Long Distances

The sun shone merciless on Diego, or rather on his helmet, which in turn heated his head like a bun in an oven.

He hated lookout duties as much as he hated the heat, but hearing the drill shouts exploding from the courtyard, and the cries echoing from the infamous prison where the Grand Admiral had once been held, perhaps sentry duties were not so bad.

Besides, Diego thought caressing the length of his smooth wood-and-brass instrument, he had his spyglass to keep him company on the watchtower. He raised the eyepiece and placed it carefully on his right eye, pointed it at the street where the ladies and maids passed on their way to the market. The colour of their dresses and voluptuous manner in which they paraded more than made up for the infernal sun that unceasingly threatened to burn him to a crisp.

What a marvelous instrument! He thought caressing the spyglass. Apparently, a Dutchman had invented it, but vastly improved by the learned and noble Galileo. What goes through the minds of such men that envision and produce these mechanical fancies? The telescope was the greatest of inventions, he thought cradling it between his fingers, marveling at its mahogany wood and thick brass.

There was a commotion on the streets and Diego raised the spyglass.

Ah… He grinned. The Grand Dame!

Accompanied by a group of maids, she was on her way to the fortress to see her husband, the Captain. To give him a treat perhaps, he chuckled, or a tongue-lashing about the prisoners he held captive in the fort. She was adamant that he free them, including the savages. Though her womanly assets were second to none, she made Diego feel uneasy with her dark glittering eyes from which emanated the rays of a sharp wit that was as fiery as Chinese firecrackers and had been known to unarmor the toughest man. She swayed majestically as she walked, veiled to hide her fair countenance from the sun- jewels and rosary dangling over her ample bosom and shimmering in the midday brightness.

Diego turned his attention to the river and then beyond it to the sea. He scanned the horizon with the spyglass, clearly seeing the whitecaps on the waves that foamed beneath the blue thin line demarcating ocean from sky.

How in the world had the admiral been capable of navigating the seas without a telescope? He mused. Imagine having to rely solely on eyesight across this immense and forbidding sea with only a few instruments of reckoning, and the faithful belief in one's vision. The log would have been useful to count the knots traversed. The compass and sextant for precise direction; the high mast for a better viewing angle. But no spyglass! Incroyable, as the French next door would say.

Lost in such thoughts he nearly missed the hazy point that had appeared over the horizon. It could be just an aberration, he thought, but as the dot began to grow, it quickly became clear that it was no aberration.

A ship with no visible flag!

With instrument in hand, he called out and ran across the tower deck then rushed downstairs towards Lieutenant Ramirez' headquarters.

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