Introduction

FOR FANS OF WILBUR SMITH, CLIVE CUSSLER & MATTHEW REILLY

A STORY OF PIRATE TREASURE, A GIRL & A LOVE AFFAIR FOR THE AGES

Benito's treasure is the second great unsolved Australian treasure legend alongside Lasseter's Reef. It involves the tale of one Bennett Grahame aka Benito 'Bloody Sword' Bonito, a Royal Navy captain turned pirate, a girl and a love affair that would shake the very fabric of the Spanish Main and the Royal Navy itself.

With a Chilian army marching on Lima and an impending blockade of its port, Captain Bennett Grahame of HMS Devonshire was entrusted by the Viceroy and priests of Lima with the so-called Devonshire Treasure worth $400 million in today's currency, ordered to run the blockade and return to port when safe. But Captain Grahame has fallen in love with the Viceroy's daughter Teresa, who no longer a virgin is ordered back to Madrid in disgrace aboard the galleon Santa Katerina Isabella, there to enter a monastery.

The Viceroy and priests of Lima never saw their treasure again. Legend has it that Captain Grahame pursued and attacked the Isabella to rescue the love of his life thereby becoming the pirate Benito, finally sailing across the Pacific to bury the Devonshire treasure in a cave at Queenscliff, Victoria, but despite a number of well-funded expeditions it has never been found.

Benito's Truth is a novel about what really happened.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1?Love and War

The career of Benito the Pirate started innocently enough, with a swimming lesson.

Teresa Sanchez, only daughter of the most excellent Joaquin de la Pezuela y Sanchez, 1st Marquess of Viluma and Viceroy of Lima, led a life of privilege, mainly centred around the Viceroy’s mansion overlooking the port of Callao and the Spanish court attached thereto.

As defender of the Spanish crown in South America, the Marquess had enjoyed success against insurgent Peruvian armies at the battles of Vilapugio, Ayohuma (in present day Bolivia) and Sipe-Sipe (or Viluma), and looked forward to returning to Spain in triumph, his ambitions extending to a homecoming court appointment and the arranged marriage of his daughter Teresa to Count Fernando Miguel Alejandro, a wealthy Grandee of Spain and favourite of the King.

The marriage had been arranged in a similar manner to that of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves. Sixty-year-old Count Alejandro had been sent an oil painting of nineteen-year-old Teresa commissioned in Lima by the Viceroy, and upon feasting his eyes on it became extremely keen on the arrangement. A family connection with the Hero of Viluma would boost his standing at court and the beautiful young girl smiling from the painting would be perfect for his bed.

A win-win situation that was not shared by Teresa, who despite her stunning looks would in today’s parlance be described as a ‘tomboy,’ and a wilful one at that.

On the day her father announced the glad tidings of her coming nuptials, Teresa stormed off to Callao’s sole swimming beach in high dudgeon, to pour her heart out to her ‘socially unsuitable’ best friend, Lena, and cool off (both physically and mentally) in the ocean.

Standing up to her neck in the water with Lena conspiring escape from the impending marriage, Teresa was to meet Captain Bennett Grahame, master of the British frigate HMS Devonshire.

Ben and his First Officer Charley Farley were taking a break from the task of supervising careening and repairs to the running gear of the ship with a well-earned trip to the beach, and were sitting on the swimmer’s pontoon dangling their legs in the water when the two girls were spotted wading in from the shore.

“Hey, take a look over there, Charley,” laughed Ben. “Mine’s the one on the left!”

With an arrogance only a good-looking sailor can employ, Ben rolled off the pontoon and swum in to make the acquaintance of the girl of his choice, with the less-accomplished Charley trying to keep up.

Unfortunately, the bikini hadn’t been invented yet but wet, clinging cotton neck to knee costumes still managed to reveal two extremely attractive girls, and not only that, both were smiling as the two sailors made it to the shallows, dived under and burst out of the water to confront them.

Ben was not shy with his opening gambit.

“How about a swim out to the pontoon?” he said, looking Teresa in the eye and firing off his best grin.

Charley was not slow in coming forward, either.

“You too!” he offered Lena.

Lena was the daughter of Callao’s Harbourmaster and could swim like a fish.

“Race you there,” she responded to Charley and set off at a fast clip, with Charley churning along in her wake with his agricultural stroke.

“I’m afraid I can’t swim,” said Teresa. “So, I can’t go out of my depth.”

Can’t – not won’t.

Clearly not a rejection.

God, you’re bloody beautiful!

“Then today you’re in luck. You’ve just met the best swimmer in the Royal Navy, and he is here to give you your first lesson,” he said.

Teresa responded with a twinkle in her eyes:

“Can I trust a sailor?” she replied.

“Absolutely not! But I promise on my honour I won’t drown you! Let’s go! It’s all about the breathing,” was the first instruction of the lesson, which went well. By the time Lena and Charley arrived back in the shallows, Teresa was on the way to mastering breast stroke, with a respectable frog-kick and well- controlled breathing.

“Look, I can swim!” she informed Lena, making it over to her friend in a dozen graceful strokes, then standing up and splashing her.

She turned back to Ben with a smile that dreams are made of:

“How can I ever thank you?”

“I always charge a kiss for lessons,” said Ben.

As daughter of the Viceroy, Teresa had led a sheltered life. The arranged marriage was only a part of it. She was always chaperoned whenever ‘suitable young men’ were present during social occasions, and even dancing classes were always taken under the watchful eye of Maria, who doubled as Teresa’s nanny and religious instructor.

Teresa didn’t know what to do, except that she sort of did, having listened spellbound to accounts of Lena’s romantic adventures often enough.

Teresa wound her arms around Ben’s neck, closed her eyes, and kissed him in what she hoped was a romantic way.

It was how Ben kissed her back that caused all the trouble. He was eight years older than Teresa, and had spent them ‘with a girl in every port,’ in the finest tradition of the Royal Navy.

Thus, it transpired that Teresa’s second lesson that day was ‘kissing with your mouth open,’ and as a result, she fell instantly in love.

In his turn, Ben was awestruck by her beauty, although his feelings could better be described as ‘in lust.’

Love would come later.

“You can’t swim properly yet,” he offered as soon as they came up for air.

“You’re going to need a lot more lessons.”

“Yes,” said Teresa. “I mean to swim to the pontoon! I will come every day I can. You should know, I am Teresa Sanchez, daughter of The Viceroy, and I won’t be able to make it down here for lessons when there are official functions to attend.”

“Bloody hell, I’ve just kissed bloody Royalty,” was the best Ben could manage.

Another smile.

“Would you like to kiss bloody Royalty again?”

He would.

He did.

The affair that would shake the very fabric of the Americas was underway.

Given the strict ‘chaperone’ system that existed at the Vice Regal palace, their love affair bloomed of necessity entirely at the beach. Teresa came clean that she was being given swimming lessons ‘by Captain Bennett Grahame of HMS Devonshire,’ and whilst her Captain didn’t rate any Vice-Regal social invitation (particularly given the uneasy relationship that still existed between Britain and Spain in the aftermath of Trafalgar), her father deemed him suitable as a swimming instructor, provided the lessons occurred under strict supervision.

For six weeks, things went ‘swimmingly’ so to speak. A non-swimmer herself, Nanny Maria would set up her woven bamboo beach mat and parasol in the soft sand above the high-water mark and the lovers were favoured by the fact Maria’s long sightedness was blurred by stage 4 glaucoma in both eyes, untreatable in those days.

Technically, the swimming lessons went well. By the third one, Teresa’s breast stroke had progressed well enough for her to make it out to the pontoon, where her physical relationship with Ben progressed apace whenever they had the platform to themselves.

Although bathing costumes needed to remain mostly buttoned up even on a deserted pontoon, hands wandered everywhere possible, and by the time Ben’s hand had ventured ‘below’ on two successive occasions, Teresa was crazy for ‘it.’

So was Ben, and prior to the sixth lesson he paid Paco the deck chair man to ‘disappear’ the moment they came out of the water, not to return until he and Teresa emerged from the beach hire shed.

Unfortunately, their timing was off. Having informed Maria they were ‘off for more deck chairs,’ the lovers got carried away and ‘it’ lasted ten minutes too long.

Maria may have been suffering from glaucoma, but she wasn’t stupid. Noting a suspicious number of minutes having ticked by, she rose from her mat and waded through the hot sand up to the hire shed to check on her charge. Confronted by a closed door, she listened for signs of activity and heard distinct moaning on the other side – a dead giveaway, one would have to say.

Maria was far too genteel to burst in and confront the Viceroy’s daughter ‘in the act,’ so quietly returned to her beach mat, demanding she and Teresa return home as soon as her glowing charge joined her, trying to look innocent.

On the way back to the palace, Maria’s stony silence in response to any attempted conversation heralded what was to come. Concerned with her own position, Maria sought an audience with the Viceroy and reported ‘the incident.’

The Marquess flew into a towering rage and immediately summoned the Vice Regal doctor to examine a mortified Teresa and report on ‘whether her virginity was still intact.’

It wasn’t.

Teresa’s nanny was right to be worried about her job. Following the medical revelation, the Marquess summoned Maria and summarily dismissed her from service, to leave the palace immediately, without a reference.

Next, he summoned his daughter.

“Doctor Santino has examined you and confirms you are no longer a virgin. It is clear that Captain Grahame has defiled you, and now you are no longer ‘intact,’ your engagement to Count Alejandro cannot proceed.

“It also means that I no longer accept you as my daughter. Upon our return to Spain, you will leave the family and enter a nunnery, to repent on your sins for the rest of your life. You will be disinherited, and the only dowry you shall receive will be the ‘bride payment’ to the convent I have chosen.

“I will also speak to the British Ambassador and demand that Captain Grahame be dismissed from his command for the shame he has brought upon our house.”

Teresa’s tears and declaration of love had no effect.

“Return to your quarters” were the last words her father ever spoke to her.

The demand to the British Ambassador was duly made, and it was Ben and Charley’s turn to confront authority.

Fortunately for them, that very day messages reached the capital that the rebel army of Argentine General, Jose de San Martin was marching on Lima, and if that wasn’t bad enough, a Chilean fleet was on the way to blockade Callao under the command of Thomas Cochrane, himself a veteran of the Napoleonic wars.

Famously known as the ‘Sea Wolf’, Lord Cochrane had captured the Spanish 50-gun ship of the line ‘Maria Isabel,’ which he renamed the ‘O’Higgins’ and co-opted as his flagship, commanding the fleet blockading Callao Port.

Everyone panicked, and the Viceroy and priests of Lima resolved to entrust their respective treasures to Captain Thompson of the British brig HMS Mary Dear and Captain. Grahame of the 74-gun frigate HMS Devonshire, ‘being British warships the Sea Wolf dare not attack.’

Political expediency trumped family honour as far as the Viceroy was concerned, and Ben was permitted to retain command of HMS Devonshire pending a report to the Admiralty, and charged with loading the so-called ‘Devonshire Treasure’ in all haste to then run the blockade, returning when safe to do so.

The Viceroy and priests of Lima never saw their treasures again.

Their strategy was sound – flying the Union Jack, both ships sailed through the oncoming Chilean fleet without challenge, but the Marquess had failed to factor in the temptation of the gold in their respective holds.

Captain Thompson was the first to turn to piracy, killing the two priests aboard Mary Dear, plus the six Spanish soldiers guarding the treasure and disappearing to Isla de Cocos with the ‘Treasure of Lima.’

Which brings us to Captain Bennett Grahame, aka Benito.

One day after HMS Devonshire departed, the Spanish frigate Santa Katerina Isabella sailed for Spain, bearing a number of courtiers and their families keen to avoid the coming conflict. Amongst their number was the disgraced Teresa, who had to be literally dragged aboard.

Isabella’s Captain carried letters together with a suitable dowry from the Marquess, consigning his disowned and disinherited daughter to the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales, Madrid, where she was to be taken under guard to be ensconced ‘for the term of her earthly life.’

Reaching south on a favourable wind, Isabella just made it out from under the Chilean blockade, heading westward for Madrid. view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions from the author:

How have family relationships changed since Benito’s day?

What was the main asset Britian used to maintain its empire, and how does that compare to Britain today?

What were the consequences of Spain’s conquest of South America?

Teresa was unfaithful to her husband. Does this make her a bad person?

Is suicide ever justified?

Do you believe Benito’s treasure exists??

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