Balbuzar

BALBUZAR

Gérard Moncomble & Frédéric Pillot

BALBUZAR

Gérard Moncomble � Frédéric Pillot

Iknow a name that’ll strike ye like a bolt o’ lightning. Before I even tell ye it, you feel an angry wind blowing in your face and hear thunder rolling in the distance. A rumbling storm is gathering over the Bloeguns Sea, whipping up roaring, whitecrested waves. Suddenly, lightning rips through the darkened sky.

Balbuzar!

Ha, I saw ye jump, matey! I can tell by your eyes that them three syllables cut ye to the bone. There’s beads of sweat upon your brow, I can hear your teeth chattering, and see your hands are shaking. Run and hide in the bottom of a chest, you scallywag! Slip under a rock, like a frightened little crab. Make yourself scarce, fly away, disappear!

So, who is this man with the name that strikes such terror into your heart? This man who scares you so, before you’ve even laid eyes upon him?

Balbuzar!

The tale I’m going to tell ye about the most famous pirate of our time lays it all bare.

Stay there in your little hidey-hole, listen, and listen well. Don’t dare say a word. I hate being interrupted. I am a storyteller, bucko, but a pirate too, and armed with a very sharp cutlass.

At the end of the book (p. 88-95) you will find fragments from the ships’ logs by Captains Balbuzar and Cristobal Ruiz y Torres y Villanueva “the Commodore” de Somoza. They shed light on the hidden motives of the two foes.

It is the fifth day of January in the year of our Lord 1654. The San Valiente is sailing across the Bloeguns Sea, not far from the Majafrida Islands. She flies the purple and gold flag of the Empire. Powered by strong winds, the galleon cuts a merry pace. In the hold she carries a cargo of silk, Italian velvet, silverware, and porcelain.