The Threat in the Americas - Roger Burnage

In the year 1801 and Captain James Merriman aboard his ship Lord Stevenage is despatched to South America along with a small flotilla. A passenger by the name of George Humphries - part of the extensive network of English spies and agents controlled by a department of the Treasury - has orders for Merriman to seek out intelligence about England's enemies, particularly France and Spain. Merriman and crew are also to try and find one Don Carlos Galiano whom he had narrowly missed capturing in the West Indies several years previously. Galiano is known to be behind smuggling and privateer activities in south Atlantic waters and is rumoured to be in Montevideo. There are battles with a French frigate and a Spanish one with an assortment of privateers - little more than pirates - who prey on shipping of any nation in the south Atlantic. But another secret purpose behind this voyage is to recover important documents and treasure from a wrecked Indiaman in Brazil, the location of which is unknown apart from some very incoherent details from the sole surviving crew member. Can Merriman be successful in all that with the French, Spanish and even the native population is against him?