THE SECRET MEMORIES OF LORD MORIESSON By Andrej Koymasky Š 2010 Written on July 27, 2002 Translated by the Author English text kindly revised by Brian
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"THE SECRET MEMORIES OF LORD MORIESSON" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
Chapter 7 - How I went to the Americas and visited an interesting island
Back to England, I had to narrate to everybody the incredible adventures I had in those years, first as "councillor" of a powerful black king, then as prisoner of the Spaniards. Of course I didn't utter a single word about the aspects that were to me the most interesting, that is about the relationships I had, in the years passed in those lands, with the men with whom I shared body and bedÉ
I came to know that my brother Aldous, during my absence, moved to our American colonies, as in those times did several sons of the English aristocracy - those colonies were a real mine of riches, therefore, besides the colonisers who often were people of very low level and even convicts, not a few noble youths went there to try their luck. Our father's brother had founded there, in a town called Providence, a trade enterprise; he had fitted out some ships and he imported handiworks from England and exported local products there. As our Uncle didn't have children, he invited Aldous to go there to side him and manage his enterprise with him. Aldous accepted with enthusiasm.
Oddly, as much as I was impatient to see again my land when I was far from it, so much now that I was back felt thatÉ it didn't fit me. I was becoming increasingly restless and discontented. At times I confided with Sean, my personal servant, who patiently listened to me and, with my pleasure, expressed to me his points of view, in a respectful but autonomous way, at times agreeing with me and at times disagreeing, but anyway always reasoning with me.
One day my father got a letter from my brother Aldous. Uncle had suddenly died and had left Aldous universal heir of all his possessions. Aldous, who was at that time twenty-four years old, wrote that managing Uncle's enterprise alone was becoming somewhat burdensome and that he would like to have a business partner there with him, but that he didn't feel comfortable taking a stranger into partnership with him.
I then said to my father that if he allowed me, I would willingly go to Aldous to help him in his trade, even if not as a business partner at least as a collaborator, in exchange for an adequate yearly wage. My father, contrarily to what I feared, approved my idea and wrote about it to Aldous. My brother answered in a positive way, so I prepared for my new travels. Of course I decided to take Sean with me, to whom I was feeling increasingly tied. My servant, who was the same age as Aldous, willingly accepted to follow me, saying he was curious to see how life was in our colonies on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
We therefore embarked on a three mast ship leaving for America, this time boarding the ship at the London harbour. On board I had two cabins, a wider one for me and another one, adjoining but smaller, for Sean. The journey should last in average forty-three days. But its duration was really variable according to the favourable or contrary winds, of the storms and of the currents we had to cross along the route.
I was on board for less than a week when I noticed a sailor that attracted my attention. Possibly sailors, for some peculiar reason, attract me more than other people, I don't knowÉ Possibly because rumour has it that sailors, as they have to stay for long periods of time without any women, are quite disposed to devote themselves with some easiness to intimate relations with other menÉ
This sailor had to be slightly older than Sean, he had a big forelock of brown-coppery hair, a somewhat square but agreeable face, and remarkable muscles, though he was not a Hercules. I could see him busy himself on the deck, or yet to have some rest on a roll of hawsers, chatting with his mates or playing dice with them, but I never saw him looking at me. And yet I felt very attracted to him. And rather, the fact that he didn't seem interested to me, made him even more desirable.
I heard his mates call him Red, and I thought it was a nickname. I instead later discovered that it was an unusual shortening of his name - Reynold. I saw that he was always merry when he was with his mates, and I also noticed he had a good sense of humour.
After a couple of days of observing him, I decided to play my cards. I saw him coming onto the deck and go towards the stern. I adjusted my pace so that I could cross his path and when I was in front of him, I pretended to lose my balance. As I hoped, before I could fall down, his strong hand seized my arm and held me up.
"Forgive me if I dared to put my hand on you, sirÉ" he said immediately, with his beautiful tenor voice.
"On the contrary, sailor, I have to thank you. You helped me avoid having a bad fall and even more, looking bad. I am not so used to walking on the deck of a ship, I am a man of solid land." I said to him with a smile.
"Yes, one has to be used to moving safely on a vessel floating on the waves, sir." he said with a half smile.
"Is it for a long time that you have been sailing, sailor?"
"More than ten years, sir. I boarded this beautiful ship when it had just been built, enlisted as a ship-boy. Nowadays I feel comfortable only when I am at sea." he answered.
"I can understand that therefore you love the sea life and your job."
"Yes, I ran away from home to embark."
"From which part of England do you come? Oddly I am not able to tell by your accent."
He smiled, nodding, "To tell the truth, I was born in Denmark, sir. But when I was a child my father, who was a Lutheran pastor, and my mother moved to Brighton and so I grew up thereÉ"
"Ah, therefore you are of Danish blood, you are a Viking, a NorsemanÉ Are all the Danes beautiful like you?" I asked him, starting to sound the waters.
He looked at me slightly astounded, "Do you find me beautiful, sir?"
"I should say you areÉ I am for sure not the first one to have noticed it and to have told you so."
"I have been told a little of everything, sirÉ but beautifulÉ this is the first time somebody has said that to me, my word."
"Are you annoyed I told you so?" I asked him.
"NoÉ I just find it a little odd. Of a woman one may say that she is beautiful, but of a manÉ at most one says he is handsome."
"Well, let me say then that you are very handsome. Is it better now, sailor?"
He giggled, "To me anything is good, sir. If anyway one can also say to a man that he is beautiful, you really are so, in my opinion. And you also have a really elegant gaitÉ"
"Also when I am falling down?" I asked him with humour, now openly smiling at him.
He giggled again, "I don't know if one can fall down in an elegant way, to tell the truth. But if it were possible, I am certain that you would fall down elegantly."
"You are an agreeable guy. I like you." I then said.
"You are too, sir, if I can dare. May I ask you a somewhatÉ personal question, sir?"
"You certainly can. At most I will not answer you."
"No offence, sir, butÉ why did you adjust your pace in order to get in front of meÉ and thenÉ you pretended you lost your balance and were falling?"
I looked at him astounded, I didn't expect he saw, and understood, my manoeuvres. He was waiting for my reaction, a light smile on his lips. I decided I had to throw him the bait.
"To have a pretext to talk with you, as it is some days I have observed you, and you seem to be an interesting and really agreeable young man."
"Yes, as I guessedÉ You too seem to be an interesting and really agreeable person, sir. I too, trying not to show it, have been observing you for some days."
"Really? I should say that you have been skilled in hiding it. I thought I absolutely didn't get your attention."
"On the contrary. If you weren't a gentleman, me being just a sailor, I would have tried to become acquainted with you much earlier."
"May I now ask you a rather personal question?"
"As you saidÉ at most I will not answer you." he merrily said.
"I have heard that you sailors have a girl, a woman in each portÉ Is it so for you too?"
He looked at me with curiosity, then answered, almost scanning the words, "I, in each port, have a dear male friend, not a woman. My father, who was a minister of god, always said that having relations with a woman without being married with her, is a mortal sin. I am a good Christian, sir. Therefore I have no relationships with women, as I am not married, and my relationships are only with men."
"And do you make these friendships and have these relations in the ports only withÉ sailors like you?"
"Oh no, sir. With bakers, servants, waiters, shop-boys, even with some soldiers and with the son of an inn-keeper. SailorsÉ I can find them also here on board, sir."
"But nobody likeÉ like me?" I then asked him.
"No, it never happened to me up to now, to be able to count amongst my friends a noble person like youÉ"
"And wouldn't you like to?" I asked him with a provoking smile.
"If you liked me, sir, I would like it, of courseÉ The journey is still so longÉ"
"And one becomes bored aloneÉ I am certain that I would be pleased if we could get to know each otherÉ in a moreÉ intimate way."
"Yes, I guess so. Yes, I too think I would beÉ pleased." he said looking at me with a penetrating glance, and he passed the tip of his tongue over his upper lipÉ
Soon after, he was in my cabin hastily undressing. He waited for me to have also undressed, then drew near me and gently touched the skin of my side, like in a slow caress.
"Your skin is smooth like China silk, sirÉ"
"What do you like to do, Red?" I asked him, already fully aroused seeing his firm body, tanned from his waist up, but white where it was usually covered by his trousers, and his beautiful rod gradually and majestically rose.
"Everything, sir, really everything. I take it and give it, I suck it and let mine be suckedÉ if you liked it."
I pushed him onto my berth and laid on top of him. He wrapped me in his strong arms and legs, and I felt his vigorous erection throb and push against my belly.
"Do you like to kiss, Red?"
"Yes, of courseÉ" he answered and at once gave me a long and hot kiss.
That young man was undoubtedly skilled, he knew how to bring another man to sail on the waters, at times calm and at times stormy but always agreeable, of the relationship between two men. We did literally everything, the sailor and I, not only that time but also in the following days, all during the journey. He made love with a contagious merriment that made our unions even more pleasurable.
We were finally in sight of the island of Barbuda, that was to the south of our route, when all of a sudden the sky darkened, a very strong wind rose and soon the ship was surrounded by a sudden and incredibly violent storm. In spite of the great skill of our ship's captain and of his crew, and in spite of the ship's solidity, for several days we found ourselves in a black water inferno of incredibly tall waves that tore away our sails and tossed us about, here and there.
Like the other passengers of the ship, I feared more than once for my life. We were closed in our cabins, as our captain ordered us, as it would have been extremely dangerous try to go up on the deck, and we would have been a hindrance to the sailors' necessary manoeuvres. Only Sean seemed not to be scared, possibly because he already had had similar experiences in his previous life as a sailor.
Of course in those days I could never see or meet Red.
When the storm finally seemed to calm down, while the sailors were trying to recover the pieces of sails and sew them together to get at least a minimum of sailage to sail, and the officers in their turn were trying to make the point to understand where the tempest had brought us, a sailor from the crow's nest yelled there was land at the south.
The ship was almost going adrift, dragged by a strong sea current. The sailors hoisted what of the sails they had been able to recover, trying to steer the ship. But after a few hours we were too close to a group of small islands and the keel badly hit against half submerged rocks. I, who was lying on my berth, was tossed out, onto the floor.
But finally the ship stopped being tossed about like a small toy in the hands of a naughty child - we were finally in a dead calm.
We were at close distance from a quite big island but on its shore no building was seen. The captain ordered to cast anchor and to send a tender with some armed sailors to see where we were and if we could find some help. He meanwhile did the call - we came to know that the tempest had grabbed two sailors. I was afraid for Red but, when I could finally go up on deck, I saw him busying with other sailors and drew a breath of relief.
The tender came back - we rode at anchor near the island of Nevis, that for our luck was an English Crown colony. The only two settlements were on the opposite shore of the island and the biggest one was called Charlestown, while the smallest one was called Petit Bourg. According to the man they met on the island, none of the two settlements had skilled carpenters, able to fix the keel of a ship.
The captain decided to send his second with two tenders to circumnavigate the island to reach Charlestown. I asked and was authorised to go with them. When we reached the small town, we were confirmed that they didn't have craftsmen able to help us, and that therefore the only chance was to wait for the arrival at their port of a vessel to inform them of our needs and hope they could help us. The second asked if at least on the island there was good timber - the master carpenter we had on board could at least do a temporary mending to enable us to take to sea again. He was told that on the island there were still some trees with a really strong wood, called "lignum vitae" that could be used for that purpose. The second decided to go back to the ship to get our carpenters and come back with them. I decided to wait for them in town.
They calculated that we should have to stay at Nevis for about two months before we could sail again to the north and reach our original destination. I decided to live for that period in Petit Bourg, where I came to know an elderly man of French origins, who hosted me. I didn't have any adventures during those two months; I only managed to withdraw with Red a few times. But thanks to my kind French host I got to know a rather interesting story.
Monsieur Jerme de Coutance was a rather cultivated man of fifty-two years of age. He was born on the island and he was descended from a French pirate who settled there about one hundred and fifty years before. Like his father before him, Monsieur de Coutance had had a keen interest, all his life long, in the history, the traditions and customs of Nevis island. He also made some journeys to gather documentation, but above all he had patiently gathered the oral traditions of the natives. Now, talking about "natives" can deceive because, as it can be seen by the story he told me, the island's population was somewhat more mixed than one might imagine.
Well, here is what Monsieur de Coutance narrated to me.
It seems that, before the Europeans' arrival, the island was inhabited by American Indians who were, in his opinion, related to the Arawak and to the Caribe, and that the population was of about two thousand and five hundred souls. In his second journey Christopher Columbus came in sight of the island on November 11th 1493, but didn't set foot on it. A cloud was topping the island's mountains and he, thinking it was snow, called the island Nieves that in Spanish means "snows" and from this comes the present name of the island.
It seems that in 1503 the Spaniards abandoned on the shores of the still unexplored Nevis a certain number of sailors charged with sodomy - according to the laws they should have been sentenced to death, but the captain who had to take them back to Spain for capital punishment preferred to land them on the shores of the island, believing it was not inhabited.
Now, these sailors met the natives, who received them with gentleness. When they started to understand the local language, to their great surprise and pleasure, they discovered that the natives had a custom quite congenial to them - when the Indians' children had their first ejaculation or menarche, the parents brought them to the so called "coleje" a community of wizards-healers-teachers and a ceremony of coming of age was held - one of the adults of the same sex as the child, after the ceremony called the "deflowering", became the official lover of the boy or of the girl, and remained such up to the age of marriage.
When they were about twenty years old the girls had to marry. The boys instead had to live alone for a full year, without receiving any help from anybody, to show they were able to support themselves and to face life with only their own means. When they were twenty-one years old they went back to the village and the marriage ceremony was held. Who of them didn't want to marry, had to become a member of the coleje and within four years he had to find a companion of his own sex with whom to make a steady couple.
Therefore marriages were celebrated between people of the opposite sex, he being twenty-one and she twenty, or between people of the same sex where one of the spouses was about twenty-five years old and the other one of about his same age or older. The spouses of different sex have their long hair in a kind of pony tail, while the spouses of the same sex had the hair shaved. Those sailors, because of the sexual inclination for which they had been abandoned on the island, adhered at once to this tradition, becoming thus members of the coleje, where each of them chose a man with whom to form a couple.
In 1525 some French pirates were shipwrecked on the island with their black slaves. They built a port and fortified it, and they mixed and united with the natives. The island had few resources; therefore, after capturing some ships that cast anchor to gather provisions, they went back to piracy. Some of the pirates became members of the coleje, but others united with native women. In 1612 a Dutch ship with black slaves also shipwrecked on the island. They were rescued and some of them married the island's women, others instead went to increase the coleje.
All this had as a result the fact that both the somatic features and the language of the island's people were greatly mixed up, including in it Indian, Spanish, French, Dutch and African elements.
In 1623 the English conquered the island and besides the usage of the English language instead of the mixed language that was spoken up to then, imposed its Christianization. In 1628 the first Governor sent by the English Crown forbade both the pederast initiation system and the coleje, but everybody knew that this tradition was carried on in the hinterland, which was still under control of the natives. In 1629 the Spaniards conquered the island, and the Irish servants rebelled from the English masters and united with the Spaniards. In the following years the island was conquered by the French, then fell again into the hands of England.
My host told me that, in spite of all the efforts of the Anglican missionaries who work for the suppression of the ancient traditions, and above all of the "sodomitic" practices like the marriages between people of the same sex, and the "defloration" of adolescents by people of their same sex, these customs are still nowadays flourishing in the as-yet almost unexplored hinterland of the island, where they are still practiced in secret.
He told me that the deflowering ceremony happens as follows - at their puberty the boy or the girl are "introduced" to the members of the coleje, expressly gathered. The boys wear a white cloth and the girls a red one and are called "shewen". Their relatives sing a song for them wishing them a happy sexual life, then they choose amongst the member of the coleje the adult who is to perform the deflowering, who is called "fuhra". They entrust the boy or the girl to him or her and go away. The following day, relatives and friends go back there and the elders verify that the fuhra did the deflowering. The fuhra and the shewen had then to live together and make love together until the shewen is about twenty years old.
He also described to me the marriage between two men or two women. First of all the two prospective spouses, after undressing themselves completely and having shaved their hair, eat, feeding each other in the presence of relatives and friends. Then there are choral songs and dances with a sexual and auspicious theme and finally all together eat a great feast. After this feast there is the final ceremony, where the two spouses exchange a crown of flowers and a bowl, then each of them put on the other a white loincloth if they are men or a red one if they are women. So they become at full rights spouses and members of the coleje.
I asked the good Monsieur de Coutance if I could attend some of those rites that I thought to be fascinating, but he told me that it would be very difficult, as these rites happened only one time each year, and in great secret, because of the growing persecution from the missionaries and the English authorities. The only thing I might notice were some couples of men or women working together, their heads shavenÉ and also a few adults constantly accompanied by a boy wearing a white loincloth, or an adult woman accompanied by a girl wearing a red loinclothÉ
As I am an Englishman, therefore for them an oppressor and an enemy, the people of that place, in spite that I was a guest in the house of Monsieur Jerme de Coutance, had a clear wariness towards me.
For the sake of the chronicle I came to know, some years later, thanks to a letter from Monsieur de Coutance, that in 1675 the English authorities took full possession of all the island, including the hinterland and that in that same year, except for people like Monsieur de Coutance that managed to flee, or people who managed to "camouflage" themselves amongst the population, on the island of Nevis were carried out almost daily capital punishments and about one hundred and twenty "sodomites" were killed. That beautiful civilization that the "natives" had shaped, where everybody could freely follow his inclinations, had unhappily disappeared forever.
The work on our ship was proceeding rather slowly when finally an English war ship appeared, which cast anchor in front of Charlestown. I spoke with that vessel's captain and got passage, for me and my servant, to the colonies where I was bound. I therefore had my luggage taken onto the war ship, said farewell to my former journey companions, to Red, and to my exquisite and interesting host Monsieur de Coutance, and left the island.
The vessel sailed along a long set of islands, going towards the north. And finally, on the 21st day of November of the year 1672, I set foot on a pier of the town of Providence. Of course my brother was not there waiting for me, as he didn't have any more news about me. I asked about him to a kid who offered to go and call him, and quickly ran away. Soon after I saw Aldous come towards me, an excited expression on his face, mixed with amazement, joy, relief seeing I was still alive and in good shape on a pier of his town.
We warmly embraced each other. Aldous called some dock workers who took my luggage on their shoulders and all together followed him to his house.
Providence was a small town but in a fast growth. It had been founded just thirty-six years before by one Roger Williams, a former Anglican chaplain who, being on bad terms with his church, abandoned the frock and emigrated to the American colonies. When he founded Providence and the colony of Rhode Island he was thirty-three years old, and he was also named Governor of the small colony in the years 1654-1657.
Mr. Williams was now sixty-nine years old and I met him several times and also had the chance to talk with him. One point that I really appreciate in the thoughts of this brave man, is his idea that there should be a total separation between church and state, and a full freedom of the citizens in the field of thought and of religious practice.
The ships mooring at Providence loaded or unloaded rum, slaves, building materials, cotton, and items coming from the English factories. Moreover a small but sufficient part of the population was made of fishermen. It was a small town but, as I said, in a fast growth, noisy and full of life, with hotels, a play-house, brothels, taverns, a small theatre that had just been opened and a very mixed populationÉ I liked it, or rather it conquered me at first sight.
Aldous settled me in a delightful little two story house that had just been built in the higher part of the town, almost on the banks of the river, that one of his debtors gave him as a partial compensation for a debt he had with him. He let me also have a riding horse, a pulling horse and a buggy, as well as three black slaves - a thirty year old cook that we called Mammy, a stable-boy of thirty-five called Tom and a young slave of seventeen called Sam that did the house's heavy work. I had a shed built at the bottom of the garden for the slaves. Sean came to live with me in the house.
Aldous was not yet married nor engaged; but he confided to me that he had a mistress, the step-daughter of the owner of the hotel "The Queen's Maid" and that they were meeting quite often. She was two years older than him and her name was Eleanore. She wasn't beautiful but, he told me, he never had in his bed a hotter, more skilled womanÉ I asked him why he didn't marry her, and he told me that in reality she was already married, but her husband was in jail for three years. This is why her step father pretended not to know about their relationship and let them freely meet in a room in his hotel.
I liked working with Aldous, I quickly became competent in my tasks, keeping the account books, compiling the orders and the letters of credit and so on. Aldous' house, which had been built by our late Uncle, was wide and quite elegant, close to the warehouses of his enterprise which opened on the port but, differently from mine, didn't have a garden. At times I accompanied my brother to "The Queen's Maid" to have our lunch then, while he withdrew to a room with his mistress, I lingered to drink in the hall, to read the newspaper or to talk with the people that I was gradually coming to know because of my work.
It was there that I got to know Nick, a twenty-three year old man, who was a real Don Juan, that is the character about whom I had read in a book written by a Frenchman called Molire. To my ill luck he was a passionate and inveterate lover of the fair sex only. I say to my ill luck, as Nick had the power to rouse in me incredibly strong desires and forbidden fantasies each time he simply sat at my table to amiably chat with me. I could perfectly understand how very few women, married or still unmarried, were able to resist his fascination; the young man in fact was not only very sensual, elegant, witty, cultivated and intelligent, but he also had a special animal magnetism that had its power also over me.
Once, I made up my mind to make him understand how much I was attracted to him, daring possibly something more than prudence would have suggested. He didn't get upset, he wasn't at all scandalised, he rather smiled but declared to me that he never shared his bed, and never would, with a person of his same sex, "no matter how much an agreeable and handsome person he might be, and as you areÉ" he concluded with a courteous smile.
Nick worked as a clerk in the local bank; he had immigrated to Providence from Whitehaven, a small sea town in Cumberland, with his family when he was just twelve years old and grew up there. Then, when he was sixteen, his mother died, and when he was eighteen his father also died, so he was left alone. He was exactly eighteen when he not only found a job at the bank, as the banker was a friend of his late father, but he also started his career as a seducer of women who, besides falling into his arms with extreme easiness, and with pleasure as it seemed, showered him with presents hoping so, although in vain, to bind him to them.
One day I also tried an approach with a Dutch sailor, but in spite that he followed me without the least problem into one of the rooms of "The Queen's Maid", I was deeply disappointed - he laid there passive, he didn't participate, he wasn't able to make a man experience those pleasurable quivers of lust that I was expecting from a handsome young man as he was. I gave him a few coins as he asked me before accepting my invitation and let him go, more filled of lust than when I hooked him.
I had a second, and again really not so much interesting adventure, about a month later with a Scottish young man, the shop-boy of a saddler. It had been that youth who made me understand he would like to withdraw with me for an hour of intimacy. He was handsome therefore I willingly accepted. But it was quite disappointing as that boy in bed revealed to be much too effeminate for my taste - he threw short yells and talked about himself in the feminine, while I only like people of gentle but virile behaviour. I moreover discovered that under his clothes he was wearing panties trimmed with lace, and that seemed to me quite ridiculous on a youth that nature had endowed with conspicuous male attributes!
That boy confided in me that his master, although married and the father of four children, at night came quite often to his bed, that was in the shop backroom, to amuse himself with him. He also told me that the one who introduced him to male love had been the pastor officiating in the nearby Presbyterian church, when he was just thirteen. After the liturgies the pastor had him stay in the chapel, with the pretext to help him do the cleaning, carefully closed the door and took him, making him undress completely, on a bench of the chapelÉ
I asked myself how can they dare, our most reverend and saintly pastors, ministers and priests, thunder from their pulpits against the "horrible sin of Sodom"!
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 8
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