When it comes to the personal ability to tell lies unscrupulously, no one can reach the level of Isabel Walton. She told the Portuguese navigator that she had a Portuguese captain's logbook and charts, which she could use to find slave trading dens on the African coast.

Hopefully, the navigator was so frightened by her that he would have overlooked an obvious loophole: the Portuguese captain's logbook and charts were written in Portuguese. If Isabel could really read Portuguese, then why did she have to communicate with the navigator in Spanish? Obviously, she was using the means used by naval intelligence officers to obtain information to deceive the other party.

How could the Portuguese navigator Pedro Almeida, born in the early 16th century, be her opponent. Moving his hips a little outward from the 1/3 seat, he looked at her in trepidation, and said hesitantly, "Captain, I... I once said that I would know about it... I told you that now I will keep my promise as well. It's just, I hope... You can also comply... Promise. ”

Pedro had probably never said such a thing to a captain-level person, especially a privateer. As soon as he said this, he immediately repented, and he regretted very much that he would make a request to the pirate captain who had captured him. It was too late to take back his words, and he wasn't even ready to die.

Isabel leaned against the fence near the port side of the captain's lookout, elegantly sipping the wine in her glass, her eyes fixed on the navigator who was so regretful that she wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the sea, "Mr. Almeida, it's been a long time since I've heard what others want me to do or do. Whether it was before I was the captain of a privateer, or now. ”

"Before taking on the captaincy? God is above, and she must be the daughter of a nobleman. What can I do to get her explanation? As the navigator pondered, small beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Smack—" came the sound of a leather whip striking some kind of object or human body from the open deck, followed by an angry voice with impatience, "Hurry up, you animals!" ”

Isabel followed the sound and saw that it was a sailor whipping several black male slaves chained from the lower deck to the open deck. Shaking his head, he coughed dryly, "Ahem, ahem, sailor, I'm still here." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the sailor, who was facing away from the aft lookout, quickly turned around and bowed to Isabel, and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, Miss Isabel, these animals are walking very slowly. That's why I whip them. ”

Isabel squinted at the sailor, then lowered her head slightly to look at the glass in her hand, and said unhurriedly, "Be careful, these black slaves are very valuable. When I arrived in the Americas, I didn't want black slaves to die for any reason. ”

"Yes, miss, I see." The sailor with the whip bowed to her again, his angry face full of a flattering smile.

Isabel turned her gaze back to the navigator who was standing two paces away from her, "Mr. Almeida, perhaps you can tell from the sailor's words who I am and what I am called. However, I will forgive you, and I can swear to God. ”

"God, she really is the daughter of a nobleman." Pedro swallowed as he was in the middle of the discussion, and raised his eyelids slightly to look at her, "Miss, I believe in you. Well, I'll tell you everything. ”

"Sir, sit down and speak slowly. You know, the last thing we lack when we're floating on the sea is time. ”

"Yes, Captain, uh, Miss Isabel."

Next, the navigator gave a detailed account of the area of slave trade activities of the Portuguese Empire on the west coast of Africa, the large and small strongholds of the slave trade, and how the black slaves transported from the Gulf of Benin, Congo, Angola and other places in Africa were transferred to the Gold Coast, Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, the Americas and Portugal proper.

In fact, the navigator really did not lie and did not dare to lie to Isabel. From the beginning of the 16th century, Portuguese slave trade on the west coast of Africa was concentrated in two areas: from the Cape Verde Islands to the coast of Sierra Leone off the Atlantic coast of West Africa, where the two main islands of Cape Verde, Santiago and Santo Antão, were the centres of the slave trade. Today, the island of Sao Tome (which gained independence on 12 July 1975 as the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe) has become one of the largest slave trading strongholds in the Gulf of Guinea and off the coast from Congo to Angola.

The other area is the Congo estuary and the area south of it. At the invitation of the King of Kong, the Portuguese sent Catholic missionaries, merchants, teachers, tailors, and various craftsmen, including shoemakers, masons, and bricklayers, to carry out the slave trade in the name of helping the Congolese economy develop their own economy.

However, as the situation in the Congo continued to deteriorate, the Portuguese turned their focus to the island of São Tomé. As a result, the island of São Tomé gradually became the largest transshipment point for Portuguese slaves to the Americas, and was one of the main overseas territories of Portugal.

During the narration of the navigator Pedro Almeida, Isabel found that what he was saying was so important that she had to bring quills, ink and paper to record his words. Finally, when Pedro describes the Portuguese Overseas Territories, Isabel suddenly remembers a Portuguese Overseas Territory that had become a British Crown Colony, St. Helena.

Stopping the quill pen in her hand, Isabel smiled and looked at the navigator who was almost full of wine from talking too much, "Mr. Almeida, do you know St. Helena?" ”

Pedro's eyes blinked twice, and he suddenly burped. He hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand, and when he felt that he was no longer burping, he was facing Isabelle, "Captain, I remember that this island is only known to people in Portugal, how did you know?" ”

"Have you forgotten, sir? I have your captain's logbook in my hand. Isabel spoke with the same smile she had when she first arrived in Richmondshire.

"Perhaps, you know some Portuguese. The island of St. Helena was first discovered by Captain Castillo in 1501 and again by Captain Albuquerque two years later. Because it was the Day of the Ascension, the captain named it after the festival. ”

The reason why Isabel mentions a volcanic island that no one knew about until 1588 except the Portuguese is because Napoleon Bonaparte, the great French military strategist and statesman and emperor of the First French Empire, was imprisoned on the island until his death.