The fleet of small ships stood out from the quay, and began heading down the Thames, towards the estuary and the open sea beyond. King Charles I smiled grimly as he watched them moving with the pull of the outgoing tide. This was the last of a convoy that would number fifty ships. On board were the final remnants of the defeated Puritan Army that damned rebel Oliver Cromwell. The King looked over the Thames at the line of gibbets, each with its cage containing the body of one of Cromwell's generals. The tallest gibbet of all was reserved for the corpse of Cromwell himself, the chief rebel and traitor.
His gaze swung back down to the river, where the last of the ships was now disappearing around a bend. Except for their masts, the flotilla was hidden by buildings. There went the last of these scurvy Puritan dogs, off to a lifetime of convict slavery, literally on the other side of the world. How fortunate, Charles I thought, that the Dutch East India Company had decided against setting up a colony in the those islands...what was their name, now? Ah, yes, he thought, remembering--Niew Zeeland; named by Captain Abel Tasman, who explored the coastline of the country a year before. Savages had attacked his ship in a place he had subsequently named Murderer's Bay. Hardly surprising, therefore, that the Dutch had decided not to send people there.
All the better for us, the King mused. We could certainly use these distant, savage-infested islands as a dumping ground for our worst felons. In time to come, we may even set up a colony there ourselves...
His gaze swung back down to the river, where the last of the ships was now disappearing around a bend. Except for their masts, the flotilla was hidden by buildings. There went the last of these scurvy Puritan dogs, off to a lifetime of convict slavery, literally on the other side of the world. How fortunate, Charles I thought, that the Dutch East India Company had decided against setting up a colony in the those islands...what was their name, now? Ah, yes, he thought, remembering--Niew Zeeland; named by Captain Abel Tasman, who explored the coastline of the country a year before. Savages had attacked his ship in a place he had subsequently named Murderer's Bay. Hardly surprising, therefore, that the Dutch had decided not to send people there.
All the better for us, the King mused. We could certainly use these distant, savage-infested islands as a dumping ground for our worst felons. In time to come, we may even set up a colony there ourselves...