Captain Blood: His Odyssey

On the way to Oglethorpe’s Farm, Blood and Jeremy pass rebels fleeing the battlefield. Baynes, the farm’s owner, ushers them into the main hall. The wounded Lord Gildoy rests on a daybed. Blood attends to the gentleman with the aid of Baynes’s wife and daughter. It isn’t long before dragoons invade the house. Pitt hides while the Bayneses wait in trepidation, but Blood calmly continues working on his patient and expresses his belief that, as they live in a Christian country, there’s nothing to fear—real Christians wouldn’t harm a man injured in battle. The soldiers’ behavior almost immediately disabuses Blood of his faith in Christian Englishmen.

Captain Hobart of Colonel Kirke’s dragoons enters. He has orders to arrest every rebel he finds and to execute them immediately, and he attempts to do so with Lord Gildoy. Blood objects saying it is inhumane and unlawful. Hobart and Blood argue the point until Blood reveals Gildoy’s rank, so Hobart orders his men to transport his lordship to jail, where he’ll await trial. Hobart discovers Pitt, so Blood quickly claims the shipmaster is also nobility. Hobart arrests Pitt and Baynes, forcibly kisses Baynes’s daughter and insinuates he’ll do worse to her, then orders Blood’s arrest. Blood and his fellow prisoners hear soldiers tearing apart Baynes’s home and a woman screaming in agony. Blood believes it was foolish to become a doctor when humanity is so evil.

Blood impatiently waits in Taunton jail for two months before he’s formally charged with high treason and his case goes to trial. He grows to hate King James and his enforcers; he scorns the Duke of Monmouth for begging James for mercy, only to be executed; and he is disgusted by Lord Grey, the Duke’s champion, for Grey’s purchase of the king’s pardon. Members of the gentry, although leaders of the rebellion, were able to buy their freedom, while lower-class rebels bore the full weight of the king’s vengeance.

Blood, Pitt, and Baynes go to trial at Taunton Castle. The Lord Chief Justice, Baron Jeffreys of Wem, directs the proceedings. Blood notices signs of a terminal illness in Jeffreys’s face before he hears his indictment pronounced and pleads not guilty. Baynes also pleads not guilty, but Pitt admits his guilt. Captain Hobart gives testimony, which Blood admits is accurate, but also incomplete. Jeffreys challenges Blood’s testimony with rhetoric meant to persuade the jury to find Blood and his codefendants guilty. Blood’s forthrightness and eloquence impress spectators; nevertheless, Jeffreys’s tactic is successful. Before sentencing, Blood says his final words to Jeffreys: He knows the sentence will be death, yet he laughs because a swift death by hanging is a kindness compared with God’s death sentence for Jeffreys, which is an agonizingly painful and slow demise. A shaken Jeffreys sentences the three men to death by hanging. A member of the court whispers to another member that he regrets Blood’s execution, “For a man who can frighten Jeffreys should go far” (32).

A decree from the Secretary of State reaches Taunton ordering the transport of more than 1,000 rebels to colonies in the Americas, where they’ll be sold into slavery. King James and his loyalists will profit from the sale. The prisoners will regain their freedom, should they survive, after 10 years of enslavement. Peter Blood and his codefendants are among several dozen prisoners shipped to Bridgetown, Barbados, aboard the Jamaica Merchant. Baynes is one of 11 prisoners who die of illness caused by the unhealthy conditions onboard the ship. Blood ministers to the afflicted and improves the living conditions, thus saving many lives.

When they arrive at Bridgetown, Captain Gardner presents the prisoners to Governor Steed and Colonel Bishop before he takes them to a general auction. The colonel’s niece, Arabella Bishop, is present, and her appearance catches Blood’s notice. Arabella returns Blood’s gaze—what she sees compels her to persuade the colonel to buy Blood. Captain Gardner describes Blood’s good qualities, as if he’s a horse, while Blood silently hopes he won’t become the property of the colonel and his attractive niece. Colonel Bishop purchases Blood for £10.

Arabella encounters Blood one month later, but she doesn’t immediately recognize him because he’s clean and respectably dressed. He replies with bitter irony, “A lady should know her own property” (41). As their talk progresses, she marvels that he can joke about his situation—he attributes his humor to the comparative ease in which he lives, owing to his talents as a physician, which Governor and Mrs. Steed prize highly. Colonel Bishop profits more from Blood practicing medicine than toiling on the plantation, so the doctor enjoys freedoms not afforded to the rest of Bishop’s human property. Blood thanks Arabella for convincing her uncle to buy him, although he resented it at the time. His bitter tone spurs Arabella to explain she chose him because he’s not like the rest of the rebels. He recounts his story to her and blames King James for his misfortunes.

Blood resents his powerlessness, the brutal treatment of his enslaved comrades, and the necessity of behaving pleasantly to his tormentors, among whom he includes Arabella. Blood’s opinion of Arabella changes when the English Pride of Devon arrives in poor condition after a battle with two Spanish ships. English sailors and Spanish prisoners need medical attention. Since Blood speaks fluent Castilian, Bishop orders him to minister to the Spanish. Blood personally dislikes Spaniards due to his experiences as a prisoner of war; but as a doctor, he effectively cares for his patients. The only other Bridgetown resident to visit the Spaniards is Arabella. Blood challenges her motives—he knows her uncle wants the patients to die. She sees human beings in pain, Arabella asserts, and believes they’re worthy of her charity. She becomes angry at Blood’s implication that she and her father share the same values. Blood is contrite, but Arabella remains outraged as she leaves. Blood regrets misjudging Arabella’s character.

One of Bridgetown’s two other medical practitioners offers Blood financial help in escaping from slavery. Dr. Whacker claims his motivation is a concern for a fellow physician, but he is acting on a scheme he formed with the second Bridgetown physician, Dr. Bronson, to get Blood out of Barbados and regain the patients they lost to his superior skill. Whacker recommends the Dutch colony of Curaçao as Blood’s destination. Blood and Pitt form a plan that night; it requires at least 10 more men, preferably experienced sailors. Pitt will recruit the men, while Blood will acquire a boat.

Blood enlists James Nuttall, a shipwright imprisoned on the island for debt, to buy a boat with Whacker’s money and join the escape. When the time comes to flee, however, the governor requires Blood’s attention. A chance meeting with Arabella delays Blood’s return.