Pirate Latitudes Quotes
"SIR JAMES ALMONT, appointed by His Majesty Charles II Governor of Jamaica, was habitually an early riser."
"The Governor’s Mansion was an impressive brick structure with a red-tile roof."
"Governor Almont, known locally as 'James the Tenth,' because of his insistence on diverting a tenth share of privateering expeditions to his own personal coffers."
"Sir James himself lacked graceful speech; he was blunt to a fault and distinctly choleric in temperament, a fact he ascribed to his gout."
"As the former governor, Sir William Lytton, had warned him in London, Jamaica was 'not a region burdened by moral excesses.'"
"Sir James watched the man struggle. He listened to the hissing rasp of LeClerc’s choking, and saw his face turn purple."
"Governor Almont accepted calamity with equanimity. He himself lived daily in the shadow of dysentery and shaking fever."
"Governor Almont breakfasted alone in the dining hall of the mansion. As was his custom, he ate a light meal of poached fish and a little wine."
"The authority of the Governor of Jamaica was — again in the words of Sir William — 'as thin as a parchment fragment, and as fragile.'"
"The town of Port Royal was divided into rough sections, oriented around the port itself."
"Hunter walked down the cobbled street away from the mansion. He passed the cookhouse, still brightly lit, the servants working inside."
"Don Diego de Ramano, known also as Black Eye or simply as the Jew, sat hunched over his workbench in the shop on Farrow Street."
"Sanson poured more wine. 'My friend, you have great reason.'"
"The shark was more than twelve feet long, and with its broad snout, with eyes placed at each flattened protuberance, it was remarkably ugly."
"Cazalla is a favorite of Philip. Cazalla’s daughter is married to Philip’s vice chancellor."
"Dispatches are not received from the depths of the sea."
We are too distant," she replied. "Perhaps later, when we move down, I will see more.
"There is little rainfall here. I doubt there is a better one."
"His visage and manner are much known in the English colonies."
"We should wait until morning, when we are rested."
"Then let us be equal," she said, and abruptly pushed him, fully clothed, into the water.
"Watch," the Jew said, smiling for the first time.
Your silence means nothing," he said. "You are all heretics and brigands, and you will swing at the end of a rope in good time.
"God in damnation, how could they escape?"
I take it," Hunter said, "in the spirit it was intended.
Build me a dozen," he said. "Box them for the voyage, and tell no one.
"You shall have your revenge, Don Diego," Hunter said.
I doubt," Hunter said, stripping off his wet clothing, "that it will be necessary.
"Your health, Englishman," he said, and drank.
"Formerly we sent pirates back to Seville, where the Inquisition could encourage you to repent your sins and your heresy in the same breath."
"They are good men," Sanson said, looking at them.
"Damn you and your expedition," she said.
"I can feel the gold between my fingers now," Sanson said.
"I will feed the pieces of your body to my dogs."
Damn me," Enders said. "You don’t suppose . . .
"That was the trouble with art, it was not practical. Art conquered nothing."
"He cursed himself for not anticipating this maneuver."
"I care not a whit for your eccentric fancies, and have neither the time nor the patience to oblige them."
"In less than two days’ time, we shall be in the midst of a hurricane."
"It was an accident, I cannot take credit."
"By the first light of dawn, they strained to see the fruits of their labors."
"Then we will give the Don a taste of his own delights."
"She was not with him when he left Matanceros."
"Probably he killed all hands aboard and sunk her."
"Your imagination to explain this monthlong delay gains our admiration, if not our credence."
"He is a liar, sir. A foul and black liar."
"We were captured. I was surprised to discover that the captain of this Spanish ship was an Englishman."
"Do you recall a storm at sea on the twelfth and thirteenth of September?"
"Only this," Hunter said, and, swiftly, he stripped to the waist.
"An interesting amusement, Mr. Hunter, but not persuasive to the educated gentlemen present."
"And there to be hanged by the neck till dead, dead, dead."
"I can hardly believe what had happened, and I was angry almost beyond understanding."
"Do you understand nothing? All the years I have spent in this godforsaken colony, waiting and financing privateering expeditions, and all for this one moment."
"We will see blood in Port Royal before dawn, mark my words."
"I shall have the better of Captain Hunter."