In the 16th century, the forces of expansion, in both Spain and Portugal, pushed their ships to discover the four corners of the world, while at the same time the forces of contraction, manifesting in the
Holy Inquisition
, were at their cruelest. Two of the four main characters are 18-year-old Jewish boys from the town of
Belmonte,
Portugal, for centuries an epicenter of luso/jewish culture. Belmonte was also the birthplace and home of
Pedro Alvares Cabral,
the discoverer of Brazil and the maritime route to India.
Davide
Mendes de Oliveira
is the son of a long line of rabbis in the Belmont area. Through Davide's father, Rabbi Elias, the forbidden teachings of the
Zohar
are introduced to Davide and
Ruy
Gonçales
,
his best friend. Ruy is the son and grandson of Pedro Cabral's personal physicians, who were also personal friends and financial advisors. From the time of Cabral, a secret Jewish, multi-national investment fund had been established to take advantage of overseas discoveries and commodity market capture.
Daniel
Almeyda, in his early 20's, is the son of the
Captain of a merchant ship out of the Portuguese enclave of
Ceuta, on the Moroccan coast
.
Daniel's father, Ahmad, is Muslim and his mother, Bela, is Jewish and the daughter of the Jewish founder of the shipping company. Daniel's father and mother, with crew and boat, are hijacked by pirates under contract with the Inquisition.
Daniel's parents and crew are thrown overboard. When Daniel discovers this he vows vengeance and tracks one of the pirate captains to the Spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda.
Juancinto
Taranto is a 40-year-old Gypsy from Seville who was sentenced to 10 years of servitude
in Colombia and Paraguay
for killing a man who was molesting his wife, Solea, as she danced flamenco to his guitar
Juancintto returns after 10 years, in despair because two women in the New World who loved him are now dead due to his greed and selfishness. He knows from Solea's letter that his son has died, as he did, in a fight defending his mother, but when he arrives he learns that Solea has committed suicide, based on a rumor that Juancinto had died in a shipwreck. Solea's mother, La Gitanilla, a fortune-teller, stops Juancinto from ending his life and convinces him that his ultimate fate is in the New World. By 1565, the secret overseas trading organization started by Cabral, was well established with associates in Lisbon, Seville, Amsterdam, Rio and Goa, India. Success attracts the Inquisition. Many Jewish investors in Portugal, Spain and India also take part in the secret study of the Zohar. The Inquisition bears down on Goa and, through torture, discovers the treasonous international nature of the trading group. A long list of names is compiled and those in Goa are
burned at the stake. T
he news takes 5 months to reach Lisbon and Seville, at which time, the fathers of Davide and Ruy understand that they are dead men and make efforts to save their sons, who are now
students at the University
in
Coimbra.
The plan directs Davide and Ruy to the Spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda. Daniel, Juancinro, Ruy and Davide meet in Sanlucar. Daniel's family ship is discovered at the dock in Sanlucar, as well as the captain who stole it. Plans are made to lure the pirate captain into the nearby swamp called the Doñada, and there, dispense Justice, before signing on as crew to La Florida, the mid-Atlantic coast, and ultimately the
Catawban
town of
Joara,
where the
sequel
to
Belmonte takes place