Horsefly... By Clifton Seeney

​The next island we stop at to resupply, I took eight members of my gun
crew to do a little exploring. We happen upon a large plantation yet there
was no one walking about. The flies were eating us alive never in all my
travels have I seen flies that bite. The men were forever fighting the flies
off them with blood coming out of everyone that was bitten. How can
anyone live on this island I thought! There we saw in a clearing a European
in a wheelchair fishing in a large lake with a hat that had a net all around it.
He also had on gloves to keep the flies from biting his hands he had a coat
and shoes and pants of the last century on. A strange sight in this god-
awful place. No wonder there no one outside the heat and these flies. We
came up on him quickly as he was reaching for his flintlock rifle.
“Who are you?” he asked
“We are sailors looking for food and water.” I answer
“Are you here to kill me I have no money all I can do now is fish in this lake
it is fresh water take as much as you want but don’t harm me”!
“No, we will not kill you, but where are your servants and slaves?” I
enquired
“They only come out at night when the flies are not active the mosquitoes
they wash in vinegar and the flies come near them.” he said
As we were still fighting our own battle with the files, I saw a hut and we ran
towards it as fast as we could leaving the old man behind. Once inside we
saw small children with what looked like small holes in their feet. What a
god -awful place this is. The jiggers laid their eggs in the bottom of the
people’s feet and had to be dug out by a special witch doctor. Europeans
servants and bond workers had them also the natives of the island wore
wooden footwear to protect them from the jiggers.

As night was closing in, we knew it was time for us to make a path to the
ship or be left behind in this hell. I told the watch doctor that we needed
men to man the ship since so many of the crew left. When we got down to
the ship and saw that the fleet had not left, there was a thousand people
waiting there, slaves and Europeans and natives, men woman and children
old and young all wanted to leave this hell hole. They had one thing that the
captain wanted, gold and lots of it. Necklaces and jewelry and rings of all
kind of gold was worn by everyone. The flies did not stop the gold that
came out of the same area of the island as they did. And very few ships
would go into this hell hole.
No sooner than we are out of one condition another one pops up. With the
new people from that hell hole there were Spanish who were the overseers
and the Africans who for the most part were the workers. Which led to a
rebellion among the Africans who outnumbered the Spanish. To keep from
blood being shed Captaine Jack put the Spanish on one of the small ships
and kept the Africans on the large Barge. The leader of the Spanish was
found later with his insides out hanging. Was this the beginning of a war
only time would tell and Captaine Jack was going to put the Spanish off on
the next island that we came too. When it was discovered that he was in a
relationship with one of his own fellows, taking advantage of his position on
that hell hole. Many debts were going to be settled but not on Captaine
Jack’s fleet!
I was watching one of the Africans a very large man with gold inlays in his
mouth. There must be a place where these people got all this gold. I watch
and listen to them the Africans, but I did not understand what they were
saying. The Captaine sent us to oversee the barge because we were
colored. When I say colored, I mean that we were not born in Africa but
somewhere else. He, the large African walked about as if he was the King
and a fancy. I found out that he was the father of most of these children.
The European masters used him as a stud on their plantations. By
following him I might find out where this gold mine was, I could not use my
Austrian gold because I knew that Evermond was still on our trail.

The forward gun crew of Winston, Steve, Mario, Zero, Grasshopper and
myself thought of a way to buy a Skip to sail back to that island along with
the big African to show us the mine. Before we got even started Goose had
his eye on all of us and he was not alone. The French Colonel sent a guard
to escort me to him and said that he would pay for our adventure and that
he would want 50% of the gold. To ensure that he got his 50% he was
sending five Guardsmen to aid us in the adventure. Now we started with
seven now it would be the guardsmen and a skip Captain and his crew. We
finally reach a secure island we went about looking for a skip no sooner
than we found a skip the Mexicans on the one of the sloops stole it and
were headed back to the island. We had to make up some ground to catch
them although the skip was faster than that sloop without a sea Captain,
we knew that they would get lost at sea in a day or two. Also, unknown to
us Captain Jack wanted that gold and he sent one of his fast sloops well
ahead of us. Well friends we in for a fight and I don’t know how many we
were up against; we can thank the French for sending armed guards with
us maybe. We will have an advantage over swords and cutlass and pistols.
“So, Mon Ami are you ready for a fight”? As we approached the island in a
thick blanket of fog you could hear men yelling and pistols firing! Could they
be fighting one another I hope so, that means that they just might kill one
another in the dark. We weren’t on the beach five minutes before someone
got the big African between the eyes shot dead, there goes our guide to the
mines.

Join us next time for Gold Fever!!