Wiki Coffin plays many roles on the U.S. Exploring Expedition linguist, navigator, and, as half-Maori, cultural liaison - but when a New England whaler shows up, frantically looking for his stolen schooner, Wiki must take on the role of unofficial sheriff. The Expedition has reached the Rio Negros, an area famous for its rough gauchos and revolutionary spirit - men have disappeared here without a trace.Wiki hunts for the Machiavellian trader who sold the ship, but when the trail leads to a dead body, skull picked clean by vultures and half-buried in a hill of salt, he must use all his wits to find the missing ship - and the murderer. No one is what they seem on the Rio Negro, and while Wiki is distracted by a confusing case of mistaken identities the murderer has set his sights on another target: the U.S. Exploring Expedition itself.