was so interested in in this seldom visited area of the sea. There had been many tales of marooning crew members on the tiny strips of land allowing them to die of exposure to the elements and lack of sustenance. I had no such intentions but could understand their concern about such matters since the Captain's orders were the final say.

We moved off to the side and approached the island I knew to be the one on the map and set anchor a respectable distance from the shore to avoid any chance of grounding. I took a dozen men in the longboat with the stated intent to look for fresh water. I knew they would not believe that excuse because we had filled our barrels with the rain water earlier that morning. I professed it was for future use in case we were low on our supplies and rain was not in the offing.

As soon as we landed on the beach, I broke the crew members up into four parties of three each and sent them off in different directions to check out the water reserves and to look for possible edible fruits or coconuts to add to our ship's stores. I felt reasonably certain there was no habitation on the island and that there were no animals present except perhaps some vermin from a previous wreck in the area. I took the remaining crew member, a black strong man called Ben to attend me in my search for the treasure chest. I knew I could trust him implicitly because he was the sort of fellow that had no meanness of spirit or hidden agenda for his own design.

While the others were searching for the water supply, Ben and I followed the instructions on the map and soon were at a twin truck palm tree that was surrounded by a circle of lava rocks that were probably used as chairs when there was a meeting in the large clearing at the south end of the island.