The Mountain of Gold (2012)
is the buoyant sequel to the first novel by J.D. Davies (Gentleman Captain)
that continues the valiant antics of Matthew Quinton, a young captain in King
Charles II’s royal navy in 1663. This grand adventure begins when a captured
Muslim pirate, who turns out to be an Irish renegade, tells Quinton a
preposterous tale about a mountain of gold in Africa. King Charles, blinded by
greed, does not hang the pirate but orders Quinton, his ship and the Irishman
on an inauspicious expedition to Dutch-held West Africa to find the treasure.
Before setting sail,
Quinton attempts to passionately dissuade his older brother from marrying a
mysterious French vixen who may have murdered her previous husbands, a marriage
arranged by the king. Once out to sea, the captain’s mission is anything but
straightforward—his own brother-in-law warns him that his mission to Africa
must not succeed--and the complicated expedition tests his crew and England’s
reputation as a maritime power to the utmost.
Davies, a noted
historian on the 17-century British navy, vividly captures the romance of
high-seas adventure as well as the era’s politics, battles and tactics that
shape his intrepid sea captain.
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