Rafael The Pirate

By James Russell Allen

Following the claim by Portugal, new settlers soon find the country abounding with wealth. Wealth in the form of fruit, sugar cane, fertile soil and freedom. Portugal allows only men to colonize...no women. Men, being what they are, soon are creating new families using first the indigenous women and later the blacks.
Gold and silver are found in the innards of the land and with slavery rampant in the new country, Portugal becomes a wealthy and more powerful colony. With Brasil sending shiploads precious metal and produce to the mother country.
Young men born in this era often became orphans without opportunity. Rafael was such a man. His adventures began in the focal point of gold production in the little hilly town of Ouro Preto. His education at the hands of a kindly Padre assigned there by Portugal leadership, gives him opportunity, understanding and confidence. If that Padre only could see what happens to his student!

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Russell Allen
• Release date: Dec 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310286261

James Russell Allen

When I was introduced in a writing workshop and asked what I had been writing I responded; “As a CPA, I have been mostly writing financial reports and statements.” The professor’s response was; “Okay then, you are an experienced fiction writer.” Well, I don’t know about that, but I am satisfied to be writing when, where and what I want now. As a freshman in high school, I was placed into a class teaching speed reading. It was a challenge and results were shown almost daily. The readings, while we learned new techniques, were usually from the Reader’s Digest and we were timed and then tested for comprehension. I remember my speeds got up into the thousands of words per minute on some types of articles with over 90% comprehension. This probably began my love of reading. As an adult there was always a stack of books, usually three or more at hand. One year I decided to discover how many books I actually read for that year and it was seventy-two. When a person reads enough, he begins to make judgements about the authors and their writing approaches. It often instills the desire in many of us to try writing on our own. In 2007 I was waiting in a Doctor’s office, (Isn’t that what you are there for, the wait? Don’t they call it the “waiting room?”) when I noticed an article about the Amazon Kindle in Time magazine. I read it twice before I was invited in. By that evening I had ordered the Kindle for $399! I’ve never looked back. Our family room sported some custom made bookshelves filled with books, most of which I had read. I had read many of the Louis L’Amour books in paperback and collected them but one day my wife decided they were taking up too much space on the shelves so she contributed them to a library. Oh well, they are light reading and always entertaining if you are as familiar with the Southwest as I am. Now I can carry my current library in one or another of my electronic devices. The book world has changed, especially for those who are voracious readers. Many of us think we would like to write a book. When we learned about the difficulty and percentage of actually getting published it was, and still is daunting. Now you can write and publish a book yourself and the book can be done quickly and done to the highest standards if you are willing to pay the price in time and the learning required. You can also have paper copies of your book made for purchase on demand on several ebook sites and Amazon. So, being a retired CPA and seeing all of this develop over the past few years, that was the incentive to go forward with a book. With the cost of any e-reader now very affordable, more and more people have one. By the way, now with your device you have something better to do in the “waiting room.”

Book preview

RAFAEL

THE PIRATE

A short story by

JAMES RUSSELL ALLEN

To Graça, the Friendliest, Informed Guide and Historian in Ouro Preto, Brasil

INTRODUCTION

MOTHER

PORTUGUESE SCHOOL

GOLD WAGONS

ROAD TO PARATY

AMBUSHED

SÃO ANTÔNIO DO PARAIBUNA

PARATY

PIRATE PLAN

HIDDEN GOLD

SUNKEN SHIP

FUGITIVES

RESPECTABLE

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Other Stories

INTRODUCTION

IN THE EARLY years of discovery and conquest, Portugal claimed Brasil for colonization and it’s wealth. The discovery of fertile ground, sugar cane and most important to our story here, Gold and Silver created an influx of emigrants to take advantage of the bounty.

In Portugal, the ruling class, consisting of the King and his cohorts and the Catholic Church with it’s wealth and power, made the decision to send no women with the men sent to colonize and plunder. That rule soon created ethnical chaos as the Portuguese men mingled with the Indigenous women and then the later, the black slaves. That can be seen in Brasil’s diverse mixture of races and the absence of bigotry today.

There was, however, a distinct schism between the Portuguese overlords and the labor classes early on. Rafael Cardoso, my fictional protagonist, was born from a Black Father he never knew and an Indian Mother. He was of the era of gold in the very picturesque town of Ouro Preto (Black Gold) when the wooden wagons carried the gold and silver down what is known today as the Estrada Real (Royal Road).

The road winds down from the mountainous highlands where the minerals were found then through the towns that began as stopping points for the wagons on their way to the seaside town of Paraty a bit south of Rio. Early on, the gold and silver were loaded on smaller ships there and transported to Rio where the ocean crossing tall ships of the day would take it to Portugal.

The last stretch of that road can be driven today on a paved, two lane road—I won’t call it a highway. If you go, you will see how very difficult it would have been with the oxen-pulled wagons used in those times.

Because Rio de Janeiro has a better harbor and certainly better access from the interior, the Royal Road was soon detoured to Rio. You can go either way today, if you want to experience the real Brasil where the tourist don’t venture. You will see the historical towns of Ouro Preto, Ouro Branco, Barbacena, Conselheiro Lafaiete, and many others. My wife and I visited these towns at various times during our two years there in Brasil.

At Ouro Preto, you will find