The Baroque Cycle - The Confusion Part 48

"Forgive me, I haven't been in England for nigh on twenty years."

"Pray continue, Jack."

"They have our gold. We can never get it back. But it does them very little good, sitting there. Kottakkal, the Queen of the Malabar Pirates, can only spend spend so much of it fixing up her palace and refurbis.h.i.+ng her s.h.i.+ps. Beyond that, she must put that gold to work if she's to derive any benefit of having stolen it from us." so much of it fixing up her palace and refurbis.h.i.+ng her s.h.i.+ps. Beyond that, she must put that gold to work if she's to derive any benefit of having stolen it from us."

"Has she been putting it to work, then?"

"She owns twenty-five percent of our s.h.i.+p."

Enoch laughed-an uncommon event. He did more than his share of winking, smirking, chuckling, and deadpan commentary, but laughing out loud was a rare thing with him. "I am trying to imagine how I will explain to the Electress of Hanover, and heiress to the Throne of England, that she is now in partners.h.i.+p with Kottakkal, the Queen of the Malabar Pirates."

"Imagine how you're going to explain it to Kottakkal, please," Jack suggested, "because that will happen sooner."

Malabar LATE 1696 AND EARLY 1697.

THEY WERE TRAVELING NOW AS Hindoostani gentlemen: Enoch and Jack each had a light two-wheeled carriage drawn by a pair of trotting bullocks. Each carriage could have accommodated two pa.s.sengers, provided they were very close friends, but by the time Jack and Enoch had packed themselves in with their diverse weapons, bundles, wine bottles, Hindoostani gentlemen: Enoch and Jack each had a light two-wheeled carriage drawn by a pair of trotting bullocks. Each carriage could have accommodated two pa.s.sengers, provided they were very close friends, but by the time Jack and Enoch had packed themselves in with their diverse weapons, bundles, wine bottles, et cetera et cetera, there was only room for one. And that was fine with Jimmy and Danny Shaftoe, who acted as if they'd never seen anything quite this bizarre in all their travels, and could not choose between being amused and disgusted. That was before they discovered that their own horses could barely keep up with these trotting bullocks over the course of a long night's march. Their escort-eight musketeers and eight archers, siphoned off from the endless Siege that Sword of Divine Fire had supposedly been prosecuting against the Marathas-had to jog the whole way.

By day the pace, combined with the sun, would have slain them all in a few hours. So they woke up around sunset, lay about camp for a few hours as the heat of the day seeped away into the earth and sky, then got underway a couple of hours before midnight and hurried down roads and paths until dawn. Jack had made the trip several times, and had learned how to break it up into stages, each of which ended in a mango-or coconut-grove near the walls of a town. They would smooth out some ground and make camp as the sun rose, and a few runners-adolescent boys of his jagir, jagir, well compensated for their exertions-would be dispatched to loiter outside the town's gates until they were opened. These would go in and bargain for victuals while the others slept in the shade of the trees. The goods would then be delivered after sundown as the party readied themselves for the next stage. well compensated for their exertions-would be dispatched to loiter outside the town's gates until they were opened. These would go in and bargain for victuals while the others slept in the shade of the trees. The goods would then be delivered after sundown as the party readied themselves for the next stage.

This was traveling of a wholly serious and businesslike nature, and demanded certain adjustments of Jimmy and Danny, who in their journey across Eurasia with Enoch Root had wantonly indulged in side-trips and digressions. There was no time to do anything except cover ground, or make preparations to cover ground. There was no time even to talk.

Once they had escaped from Jack's blighted jagir jagir the landscape was pleasant enough, but uniform and monotonous: ditched and irrigated fields alternating with groves of food-bearing trees, and occasional stretches of jungle covering hills, vales, and other areas that were not suited to agriculture. Sometimes they had to pa.s.s through such parts; the jungle seemed to rush out of the night to envelop them, and they moved forward with extreme care, expecting stranglers to abseil from overhead limbs, or large man-eating felines to explode from the brush. They had to ford several rivers, which in this part of the world meant wading through crocodiles. At one of these fords, Danny noticed a pair of largish reptilian nostrils closing in on a boy who was straggling behind the main group, and discharged his pistol in that general direction. It probably had no effect on the crocodile, but it scared the boy into catching up. At another ford, an immense crocodile carried away one of their donkeys. the landscape was pleasant enough, but uniform and monotonous: ditched and irrigated fields alternating with groves of food-bearing trees, and occasional stretches of jungle covering hills, vales, and other areas that were not suited to agriculture. Sometimes they had to pa.s.s through such parts; the jungle seemed to rush out of the night to envelop them, and they moved forward with extreme care, expecting stranglers to abseil from overhead limbs, or large man-eating felines to explode from the brush. They had to ford several rivers, which in this part of the world meant wading through crocodiles. At one of these fords, Danny noticed a pair of largish reptilian nostrils closing in on a boy who was straggling behind the main group, and discharged his pistol in that general direction. It probably had no effect on the crocodile, but it scared the boy into catching up. At another ford, an immense crocodile carried away one of their donkeys.

The next day-or rather, the next evening-they woke up to find themselves in a black country of black men. It had been a long night's march and their bodies wanted to sleep but their minds did not. When they lay their heads down they could hear the earth thumping beneath them, like a gentle heartbeat, for this black earth was far richer in saltpeter than any in Jack's jagir, jagir, and the ground outside the walls of this town was pocked with holes where people labored with their thudding timbers all day long. and the ground outside the walls of this town was pocked with holes where people labored with their thudding timbers all day long.

If the earth was full of thumps the air was just as full of strange cries, for every peasant working in the fields hollered "Popo!" every minute or so. Jack ended up sitting in the shade of a tree with Jimmy and Danny and Enoch, eating mangoes that literally fell into their laps, occasionally jumping up to sweep back plagues of ants, and watching these black Hindoos live their lives. A cool westerly breeze blew over them smelling of salt water, for they had almost crossed Hindoostan from east to west, and were nearing the Arabian Sea.

"Those field workers are Cherumans-a caste so low that they can pollute a Nayar from a distance of sixty-four feet," Jack explained, "whereupon the Nayar is obligated to kill them, and then purify himself with endless and pompous rites. So to save themselves from being killed, and the Nayars from being inconvenienced, they cry out Popo! Popo! all the time, to warn all comers that they are present." all the time, to warn all comers that they are present."

"You're full o's.h.i.+te as ever, Dad," said Jimmy with equal measures of contempt and affection.

A different cry sounded from around the road-bend: "Kukuya! Kukuya!" As soon as they heard it, the Cherumans picked up their hoes and moved away from the road, depopulating a sixty-four-foot-wide strip to either side of it. Presently a small party of travelers came into view: a black-skinned woman, naked from the waist up except for her gold jewelry, riding a white horse, and a few servants on foot.

"If that that be a Nayar, then let's go to where the Nayars live," Danny said. be a Nayar, then let's go to where the Nayars live," Danny said.

"What the h.e.l.l d'you suppose we've been doing for the last week?"

"There's more like her where we're going?"

"Yes-they run the place. They are a warrior caste. It's just like going to St. James's and gawking at the Persons of Quality: lovely ladies, and men with swords-who don't hesitate to use 'em."

After the sun had gone down, Jack sent his escort back to re-join the luxurious Siege. They lay about in that camp for the rest of the night dozing. At daybreak they were startled awake by a shouting match between a Cheruman, standing before a slab of rock sixty-four feet from the city limits, and a Banyan standing on the parapet of the wall. The Cheruman upended a sack of money onto the slab: cowrie-sh.e.l.ls, Persian bitter almonds, and a few black coppers. Then he withdrew. A minute later the Banyan came out, deposited a bundle of goods, plucked off a few sh.e.l.ls, almonds, and coppers, and went back into the town. The Cheruman returned and collected the bundle and whatever change the Banyan had left behind.

"Seems a wee bit c.u.mbersome, c.u.mbersome," Danny observed, watching incredulously.

"On the contrary, I deem it eminently practical," said Enoch Root. "If I belonged to a small warrior elite, my greatest fear would be a peasant uprising-ambushes along the roads, and so on. If I had the right to kill any peasant who came within a bow-shot of me..."

"You could relax an' enjoy the good life," Jimmy said.

After provisioning themselves in the town they turned south and followed the coast deeper into Malabar. From time to time they would pa.s.s a criminal who had been impaled on a javelin and left to die by the road-side, which only confirmed the impression that they were in a well-ordered place now, and had not taken any undue risks in sending their escort home. The heat of the sun in this far southern place was murderous, but the farther they went the closer the came to the Laccadive Sea with its cool onsh.o.r.e breezes, and in many stretches the road was lined with Palmyra palms whose enormous leaves cast volumes of shade on the way below.

They knew they were close to the court of Queen Kottakkal when frail racks began to line the road, all a-drape with those same palm leaves, which had been put there to dry and whiten. The Queen's scribes used them as paper. A lot of shouting could be heard up ahead.

"What're they hollerin' about?" Danny wondered.

"Maybe one of their s.h.i.+ps just came back loaded to the gunwales with booty," Jack said, "or maybe a crocodile is loose in the town square."

The road opened up into the main street of a fair-sized port town consisting mostly of woven reed dwellings. There were occasional timber houses along the street, and these became more numerous and larger as they drew closer to the waterfront: the bank of a significant river that ran slowly and quietly through a deep-looking channel that broadened, a quarter of a mile downstream, to form an inlet of the Laccadive Sea. The town had doubtless stood here for aeons but gave the impression of having just been set up in the midst of an ancient forest, as giant trees-teaks, mangoes, mahua, mahogany, coconut-palm, axle-wood, and one or two cathedral-sized banyan trees-stood between houses, and spread and merged overhead to create a second roof high above the palm frond thatchings that topped the buildings.

Young Nayar men were racing from house to house and tree-trunk to tree-trunk hollering at each other in extreme excitement. The travelers had only just come into view of the waterfront when a posse of Nayar boys burst out of a house and ran past them, completely ignoring them. Moments later those Nayars were pursued by a shower of arrows that came hissing down all around, some landing among the Shaftoes and lodging in the soft ground.

"Those black f.o.o.kers are shoowatin' shoowatin' at us!" exclaimed Jimmy, yanking out his pistol and c.o.c.king the hammer. at us!" exclaimed Jimmy, yanking out his pistol and c.o.c.king the hammer.

"Not just at at us, Jimmy boy," Jack said, in an ominously quiet voice. us, Jimmy boy," Jack said, in an ominously quiet voice.

All of the others turned to see Jack sprawled in his little two-wheeled carriage, both hands clutching his abdomen, where an arrow projected from his body at right angles. "It's a d.a.m.ned shame," he whispered. "Come all this way to die here and now..."

Jimmy was torn, like a man on the rack, between his desire to go and kill some black people, and the strictures of the Fifth Commandment. "Dad!" he cried, dismounting, and crossing over to the carriage in a couple of strides. He put his hand up to Jack's face as if to give him a tender caress-then clamped his father's jaw between thumb and fingers and wrenched his head this way and that, inspecting him. "You still bear the marks o' the beatin' we gayave ya-an' to think you'll carry 'em to yer grayave."

"To me they're like the sweet kisses I never had from the two of you-and never deserved-"

"Aw, Dad!" Jimmy cried, and planted one directly on Jack's lips. Fortunately from Jack's point of view it only lasted a few seconds-then Jimmy grunted, bit his father's lip, and spun away from him, clutching his ribs.

Danny was looking down on them coolly from the back of his horse, holding a bow whose string was still quivering. "When you're finished, tell me so I can go an' throw up. Then we've a score to settle with those Nayars, or what e'er the f.o.o.k you call 'em."

Jimmy bent down stiffly and picked up the arrow that Danny had just loosed into his ribs. It had a blunt tip.

"Take two-you'll be needing 'em," Jack said, handing Jimmy the one that had bruised him in the stomach.

A couple of Nayars charged each other in the middle of the street nearby, and fell into a terrific duel with bamboo swords.

"I'm startin' to like the looks o' this town!" Jimmy said. "May we use firearms?"

"I do not think it would be considered sporting," Jack said, as Danny shot a blunt arrow into the chest of a strapping Nayar who was just emerging from a doorway. A dozen arrows swarmed from the windows of the same dwelling and knocked Danny out of the saddle.

"Ye basetards!" Jimmy bellowed, and charged the doorway before the snipers could nock a second flight of arrows.

"Run along and play, boys," Jack said-unnecessarily. He and Enoch slapped their bullocks' reins and went into motion. Soon the street debouched into a sort of waterfront plaza hacked out of the mangroves. Diverse small river-boats and coastal craft were tied up along the quay, reminding Jack, in a very imprecise way, of Thames-side. Turning their heads they could look downstream to the inlet that served as Queen Kottakkal's chief, and only, harbor. A dozen or so larger vessels rode at anchor there, and their appearance made Enoch chuckle. "Nowhere have I seen a more motley collection of pirate-vessels-not in Dunkirk, not even in Port Royal of Jamaica. Turkish galleots, Arab dhows, Flemish corvettes-is there anything they won't use?"

"To carry guns and to sail fast are the only requirements," Jack said. "The dhow, second from left, is the vessel she took from us."

And then both men naturally turned their heads to gaze southwards across the river. The opposite bank was a stone bluff undercut by the current, so that it bulged out towards them slightly, then rose to a plateau some ten fathoms above their heads. This was not extraordinarily high, but it sufficed to command the river and the inlet with batteries of forty-eight pounders and mortars that could be seen, here and there, protruding from embrasures at the corners of Queen Kottakkal's palace wall. It was difficult to make out where the natural cliff left off and the built wall began, for both were concealed deep behind a mat of interwoven vines, some as thick as tree-trunks, that had grown outwards to a depth of yards. This hanging jungle was home to a whole nation of adventurous monkeys with prehensile tails. The vines that grew on the Queen's fortifications were of diverse species, but all of them seemed to be flowering. These were not roses or carnations but ripe dripping fleshy organs of sweet light, big as cabbages, grown in shapes that Euclid never dreamed off, organized in cl.u.s.ters, networks, and hierarchies. At the moment all were facing into the sun, so that the jungle-wall blazed with shocking color. It looked as if some fabulously wealthy pirate-nation had laid siege to the place and bombarded it with giant rubies, citrines, pearls, opals, lumps of coral, and agates, which had lodged in the cliff and been left there. It hummed and teemed with the energy of a million bees and a thousand hummingbirds that had been drawn to the place from all over the South Seas by the cataract of narcotic fragrance that came out of it. Compared to this, the mossy domes of the palace above and the blunt muzzles of its guns, were as dim as old paint.

Getting up there, if they had not been invited, would have been a short, fatal adventure. As it was, Jack and Enoch were conveyed across the river without losing any limbs to crocodiles, and ascended to the palace without running afoul of any trap-doors or poison-dart barrages. They followed a series of stairways-some external, winding up the stone cliff-face among the vines, and some internal, cut through the stone. Finally they emerged into a small courtyard surrounded by walls with many arrow-slits: a killing-ground for invaders. But a door was opened and so they entered into the palace.

Very little of Queen Kottakkal's palace was really indoors: It was a complex of gardens, terraces, temple-courts, and plazas divided one from the next by a spa.r.s.e net-work of roofed galleries, with apartments situated here and there.

"Normally it is teeming with Nayars," Jack offered, "especially when so many pirate-s.h.i.+ps are in the harbor. But they are all down in the town, enjoying the mock-battle."

He led Enoch on a short excursion down a gallery and across agarden to the very door of a large stone dwelling with diverse balconies and windows. But he drew up short when he noticed a sheathed sword leaning against the door-post. Jack shushed Enoch with a finger to his lips, and did not speak until they had put a hundred paces behind them.

"It was a good enough sword," Enoch said, "some sort of Persian shamsir, shamsir, to judge from its extreme curvature and slender blade. But methinks you show it more respect than is warranted..." to judge from its extreme curvature and slender blade. But methinks you show it more respect than is warranted..."

"These Malabar women are as free with men, men, as Charles II himself was with as Charles II himself was with women, women," Jack explained. "In these parts, a man can never tell which children are his his. Or to put it another way, every man knows his mother but hasn't the faintest idea who his father father might be. Consequently, all property pa.s.ses down the might be. Consequently, all property pa.s.ses down the female female line." line."

"Including the crown?"

"Including the crown. One peculiarity of this arrangement is that a man, going in to pay a call on a lady, never knows what other other man he might discover in her bed. To prevent awkward situations, a gallant therefore leaves his weapon leaning against the door-post when he enters-as a sign to all who pa.s.s by that the lady's attentions are spoken for." man he might discover in her bed. To prevent awkward situations, a gallant therefore leaves his weapon leaning against the door-post when he enters-as a sign to all who pa.s.s by that the lady's attentions are spoken for."

"So the Queen is pa.s.sing some time with a Persian? Odd, that."

"The weapon weapon is Persian. Dappa-our linguist-bought it in Mocha when we pa.s.sed through there years ago. Of all of us, he is the only one who has made much headway in learning the Malabar language." is Persian. Dappa-our linguist-bought it in Mocha when we pa.s.sed through there years ago. Of all of us, he is the only one who has made much headway in learning the Malabar language."

"He is putting it to good use!"

"He has already already put it to good use by convincing the Queen that he and the others have a higher calling than to be slaves." put it to good use by convincing the Queen that he and the others have a higher calling than to be slaves."

And with that Jack opened the door to another, much smaller apartment, and led Enoch through to a terrace at the back that looked out over the harbor. European-style tables and chairs had been brought out here. Two men were working over messes of palm-leaves covered with writing, figures, maps, and diagrams: Monsieur Arlanc and Moseh de la Cruz.

They were only mildly surprised to see Jack. Enoch Root required a bit of explanation-but once Jack adumbrated that the stranger had something to do with cannons, the others welcomed him. Moseh, Jack, and Monsieur Arlanc fell quickly into a detailed conversation about the s.h.i.+p. They were speaking Sabir, which was the only tongue they all shared. Enoch could not perfectly follow it. He drifted away to gaze out over the Laccadive Sea, and then turned his attention to some ink drawings that had been pegged to the wall.

"Is this art j.a.panese?" he inquired, breaking in abruptly.

"Yes-or at least, the fellow who made it is," Jack said. "We were just talking about him. Let's go and introduce you to Father Gabriel Goto of the Society of Jesus."

I was driven out of my native country by a dreadful sound that was in mine ears, to wit, that unavoidable destruction did attend me, if I abode in that place where I was.-JOHN BUNYAN, The Pilgrim's Progress Gabriel Goto had politely declined to work as a pirate and so Queen Kottakkal had put him to work as a gardener. Some suspected that he did not work very hard hard, for compared to most of the palace-which was continually in danger of being overrun and conquered by its vegetation-Gabriel Goto's plot was a desert. He'd been put in charge of a courtyard in the landward corner of the palace grounds that was perpetually shaded by tall trees and by an adjacent stone watch-tower, yet sorely exposed to storm-winds, and poorly drained. It had defeated many a gardener. Gabriel Goto settled the matter by growing nothing there, except for moss, and the odd stand of bamboo. Most of the "garden" consisted of stones, raked gravel, and a pond sporting a brace of bloated, mottled carp. Every so often the Jesuit would drag a rake across the gravel or throw some food at the fish, but most of the work involved in the upkeep was mental mental in nature, and could not be accomplished unless his mind was clear. Clearing his mind was an extraordinarily demanding project requiring him to sit crosslegged on a wooden patio for hours at a time, dipping a brush into ink and drawing pictures on palm leaves. At any rate, this corner of the palace no longer bred mosquitoes and poisonous frogs as it had formerly been infamous for doing, and so the Queen left him alone. in nature, and could not be accomplished unless his mind was clear. Clearing his mind was an extraordinarily demanding project requiring him to sit crosslegged on a wooden patio for hours at a time, dipping a brush into ink and drawing pictures on palm leaves. At any rate, this corner of the palace no longer bred mosquitoes and poisonous frogs as it had formerly been infamous for doing, and so the Queen left him alone.

The results of Gabriel Goto's artistic labors were neatly stacked, and in some cases baled, almost to the ceiling of the apartment behind his patio. More recent work had been hung from lines to dry in the breeze.

"It is the same landscapes over and over," Enoch Root observed, browsing his way down a clothes-line of rugged and none-too-cheerful-looking scenes: mostly hills and cliffs plunging into waters speckled with outlandish square-sailed vessels.

"The work, as a whole, is called One Hundred and Seven Views of the Pa.s.sage to Niigata, One Hundred and Seven Views of the Pa.s.sage to Niigata," said Moseh de la Cruz helpfully.

"This is my favorite: Breakers on the Reef Before Katsumoto, Breakers on the Reef Before Katsumoto," said Monsieur Arlanc-delighted to have someone to speak full-dress French to. "So much is suggested by so little-it is a humbling contrast with our Barock Barock style." style."

"Bor-ing! Give me Korean Pirate Attack in the Straits of Tsus.h.i.+ma Korean Pirate Attack in the Straits of Tsus.h.i.+ma any day!" Jack put in. any day!" Jack put in.

"That is fine if you like vulgar sword-play, but I believe his finest work is in the Wrecks: Chinese Junk Aground in s.h.i.+fting Sands, Chinese Junk Aground in s.h.i.+fting Sands, and and Skeleton of a Fis.h.i.+ng-Boat Caught in Tree Branches Skeleton of a Fis.h.i.+ng-Boat Caught in Tree Branches being two notable examples." being two notable examples."

"Are all all of his pictures about Hazards to Navigation?" asked Enoch Root. of his pictures about Hazards to Navigation?" asked Enoch Root.

"Have you ever seen a nautical picture that wasn't wasn't?" Jack demanded.

"Over here, you can see the Ma.s.sacre of Hara Ma.s.sacre of Hara triptych," said Moseh. triptych," said Moseh.

"Let's go find the samurai," Jack said. And they did, pa.s.sing in a few steps through the wee house he'd fabricated out of sticks and paper-or, to be precise, palm leaves. His swords-a long two-hander and a shorter cutla.s.s-rested one above the other in a little wooden stand. Jack went over and peered at the longer of the two. It had come from the collection of an Algerian corsair-captain, but according to Gabriel Goto it had unquestionably been forged in j.a.pan at least a hundred years ago. And indeed the shape of its blade, the style of the handle, and the carving of the guard were unlike anything else Jack had ever seen, which argued in favor of its being from what by all accounts was the queerest country on the face of the earth. But the actual steel of the blade was (as Jack had noted, and remarked on, in Cairo years before) marked with the same swirling pattern shared by every other watered-steel blade, be it a Janissary-sword forged in Damascus, a shamsir shamsir from the forge of Tamerlane in Samarkand, or a from the forge of Tamerlane in Samarkand, or a kitar kitar from the from the wootz wootz-vale.

Having confirmed this memory to his own satisfaction, Jack straightened up and turned around and nearly b.u.t.ted heads with Enoch Root, who was just in the act of noticing the same thing. To his great satisfaction Jack saw amazement on the alchemist's face, followed by a few moments of what looked almost like fear, as he came aware of what it might mean.

"Let's hear what the artist has to say for himself," said Jack, and slid a translucent screen aside to reveal the flinty garden, and Gabriel Goto sitting with his back to them, holding a brush with an ink-drop poised on its sharp tip.

GABRIEL GOTO'S STORY [AS NARRATED IN CLERICAL LATIN TO ENOCH ROOT].

"I have never seen j.a.pan. I know it only from pictures my father drew, of which these are but miserable plagiarisms.

"From the others you have heard stories that are as complicated as a Barock church or Ottoman mosque. But the j.a.panese way is to be simple, like this garden, so I will tell my tale with as few brush-strokes as possible. Even so it will be too many.

"Those who have ruled j.a.pan, be they monks, emperors, or shoguns, have always depended upon local knights, each of whom is responsible for looking after some particular piece of land-seeing to it that this land produces well and that the people who work it are orderly and content. Those knights are called Samurai, and as with the knights of Christendom, it is their responsibility to keep arms and to bear them in the service of their lord when called upon. My family have been Samurai for as long as we choose to remember. The lands for which we were responsible were of little account, being in a high cold stony place, and we were held in no special regard by others of our cla.s.s.

"The story is related that an ancestor of ours had split his holdings between two sons, giving the paddies to his first-born and the rocks to the other. Each sp.a.w.ned his own branch of the family: one rich, dwelling in low-lands and distinguis.h.i.+ng itself in wars, the other a clan of coa.r.s.e mountain-dwellers, not known for their loyalty, but allowed to remain in existence because neither were they known for martial prowess.

"The tale of these two clans goes on for centuries, and is as fraught with complications as the history of j.a.pan itself-someday when we are on a long sea-voyage perhaps I will relate more of it. What is important is that copper and then silver were discovered in the rocky up-lands. This was about two hundred years ago, at a time when the shogun turned his back on the affairs of the world and went into retirement, and j.a.pan ceased being a unified country for a very long time-like Germany today. All power fled from Kyoto to the provinces, and each part of the country was controlled by a lord called a daimyo, daimyo, something like a baron in Germany. These daimyos clashed and strove against each other ceaselessly, like stones on a pebble beach grinding each other. Ones who met with success built castles. Markets and cities formed round their walls. Markets require coins, and so each daimyo began to mint his own currency. something like a baron in Germany. These daimyos clashed and strove against each other ceaselessly, like stones on a pebble beach grinding each other. Ones who met with success built castles. Markets and cities formed round their walls. Markets require coins, and so each daimyo began to mint his own currency.

"What it amounts to is that this was a dangerous time to be a warrior but an excellent time to be a miner. As my ancestors-being Buddhists-would have expressed it, the two clans were bound to opposite points of the Wheel, and the Wheel was turning. Those lowland warriors allied themselves with a daimyo who was not deserving of their trust, and lost two consecutive generations of males in battle. My My ancestors-the uplanders-moved down from the mountains and into apartments in another daimyo's castle, not far from Osaka Bay, near Sakai, which in those days was a free city devoted to foreign trade, like Venice or Genoa. This happened about a hundred and fifty years ago, which was the same time that the Portuguese began to come up from Macao in tall s.h.i.+ps. ancestors-the uplanders-moved down from the mountains and into apartments in another daimyo's castle, not far from Osaka Bay, near Sakai, which in those days was a free city devoted to foreign trade, like Venice or Genoa. This happened about a hundred and fifty years ago, which was the same time that the Portuguese began to come up from Macao in tall s.h.i.+ps.

"The Portuguese brought Christianity and guns. My ancestors embraced both. To people living in Sakai in those days it must have seemed an intelligent choice. The harbor was crowded with European s.h.i.+ps bristling with cannons and flying Christian banners from every spar. Also, the Jesuits liked to establish missions in poor areas, and despite the silver mines, our ancestral land was still poor. So when a mission was established there at the invitation of my great-great-grandfather, the miners and peasants embraced Christianity without hesitation. Here was a creed that preached to the poor and the meek, and they were both.

"At the same time my great-great-grandfather was learning the secrets of gunsmithing, and teaching this skill to the local artisans. Men whose fathers had hammered out hoes and shovels were now making firelocks worth a hundred times as much.

"Now the peasants who lived down below, working the paddies, began to make trouble for their their Samurai, our cousins. Some of these peasants began to turn Christian, which our cousins abhorred; others were growing disrespectful of their lords, who seemed to have lost the mandate of heaven. In those days there was a thing called Samurai, our cousins. Some of these peasants began to turn Christian, which our cousins abhorred; others were growing disrespectful of their lords, who seemed to have lost the mandate of heaven. In those days there was a thing called katana-gari katana-gari which means sword-hunt, in which the Samurai would search the peasants' homes for armaments. They began to find not only swords but firearms. which means sword-hunt, in which the Samurai would search the peasants' homes for armaments. They began to find not only swords but firearms.

"So naturally the cousins allied themselves with powerful men who sought to unify j.a.pan. This tale extends across three generations and as many shoguns-the first two being Oda n.o.bunaga and Toyotomi Hideyos.h.i.+-and has more twists and turns than a game trail over the mountains. The long and the short of it is that they threw in their lot with Tokugawa Ieyasu, who, a hundred years ago, won the Battle of Sekigahara, in part by using foot-soldiers armed with guns. In that battle my cousins won glory, and they won even more in the storming and the destruction of Osaka Castle, which took place in the Year of Our Lord 1615. My father was eighteen years old at the time, and he was one of the defenders of that castle, and of the Toyotomi family which was extinguished on that day.

"The Wheel had turned again. The Tokugawa shogunate claimed a monopoly on the minting of coins-my family lost its chief source of revenue. Firearms were banned-another source of income vanished. Foreign trade was strictly controlled-Sakai became an island cut off from the rest of j.a.pan. But worst of all, for my family, was that Christianity had been outlawed. My father had not been the only Christian to have allied himself with the Toyotomi family, and Tokugawa Ieyasu believed that the Jesuits and the Toyotomis, allied together, were the only force that could defeat him. Both were extirpated.

"At the time of my father's birth there were a quarter of a million Christians in j.a.pan and at the time of his death there were none. This did not occur all at once but gradually, beginning with the execution of a few Jesuit missionaries in the Year of Our Lord 1597 and culminating forty years later in a few great battles and ma.s.sacres. My father perhaps did not really grasp what was happening until it was nearly finished. His brother had gone back to our ancestral land to look after the mines and practice Christianity in secret. My father remained in Sakai for a while trying to make a living in foreign trade. But first this fell under the strict control of the shogun, and from there it was gradually choked off. The Portuguese were banned altogether because they kept bringing over priests disguised as mariners. Sakai and Kyoto were closed to foreign trade altogether. Only Nagasaki was left open, and only to the Dutch, who-being heretics-did not care about saving j.a.panese souls from eternal fire, and only wanted our money.

"So my father had become a masterless Samurai, or ronin ronin-one of a large host of Christian ronin ronin brought into being by the policies I have described. He moved round to the opposite coast of Honshu-the coast that faces towards Korea and China-and worked as a smuggler. He smuggled silk, pepper, and other goods to j.a.pan, and smuggled fugitive Christians out to Manila. brought into being by the policies I have described. He moved round to the opposite coast of Honshu-the coast that faces towards Korea and China-and worked as a smuggler. He smuggled silk, pepper, and other goods to j.a.pan, and smuggled fugitive Christians out to Manila.

"Now, formerly my family had had no contacts with Manila whatsoever, because we were exporters of silver. If the commerce of Asia is like a fire, then silver is like the air blown into it to make it blaze up, and Manila is the bellows. For it is to Manila that the Spanish galleon sails every year, full of silver from the mines of New Spain. My family's mines could not compete against this, and so in generations past we had been more apt to trade with Macao, and other ports on the coast of China-a vast country that is eternally ravenous for silver.

"But in that time j.a.pan refused to accept s.h.i.+ps from Macao, even at Nagasaki, because Portuguese priests, who longed for martyrdom, used Macao as their point of departure. My father's contacts in Macao dried up, or moved to Manila. By that time he was no longer in the silver business anyway. So he began to trade between Manila and a certain smuggler's harbor in northern Honshu, near Niigata. His fame spread as far as Rome, and soon Jesuits began to arrive in Manila from Goa in the west and Acapulco in the east, and to request him by name. He would take them up to Niigata, where they would be met by j.a.panese Christians who would take them up into the mountains to preach the Word of the Lord and serve holy communion in secret. But at the same time my father would bring aboard other j.a.panese Christians who had fled from this persecution. He would convey them down to Manila where there was, and is, a large community of such persons.

"So it went for a time. But in the Year of Our Lord 1635 the shogun decreed that thenceforward no j.a.panese could leave the Home Islands on pain of death, and that all j.a.panese currently abroad must return home within three years or face the same penalty. Two years after that, the Christian ronin ronin staged a great rebellion on Kyushu and fought the forces of the shogun for half a year, but they were wiped out. Not much later the remaining Christians were obliterated at the Ma.s.sacre of Hara. My father survived by virtue of several miraculous interventions by various Saints, which I will not enumerate since I know that you are a heretic who does not believe in such things, and made one last voyage to Manila where he took a young j.a.panese wife. staged a great rebellion on Kyushu and fought the forces of the shogun for half a year, but they were wiped out. Not much later the remaining Christians were obliterated at the Ma.s.sacre of Hara. My father survived by virtue of several miraculous interventions by various Saints, which I will not enumerate since I know that you are a heretic who does not believe in such things, and made one last voyage to Manila where he took a young j.a.panese wife.

"I was born in Manila three years after j.a.pan closed itself off from the world. When I was a boy I would beg my father to take me up on his boat so that I could see where we came from, but by then he was an old man and the boat was a worm-eaten wreck. He contented himself with painting pictures of the landmarks that he had used to navigate from Manila to his smuggler's cove on Honshu. My efforts here-One Hundred and Seven Views of the Pa.s.sage to Niigata-are a miserable pastiche of the art that he made.

"My life has been uneventful by comparison. I grew up in Manila. The only people I ever saw were j.a.panese Catholics, and a few Spanish priests. Jesuit fathers taught me to read and write. Christian ronin ronin taught me the martial arts. In time I took holy orders and was sent to Goa. I lived there for a few years, and developed some familiarity with the language of Malabar. Then I was dispatched to Rome, where I saw Saint Peter's and kissed the Holy Father's ring. I had hoped that the Pope would send me to Nippon to achieve martyrdom, but he said nothing to me. I was crushed, and in my self-indulgence I went through a time of doubting my faith. Finally I volunteered to travel to China to work as a missionary and perhaps be granted martyrdom there. I boarded a s.h.i.+p bound for Alexandria-but along the way we were captured by a galley of the Barbary corsairs. I killed a fairly large number of them, but then a member of my own s.h.i.+p's crew, seeking to curry favor with the Turks who were soon to be his masters, hit me from behind with a belaying-pin, and ended my struggle. The Turks took us back to Algiers and gave the one who had betrayed me slow death on the hook. Me they offered work on a corsair-galley, as a Janissary. I refused, and was made to pull an oar instead." taught me the martial arts. In time I took holy orders and was sent to Goa. I lived there for a few years, and developed some familiarity with the language of Malabar. Then I was dispatched to Rome, where I saw Saint Peter's and kissed the Holy Father's ring. I had hoped that the Pope would send me to Nippon to achieve martyrdom, but he said nothing to me. I was crushed, and in my self-indulgence I went through a time of doubting my faith. Finally I volunteered to travel to China to work as a missionary and perhaps be granted martyrdom there. I boarded a s.h.i.+p bound for Alexandria-but along the way we were captured by a galley of the Barbary corsairs. I killed a fairly large number of them, but then a member of my own s.h.i.+p's crew, seeking to curry favor with the Turks who were soon to be his masters, hit me from behind with a belaying-pin, and ended my struggle. The Turks took us back to Algiers and gave the one who had betrayed me slow death on the hook. Me they offered work on a corsair-galley, as a Janissary. I refused, and was made to pull an oar instead."