They think I am a thing they have stolen. Like the silver and the grain and the charts, and the roteiro guides, and everything else they take from the Spaniards. Rather have I stolen myself. [loc. 383]
This fictionalised account of 'Maria', the only woman known to have sailed on Drake's Golden Hind, was inspired by a single line in an anonymous account of Drake's circumnavigation, 1577-80. Maria has been a slave of one sort or another for eleven years when the novel opens, traded from one man to another, learning to read and acquiring some education before that particular owner fell prey to the Spanish Inquisition. Now she is eager to escape her Spanish protector, the vile Don Francisco, and she dares to ask Drake -- known only as 'the General' -- if she can accompany him. Unaccountably, he says yes: and Maria finds herself the only woman on what's effectively a pirate ship.
She makes allies amongst the crew, notably Diego, an African who is also a free man, and Thomas, a cabin boy who shows her where to hide from the crew and their indiscriminate lusts. But in the end, the only real sanctuary is in the General's bed, and thus under his protection. Little does he know that Maria is already pregnant when she boards the ship ...
Maria's presence is sometimes beneficial to Drake: she's better at communicating with the indigenous people they encounter when the Golden Hind drops anchor. Maria herself welcomes these trips ashore, the only times when she is not the sole woman in a performatively masculine environment: the claustrophobic danger of the ship is strongly contrasted with the days she spends with Native American women. Yet in the end, she cannot trust Drake, and he cannot trust her.
As in many historical novels, the language of Maria's first-person narrative feels rather stiff, lacking contractions and colloquialisms -- though she does occasionally use a Spanish word. Perhaps not a wholly likeable character, but a person who is determined to survive, pragmatic about how she minimises her risks, and fortunate not to fall prey to worse treatment than she does. On Wilder Seas is an impressive first novel, and that cover is beautiful!
A piece by Nikki Marmery on the historical inspiration for her protagonist, 'Maria: the African woman who sailed with Drake on the Golden Hind', suggests that she might have been the inspiration for Sycorax in Shakespeare's The Tempest: there are also some research-related posts at Marmery's blog.
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