4. A Hostage in Barbary
His silent soliloquy lasted only seconds, and then Koganos yelled more orders. The four on the beach were released, and Aulus could stand and finally brush the sand out of his eyes, but they were surrounded by angry, shouting men. Nicetas and the crewmen aboard were brought to shore; all of them were marched into the village to an open space outside one of the large white stone houses.
Cosmas, Nicetas and Aulus were kept standing. The others were made to sit down on the ground outside the house under one of the large trees. They were surrounded by at least 40 or 50 of the local men. These were doing their best to look fierce—and Aulus was sure that they were fierce.
After some minutes the three of them were led in through the massive doorway of the house, following Koganos and Wefundi. On the right side as they entered was an open stairway to the upper floors. Then they were propelled into a large, stone-floored courtyard. The central part of the courtyard was shady but open to the sky above, with a plashing fountain in the middle flanked by two tall palm trees. White columns lined the courtyard. Beyond, a doorway opened on to a walled garden. Aulus glimpsed trees and bright flowers. This house must be the mansion of Wefundi.
Several women servants appeared carrying carpets they laid on the stone floor in the shade under the columns. They sat down there, the three of them facing Wefundi, Koganos, and a third old man in a long white robe. The courtyard was clearly to be their court room.
Wefundi did not take long to get to the point. The man who had lost his hand was very weak, had lost a lot of blood, but would survive. He was a nephew of the old man in the white robe, Aba Shabel. It was a good thing for the Romans that the nephew was not dead. "Else you"—Wefundi nodded to Nicetas—"Would lose your head. But..." and now he turned to Cosmas, "you still must pay. The young man has lost his right hand. He was foolish to go to your ship. We did not tell him to do this. But in our country when such a thing happens, one family must pay the other. Your family is your ship. We know that your ship is carrying many weapons for you to trade. Your officer, here, who cut off the young man's hand, must lose his own right hand, and you must give us 100 steel swords, and then you must leave before some young hotheads decide to take extra vengeance on you. I say all these things clearly and frankly. Do you understand?"
"Yes," said Cosmas. "We understand your customs, Aba Wefundi. We will pay you. But I beg you not to strike off the hand of Nicetas. I need both his hands to steer our ship. No one else among us has the skill for that. I do not think we have as many as 100 swords on our ship, including our personal weapons. We will give you 20 swords. That will leave us just a few weapons to defend ourselves on our further voyage."
"No," said Wefundi. "That is not enough. We will take a hand for a hand, and..." He began to demand other merchandise as well, but for a moment he stopped. A beautiful young woman was coming down the open stairway to the courtyard. She was as tall as many Roman men, probably almost as tall as I am, thought Aulus. She wore a long, light-blue dress covering her body from neck to ankles but leaving her slim arms bare. Aulus could see the thin trace of a scar on her upper right arm. Her hair was dark, straight and long. She had large eyes, gray or perhaps gray-green, and a fine straight nose. Her beauty was set off by gold earrings and bracelets, and a necklace with a golden cross. It had been months since Aulus had seen a pretty girl, weeks since he had seen any woman at all.
The girl carried a metal tray holding small cups and a pot. Coming up to the three men from the ship, she poured each a cup of hot tea. Aulus could not take his eyes off her. An older woman, apparently a servant, poured tea for the three elders, but the lovely young woman was no servant.
Aulus found the tea was sweet and full of a strange but pleasant spice. He had drunk nothing for hours, and the tea gave him sudden strength. It was a good sign that they were giving them tea... he looked again at the girl who had served them. She was standing now in a shady corner of the courtyard. She was looking at them, at me, thought Aulus. He thought he saw her blush.
Wefundi saw that the three Romans had been distracted from his argument by the coming of the pretty girl. He said somewhat sternly "That is my daughter, named Mariam."
But it was a moment of crisis. Cosmas sat stroking his beard. Nicetas said to him softly, "Captain, I am willing to give my hand for the ship. There are worse fates." Cosmas said to him, "No," and then said to Wefundi, "I have explained why I cannot agree to you punishing my mate. I need his two hands if we are to complete our journey and return home safely—and if we are to convince our fellow Romans that they can trade profitably and in peace with you and your people.
"We will compensate you for what has happened. Let us not deceive one another. Your men have seen what is in our ship. We will give you 40 swords, although this will leave us with few weapons for ourselves. We will give you two casks of wine, and enough fine cloth for many garments for your daughter and the other women of your household. Beyond that, we still want to trade with you. We have other fine goods to offer in exchange for your ivory and incense."
Wefundi said something to his two fellow elders. They began to discuss, heatedly, something among themselves. Aulus looked quizzically at Cosmas, but he shook his head to indicate he could not understand the Barbarian language. It was a long discussion.
Finally Wefundi turned again to Cosmas and said, "Captain Indo, we will not insist on striking off the hand of your mate. We realize that you need his two hands. We wish to have good relations with the Romans. They must send us more vessels to trade in the future. Give us 50 good steel swords, and the wine and cloth, and we will offer you our best ivory and incense for other goods you have aboard.
"But there is more. Your noble friend here must remain with us, at least until the next Roman ship arrives, either yours or another. He will be our guest, and our assurance that trade will resume and continue. I have spoken."
Aulus thought, I am to remain in Barbary? Would it be for years, or forever? Theirs was the first vessel from the empire that had visited this little port for a long time—apparently since Cosmas' last visit some years ago. The Egyptian canal was filling with silt and might soon become completely impassable. There were in any case few captains like Cosmas willing to hazard a journey to these coasts, despite the likelihood of large profits... Aulus looked at Cosmas, and he at Aulus. After a minute Aulus said quietly to him, "It is not death and it is not disfigurement. You do not need me to continue the voyage southward. I will be here when you return from Sarapion, and perhaps they will let me go then."
Cosmas looked at him impassively for at least ten seconds. Then he nodded, and turning to Wefundi he said, "We will agree. But Aulus is an important man in our world. You must treat him well if you wish to see more trading ships from Rome."
It was now early afternoon. Wefundi invited the three to a corner room on the floor above the courtyard. The windows looked out on the blue sea, and a breeze blew in. Wefundi's daughter Mariam and her serving women brought lunch for the three Romans and the three elders: grilled fish, boiled greens, and then fresh fruit, and much hot tea with the strange but pleasant spice. Aulus looked long at Mariam and she at him. Again he saw her blush. He realized he was not dreading what might come. His spirits were good. Perhaps it was the bright sunlight in this new world, and the fact that they might well have come to a worse fate.
Cosmas was sitting next to Aulus. He said softly, in Latin which he hoped the Barbarians did not understand, that he hoped Aulus would understand if he unloaded the goods for Wefundi's people and departed as soon as possible. He did not want more incidents. But he needed to tell Aulus some things before they sailed.
Lunch over, the three went back to the ship with a large escort of the local people. The unloading began of the weapons, wine, and cloth that Cosmas had agreed to give up. He had learned meanwhile that Wefundi would offer him a dozen sacks of the finest incense plus 100 elephant tusks, and would accept in exchange 20 of the finest gold solidi with the Emperor's portrait. Cosmas sent Nicetas on shore with the gold and added to the offering for Wefundi several fringed mantles and two military cloaks made in the Persian style. Then, taking advantage of the moment, Cosmas quickly took Aulus to his cabin and shut the door. For a minute at least they were alone, but Cosmas spoke Latin in case anyone who knew some Greek was listening.
"Aulus," said Cosmas, "I am sorry to have to leave you here, but I see no other possibility. You must not count on my returning to Akanas on my way back home. I know these people. They are treacherous and suspicious. If no other Roman ship comes here in the next several months they may conclude none is ever coming, and if our ship then calls again at Akanas, I think they will probably seize us all and our cargo. The fact is, as you may realize, there is little chance of another Roman ship coming to Akanas for a long time to come. Indeed my fellow captains at Portus laughed when they heard of my plans for this voyage. There may not be more profitable routes, but there are safer ones."
"What advice then would you give me?"
"Escape, if you do not want to stay in this place forever. Escape, after we have sailed. As long as you remain here, you will be in danger. So escape, and try to make your way south by land or sea to join me at Sarapion. It is a long way, but we will not leave there on our return for some months, and so you have, if nothing else, time enough. There is not much chance of your reaching Sarapion by sea. You would need a sailing vessel, but the three vessels we have seen are too big for you to sail alone, even if you could steal one, and I do not think you would find anyone to help you. Nor do I think you will find any smaller sailing vessels, only small canoes like those you have seen. You must come overland."
"Overland? Do you know anything about the interior of this country?"
"A little, not much. Some years ago I called at the port of Adule, which as you will recall we sailed past a week ago. At Adule I found and copied down a long inscription in Greek written by some King of Axum, inland from Adule, who conquered all this country. I do not think Axum controls it any longer. In any case the inscription said that behind this coast, beyond the mountains we can see from here, is the land of Sasu, where there is much gold. I think the people there are herders. I know there are large wild animals there; I saw some of them in captivity at Adule: lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and giraffes. I was told that there are also hippopotamuses in that country. I did not see any of those at Adule, but I did see a huge tooth. I tell you this because it means that inland there is vegetation and game to hunt. It cannot be a desert.
"As to direction, if you go southward from here over the mountains and continue south and east, you will in time come again to the coast, to the Courses of Azania. The coast there runs straight southwest. It begins with rugged bluffs, without beaches or good harbors, but as you continue southwest along the coast you will come to long beaches, and then to the port of Nikon which is only a small place. I think—I hope—you can find some vessel there to take you farther south. It is only several days' sail from Nikon to the port of Sarapion, and that is where you will find us, God willing. But the winds along that coast wait for no man. We must begin our return journey from Sarapion not later than the very first days of June. You must plan to reach there by the end of May."
"I understand. Just repeat all this, so I am sure I have it."
Cosmas began again, but now someone was pounding on the cabin door. Cosmas opened it to find Nicetas in the company of two Barbarians. The gold and the agreed cargo for Akanas had been unloaded, and the precious bags of incense were aboard and sailors were taking them to the hold. Aulus looked at Cosmas and said, in Greek which he assumed the Barbarians would understand, "Goodbye, Captain. I wish you a good voyage. I look forward to seeing your ship again soon, and other ships as well."
"Farewell, Aulus, and God's blessing on you. I hope to find you well when we next meet."
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