Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1008 The Search for Cotton ([-])

Just a few days before Han Gang, the magistrate of Luocha County, was thinking about expanding the source of cotton, Lieutenant Ji Wen, who had been promoted for his meritorious service on many ocean voyages, also quietly stepped on the land of the North American continent.And on the sea not far behind them, several selected capable officers stayed behind the anchored expedition ship "Explorer" in case of any unexpected situation.

The "Discovery" is a veteran expedition ship. It has completed a round-the-world voyage and has a great reputation.The ship has a standard displacement of 1250 tons, twin shafts and double propellers with 170 horsepower propulsion, four masts (horizontal sails + vertical sails), a design speed of 10 knots, and a maximum speed of 13-14 knots.The ship comes standard with 24 crew members and 32 gunners, but this time because it is a secret mission to North America, there are 4 more diplomats, 6 trade officials, 10 intelligence officers and 42 (exactly two) on board. Platoon) heavily armed Interior Ministry police, so the ship carried a total of 118 people.

There were also two small Spanish businessmen who came with them.These two guys lived in Florida for a long time and had a very close trade relationship with the people on the east coast. This time, they were lured by the leader of the team, Lieutenant Shay, with a lot of money (2 pesos per person, and promised to buy the dried fruits they resold first, Cotton or tobacco, valid for 20 years), sneaked onto the ship of the East Coasters, and then came to the port of Mobile with the ship.

At this time, it is nominally the land of the Mobile Indians, but in fact it is a barren land. The Mobile people only come here when hunting or gathering food, and leave it barren at other times, just as it has been for thousands of years. .According to Pedro, one of the Spanish businessmen, he once went to the tribe of the Mobile people, which was in the inland area. Settle down for a living.Men usually go out to hunt and fish, and at the same time shoulder the heavy responsibility of fighting with other tribes to defend the village, while women grow corn and vegetables in the village, and children go out to collect fruits. The division of labor is quite clear, which is a typical Indian farming and settlement.

To be honest, the Indians in the southeastern part of North America were relatively lucky at this time, such as the Mobiles here, the Gualais in the interior, the Cherokees, the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Nazis At this time, apart from a few brave European businessmen, the Spaniards who established a colony in Florida were the Spaniards who had the most contact with them.Perhaps it was the reason for one governor and one policy. Except that the initial De Soto expedition was not very friendly to the natives, the later colonial leaders such as Tristan de Luna and Juan Pardo adopted the same approach to the Indians. Friendly attitude, that is, they took the initiative to form an alliance with these Indians living in the Mississippi River Basin and get along with them, and then launched a series of trade behaviors, and both sides benefited a lot-of course, during the trade process, the Spaniards could not Smallpox was also passed on to the Indians avoiding it, and then the Indians passed it on to more Indians through their own internal trade network, so the local population experienced a sharp drop before that, and now it is slowly recovering Some.

Pedro and another businessman named Fernandez once did business with these natives living in the lower reaches of the Mobile River, selling them ironware, glass beads and some other commodities, and they exchanged them from the Indians. It is fur and a small amount of food.The arrival of European merchants had a profound impact on Indian society. Farming people like the Mobiles were better off, and the transformation to commerce did not have a fatal impact; but for some nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, this kind of The transformation is more difficult, because commercial trade obviously greatly shortens their fishing and hunting time, which leads to their lack of food, and they have to obtain food from other tribes through commercial means for the second time—of course they sometimes Will send troops to plunder other tribes.

In any case, the arrival of white colonists (mainly Spaniards) brought profound changes to the Indian settlements in southeastern North America, and at the same time made them aware of the outside world for the first time. There is a certain degree of connection.In particular, these Indian tribes that are very close to Spanish Florida have been deeply involved in the economic system of the colonists. For example, the cotton and tobacco leaves that the people on the east coast have vigorously imported, and the Mobile people have begun small-scale planting. Yes, and some small Spanish or Italian merchants who are not very powerful have come to buy them—as for the big merchants in Florida, they are too lazy to buy these things from the natives, and they are not interested in anything except fur.What?You said to buy cotton and tobacco for export to the east coast?Sorry, there are still a lot of them in their own plantations. Instead of buying these things, the Spanish plantation owners prefer to buy these "native slaves" to work in their plantations.

Pedro and Fernandez are such small businessmen. They don't have much capital, so they often go deep into the Indian tribes along the old road of the Spanish expedition to start trading in order to earn some hard money.In addition to this Mobile tribe, they are also acquainted with the Choctaw tribe in New Orleans, and they can also talk a little bit with the Natchez people in the more inland areas. In short, the relationship is pretty good. Hard - at least not being attacked by Indians for no reason.

At this time, Ji Wen and others went ashore in several small boats.In addition to diplomatic and commercial officials, 8 intelligence officials went ashore (the other 2 were civilian analysts who stayed on board temporarily), and 42 combatants also went ashore. A dozen pack horses, plus two Spanish businessmen, a group of 63 people slowly walked towards the Mobile village in Pedro's memory - the last time he came here was two years ago.

"We have come to the North American continent this time, and the task is very heavy, but the most important thing is to do a good job in making friends with the Indians. Spend money when it is time to spend, and be generous when it is time to be generous. We must win the trust of the Indians. "On the way forward, Lieutenant Ji Wen chatted with his deputy lieutenant, Second Lieutenant Esposito (former Sergeant Esposito) in Chinese, and only heard him say: "Of course, this does not mean that we are going to deceive each other. The upper department (the Admiralty) did not give us such instructions. Our task this time is very easy, that is, to make friends with them and gain their trust. The cargo in the cabin this time is not so much related to the Indians. For those who trade, it is better to say that they are half sold and half given to them."

Axito nodded, indicating that he understood, and after a while he couldn't help but said: "But I still don't understand why we treat these Indians so well, because they are far enough away from us and have nothing to do with us. Is there any conflict of interest? And before departure, the people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also told us that we should make good friends with the Indians, and wait for the opportunity to spread the knowledge of a civilized society to them and help them become civilized as soon as possible. What else, if possible, invite them It’s nonsense that dignitaries from the tribe come to visit and even study on the east coast, how could this be? Why? Why?”

"Don't criticize Shangfeng's policy casually, it won't benefit you at all." Ji Wen glanced at Axito and reminded him vaguely, but then he also said: "But to be honest, I don't know why So. It seems that the local dignitaries have a lot of goodwill toward the Indians of the North American continent—well, to be more precise, they have great expectations—this is really incomprehensible. Is it possible, Executive Committee Do you want to build a colony here too?"

Speaking of this, Ji and Ai looked around in unison, and then shook their heads in unison: What are these places?The wilderness is full of barren grasslands and forests, and occasionally there are some swamps where mosquitoes breed and water is everywhere. In short, it is not a good place.Although the climate here is very suitable, and the accumulated temperature is much better than that in the north, which is so cold to the bone, but in general, it is impossible to transform it without spending a lot of effort. Without him, the probability of disease outbreak is too high.

No wonder the Spaniards don't want to come here either. I dare say that Florida is enough for them, and they really don't have the energy to open up other colonies!But here comes the problem. The Spaniards who are close at hand don't have the energy to open up colonies. Is it possible that the people on the east coast far away in the southern cone have the strength to open up colonies here?This possibility is not very great, and the executive committee seems to have no such opportunities recently, so this is very puzzling.

However, it is not a bad thing to come here to be a "good guy". At least it is a high probability that the East Coast trade team led by Ji Wen and others will gain a certain degree of popularity from the Indians. up.After all, the Mobile people are not uncivilized savages. Like the Choctaw people across the sea, they are willing to contact and cooperate with outsiders, and they can also form military alliances if necessary, so they can clearly distinguish what is right for them. What is good and what is bad.People from the East Coast came here with sincerity, and they will surely be welcomed by them.

And what they predicted was right, the conspicuous team soon encountered the Mobiles who were out hunting that afternoon.Pedro and Fernandez, who were proficient in their language, immediately went forward to negotiate. As expected, the Mobile people were familiar with them, so after hesitating for a while, they finally accepted Pedro's explanation and agreed to bring the team. A strange team entered their tribe's territory—of course it wasn't the core village. There were a lot of old and weak women and children there. They were also afraid that this well-equipped team would cause trouble, so they only agreed to negotiate in a small outlying village.

(End of this chapter)