Once we get close to the town, we set up camp in the bush, close to a creek we find. We don’t head straight to the port, but watch from a hilltop distance. Brisbane Waters is a lively port town with many vessels loading and unloading, taking on supplies. We spend a few days watching all the comings and goings till we notice one of the vessels, the Caroline, looking like it may be getting ready to sail.

I leave James to make enquiries as to who the captain is, and to watch as him come and go. I head off to find a brothel. Wait till a woman I like the look of come stand outside waiting for a customer. It don’t take long before I strike up a conversation tell her what I need. She call herself Amy, and after I agree to the fee, she lead me inside to her room. Amy not pretty like Mistress Josephine, not sweet like Aurelia, but I sense goodness hiding beneath her skin. Been a long time since I enjoy the feel of a woman’s soft flesh beneath me. After we finish, I follow her to the post office, wait while she enter and pay for postage, bring me back the payment receipt. Finally me debt to Holt is paid, and me glad to get this heavy weight off me back.

When I meet up with James on our hilltop lookout, him tell me how he found the ale house, a rough place where sailors like to drink. Have dark, smoke-filled rooms, with many a shadowy corner where a man can feel safe. After him quietly asked round, he found a sailor willing to talk, for a price. We guessed right, the Caroline been recently fitted out for a long whaling voyage and is bound for sailing in a day. Eventually going dock in New Zealand and the captain is a man named Boyle.

When James asked where to find him, making up some story bout him looking to crew, the sailor told him, ‘Try the church,’ taking a slug of him ale.

‘Why church?’ James asked.

‘Captain Boyle’s last voyage? It full of misfortune. Was bad enough that Boyle lost half his goods in a storm, but he also lost half his crew. Truth be told, he was already a God-fearing man. Now the fear of God even stronger, goes to pray at the end of each and every day. But is the god of the ocean he needs to pray to, not the one whose son is hanging on a cross,’ the sailor say, holding out him hand for the coin that was promised.