The Pearlkillers by Rachel Ingalls

Author:Rachel Ingalls [Rachel Ingalls]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780571298587
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2013-10-14T04:00:00+00:00

Captain Hendrik’s Story

Captain Hendrik’s property extended to the bay. In the twilight of dawn or evening you could imagine the house as a large, white ship stranded there from another age. Far behind it began the dense pinewoods that covered all the islands of the archipelago. Nearer to the house were ornamental lakes populated by ducks and swans. And in between lay what had once been famous sunken gardens full of exotic plants that generations of Hendriks had brought back from the New World when it was still considered new.

They had been explorers for hundreds of years. An offshoot of the family had even been related to the Dane, Vitus Bering, after whom the Bering Strait was named, and who – while in the service of Peter the Great – had proven that the landmasses of America and Asia were separated from each other. Hendriks had discovered rivers, islands, animals, fish, orchids, trees, and given them names as Adam is said to have done in Paradise. They were, of course, the men of the family. The women stayed at home.

The women were brought up to be good listeners. From childhood they were used to seeing great-uncles push the saltcellars and pepperpots around the tablecloth in order to give a picture of where the cavalry had been or how the ship had come about close to a treacherous sandbar lying just off the hidden rocks. They learned how to do all the secondary work: making neat copies of the notes and logbooks, mounting the sketches, collating the figures, planting the tubers and bulbs. They were glad to do it. They admired their manly, adventurous relatives.

And for a long while all branches of the family flourished, as did the transplanted tropical seedlings. But then, suddenly, there was a period of financial experimentation which turned out badly, unrestrained speculation to gain back what had been lost, and subsequent safe investments that diminished every year. Some of the land was sold. Huge tracts of the mainland went, to be forested by lumber companies and turned into paper. Many fine pieces of furniture and silverware, and also paintings, were taken from the house to the auction rooms.

And the great source of wealth, the men, came to a stop. All at once the family produced only daughters.

It was at this point that Captain Anders Hendrik decided to mount his own expedition. He was thirty-eight years old, had a young wife, Lina, and two small daughters, ten and eight years old. His mother, her two sisters, and his two great-aunts – sisters of his grandfather – all still lived in the house, together with his widowed sister, Elsie, and her nine-year-old daughter, Erika. After plans for the voyage had been drawn up, his wife’s younger sister, Louise, joined them, and his own cousin, Sophie; both of the girls were attached to young men who would be accompanying the captain. That made twelve: twelve female members of the family in one house. In addition to them, there were

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.