Pirates of the Caribbean: How Many Miles to Babylon?

A Captain So Evil

A Captain So Evil

The cavern that sheltered the pirates' gold and the chest of Cortés was almost never in total darkness. Ancient sinkholes pierced its limestone roof, letting narrow shafts of natural light fall here and there amongst the shadows. Nonetheless, Barbossa's men always brought torches with them, and the mass of gold caught the light of their moving flames in a thousand little reflections that made the treasure glint as though tiny sparks of fire danced upon it.

On this, their third visit, the crew of the Pearl moved diligently to and fro across the cavern and through its tunnels. They unloaded treasure from the ship's holds in boxes, bushel baskets, barrels, pails, or anything else that they could carry, pouring out their plunder on the ground near the stone chest.

There was enough swag now to make a shallow hill under the chest of Cortés, and six of the crew had already hoisted the chest and placed it atop the gold. By this time, all of them knew the work they must do, and they went about it with scarcely a word from Bo'sun, who stood watch, or from their captain, who leaned over the stone chest, staring into it as if he could make the remaining medallions appear by sheer force of will. But Barbossa's thoughts were taken up with recollections of the raids that were slowly adding more gold to the chest. As he stared at the heap of identical medallions, he fancied he could still pick out which ones they had captured in each raid.

Those four, near his right hand---he was certain they had come from the drifting boat he had discovered a week before. There were five men in it, from a merchant ship that had broached and gone down in heavy weather three weeks earlier; but one of them had four medallions hidden under his shirt, and that was enough to draw the pirates. The survivors had exhausted their food and water, and were dying in the grip of fantastical hallucinations when they spied the Pearl sailing towards them on the dark sea.

The castaway with the medallions must have reckoned he'd be picked up by a ship before he died, and would go ashore as a wealthy man. Barbossa smiled, remembering. Just like Barbossa himself, however, the man was not in a position to enjoy his riches; and Barbossa considered that his order to cut the throats of all five proved his own merciful nature, because it put an end to their misery.

Then he glanced at ten medallions that lay heaped in a corner of the chest. Their recovery had been a happy coincidence, due to his very enterprising crewman, Ned Mallot.

At a small port known to him, Mallot had gone ashore during the day to see if he could quietly extract a barrel or two of gunpowder from the local armoury, when he had been recognised by a very drunken former acquaintance who had not heard news of the curse. The man pressed Mallot to accompany him to the tavern and, as he drank, complained to his old friend. Apparently, he and other local smugglers had bribed the customs collectors with ten fancy medallions, but the officials had still cheated them of their bargains.

Crafty Mallot had got the names of the customs collectors before quietly dispatching his friend in a convenient alley and picking the dead man's pockets. He then used the stolen money to convince a dishonest watchman at the dock to help him load two barrels of gunpowder into his boat without a fuss.

Barbossa laughed softly to himself. Sharp, cunning Mallot. A dangerous man, and one he'd want to keep an eye on, he decided.

A week later, when the Pearl caught up with the customs sloop, the revenue men had proved themselves cowards---hiding and refusing to fight Barbossa's men. He had ordered his crew to take their munitions, since the Pearl was running low. After that, the pirates had chased the unfortunate officers round the rigging like cats chasing mice, cutting their throats and taking back the medallions.

One man had tried to escape in the ship's boat, but it drifted away before he could drop into it, leaving him hanging off the ship by his fingers. Barbossa had trod on them and threatened to feed the man to the sharks piece by piece if he didn't surrender the gold. When the man offered a purse, Barbossa seized it, and ran his sword through the man's chest. And I kept me word, he thought, congratulating himself, for the man was all in one piece when the sharks got him.