The gentle sea breeze made people feel comfortable, and it also took away the fragrance of the "holy medicine" that Captain Hawkins had come to rely on more and more. It's just that the captain smokes a very small amount each time, and he doesn't feel the great harm to his body caused by the "holy medicine", that is, the "poisonous weed" centuries later.

Isabel Walton sniffed lightly, feeling that there was not much tobacco in the air beside her, and then turned her head to glance at the captain, "You know, making Torti an overseas territory of the English royal family will bring honor and titles to you and your family. If you want to take advantage of Tolti's location in the Americas to reach the pinnacle of your sailing career, you may be a merchant of overseas trade until the day you die. ”

Her words conveyed an important message to Captain Hawkins: if the island was to be offered to Henry VIII and the royal family, Captain Hawkins would surely receive the title of gentleman or knight from Henry VIII. If everything about Tolti Island is concealed, the island will eventually become a haven for pirates.

Captain Hawkins stroked his beard, looked at the maritime lieutenant and others who were talking to each other not far away, and said leisurely, "Miss, I am not a nobleman, and I am not educated. However, I believe you are right, because you are a descendant of a nobleman, who can always see things that others can't. ”

"Well, I think, you're still willing to be a nobleman, aren't you?"

"Miss, you know, what my family and I want most now is an honor or a title. Even though I am the richest businessman in Plymouth and represent Plymouth in the House of Commons, I still think so. ”

Isabel smiled and said, "Captain, I understand. It's just that we still need time. ”

"Time? Miss, what are you referring to? ”

"Now, His Majesty has a lot of business to deal with, such as a war with France or something else."

Now on a small island in the Caribbean Sea far from the Isthmus of England, how did she know what was going on in the kingdom? Captain Hawkins looked at her with a puzzled look, "Miss, how did you know about these affairs in the kingdom in the days after we went to sea?" ”

Isabel looked at the rolling sea with her hands behind her back and the armed merchant ship Nemesis swaying slightly back and forth in the waves. He said very calmly, "Captain, in July I was invited by Her Majesty the Queen to Hampton Court Palace to attend the wedding of Her Majesty the King and the Queen. After the wedding, the Duke of Richmond told me about some of the tricky things that were happening or about to happen in the Kingdom. ”

"Oh, miss, if you want to trust me, can you tell me?" Captain Hawkins was convinced of her words.

"Captain, at this time, His Majesty the King and his allies, the Spaniards, are trying to expel the French from Italian territory. But the hungry wolf on our backs, who was not fed, was intent on tearing up the Greenwich Treaty. Isabel seemed to have an inexplicable hostility towards Scotland as she spoke.

She was indignant at the thought of Henry VIII fighting against France and Scotland at the same time in the face of a major crisis in the kingdom's revenues, even when he was unable to make ends meet. Landing on the European continent and fighting against France as an ally of King Charles V of Spain in order to take an active part in dealing with the affairs of the continent!? It dawned on her that this was the only excuse Henry VIII had for helping Charles V in his fight against the French.

In fact, war between England and Scotland was indeed on the verge of breaking out. The trigger for the war was the Treaty of Greenwich, signed by Britain and the Soviet Union in London on July 1 this year. On 15 December, the Scottish Parliament unilaterally broke the treaty, and five days later, on 20 December 1543, in Edinburgh, a state of war between England and the Soviet Union was officially declared.

"Hungry wolf......?" Captain Hawkins couldn't help muttering, looking at her back curiously, "Miss, you mean Scotland?!" ”

Isabel glanced back at him, "Yes, Captain. Perhaps the Scots simply thought that our Majesty the King could become their king by war, so the Scottish Parliament was forced to unilaterally tear up the treaty by popular opinion. It's a pity that the Scots take themselves too seriously. ”

Captain Hawkins, who lived in the South, far from the northern border, spent his life trying to run overseas commercial trade, and seemed to be unconcerned about the political struggles and contradictions between Britain and the Soviet Union. For him, how to make the Hawkins family continue to grow is his primary concern. Of course, Isabel would talk to him about this only to complain.

She didn't expect Captain Hawkins to say much that was relevant to the topic, and calmly walked back to Captain Hawkins and smiled softly, "Captain, now we can set sail." ”

Captain Hawkins looked at her and nodded thoughtfully, "Well, is it to the coast of Africa, which is occupied by the Portuguese?" ”

Isabel grinned to the right and glanced at the other party with a sneer, "Yes, the Portuguese have plundered too much gold, black slaves, and ivory, and we can't let them do that." ”

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After about a week in a pirate camp on the northern side of the western part of the island of Spain, the crew of four privateers, including Isabel and Captain Hawkins, was ready to set sail for São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea. In the 16th century, the Portuguese were slave trading bases in the Gulf of Guinea and along the coast from Congo to Angola.

The Lord's gun commander, Fast, had been thinking about the sale of slaves on the plantation. However, since the extermination and sacking of the Spanish plantations a week earlier, his noble female captain has not mentioned it. So, after Isabel returned to the camp from Tolti, he found the other party.

Fast hesitated for a moment, looked at Isabel sitting in front of the captain's house, and said with a smile, "Captain, do you remember the Spaniards you met on the first day you hunted here?" ”

Isabel looked carefully at the military written records that she had bought with money from the Doge's Palace in Santo Domingo, and when she heard the voice, she looked up at the other party, "Yes, I still remember." Fast, what do you want to say? ”

"Captain, there are probably more than 100 black slaves on that Spaniard's plantation, and I think... I want to say, what to do with these black slaves? Fast stumbled.

Isabel closed the paper and looked at the other party solemnly, "Fast, you mean that these black slaves can be sold to other Spaniards?" ”