Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 212 The British in the South ([-])

Knight Heywood stood under an empty canopy with a livid face.Second Lieutenant Porter was a little embarrassed. Last night, the two Irishmen escaped overnight, but he didn't notice it at all. This was a serious dereliction of duty.

"Where are the people who live in the same shed with them? Have you interrogated them?" Knight Heywood asked, turning his gaze to Second Lieutenant Porter.

"He lived with a few country bumpkins who also came from Ireland. They told me that they went to bed early last night because they were too tired and didn't know anything." Second Lieutenant Porter replied with some helplessness.Everyone knew that the people in his room had shielded them, and even colluded with each other.

After all, the Irish are unreliable!Second Lieutenant Porter also turned his attention to Knight Heywood, and he and his men were ready to capture him.

"Send all the Irishmen in his room to repair Goodlook Castle. This is punishment for their behavior of sleeping like dead pigs!" Knight Heywood said after a little hesitation.

Hearing Knight Heywood's order, Nick, who was following behind him, secretly heaved a sigh of relief.He originally thought that Knight Heywood would hang these Irishmen to death, which is absolutely unfeasible now.These immigrants who came to Cape Town, eating crude food, doing heavy work, coupled with the bad weather, they have accumulated a lot of resentment.At this time, if the execution of these Irishmen who harbored the fugitives is bound to arouse the resistance of the immigrants.Perhaps even the English emigrants would feel sympathy for them when the time came.The Heywood knights handled it this way, not only announcing their punishment, but also not threatening them too much, which is considered a smarter approach.

"Strengthen the defense at night, and those sections of the city wall that have not been completed must be guarded by special personnel." Knight Heywood quickly ordered.Second Lieutenant Porter responded loudly, and then began to arrange for candidates to be assigned positions.

"Sir, we don't have enough firewood." At this time, Nick stepped forward and whispered to Knight Heywood: "The logging camps on the mountain have all fallen, and we lack suitable fuel now, you know, in such a ghostly weather What a frustrating thing not to be able to warm up."

"Is there no briquette?" Knight Heywood was startled, and then asked: "The invention of the people on the east coast is still very good. I remember that we should have some."

"The last more than 100 pieces of briquettes have all been put into your room, sir." Nick had to explain, "A long time ago we could only rely on burning firewood for heating. But now it rains continuously, no matter whether it is firewood or grass Wet and totally useless. Besides, most of our wood axes were lost in the logging camp on Table Mountain, and may have been taken by the savages by now. We're in trouble, sir...”

"Are you going to send out a large army now even to chop wood?" Knight Heywood said a little upset, "We only have a thousand people who can work now, do I want to send a team of 200 people fully armed Cutting wood? Well, well, there are still a batch of felling axes in the cabin of the 'Gentleman'. The number is not too many, but it is barely enough for us. You can send someone to get them out. When you go out to chop wood in the future, you Call Lieutenant Porter and he will make reasonable arrangements."

Nick nodded, and then hesitated to say: "Mr. Heywood, our food is not very sufficient, I think it will be difficult for us to last until the end of the year. We need to make some changes..."

"Are you pointing to the outside world to buy?" Knight Heywood thought for a while, and then said: "This is very difficult. You know, before we came here, we had spent most of our funds on buying cannons, gunpowder, and building materials for building the city." Yes, now we have no more than [-] pounds in assets. Only the Portuguese in Luanda are friendly to us, but they are not obliged to sell us grain at a low price. Such a small amount of money is not enough to buy a lot of grain. "

"No, sir. In fact, I mean that we can find a way to the east. We can send people to the area east of the Cape Mountains to 'trade' with the barbarians. They have an abundance of grain, fur and ivory on hand. They are all supplies we urgently need. We can exchange them with metal knives, agricultural tools, glass products and so on, which will definitely make a lot of money.” Nick slowly explained, “As you can see, the vast plain in front of us is The world is full of barbarian tribes who are full of malice towards us. They may have secretly turned to the people on the east coast. It is impossible for us to trade with them. Now we can only go east, to the place where the tentacles of the people on the east coast have not yet reached region, that is the stage where we can display our strength. Unlike Cape Town, here is a cage, a cage carefully designed by people from the east coast to trap us. Please forgive me, in the Cape Town area we will never There will be no future for development, and we can only huddle in this small area by the sea, unless we completely defeat the people on the east coast."

"You're right, Nick." Knight Heywood approved Nick Warnum's suggestion, and then said: "It's a pity that most of the ships sent by the company have gone to the east, and only the 'Gentleman' is stranded on the The coast needs repairs. Otherwise, I think our people can take a boat around the Cape of Good Hope and try their luck on the east coast. Now, we can only walk on foot, by the way, is it far away?"

"We may need to walk more than [-] kilometers to reach the area where the indigenous people are active. We lack guides, horses and vehicles, but these difficulties can be overcome." Nick said resolutely, "How can we do it if we don't try? Are we just like this?" Waiting for the East Coasters to tighten the noose around our necks step by step without doing anything? Not even struggling?"

"It's so far?" Knight Heywood was a little shaken. More than 100 kilometers, there is likely to be a rugged mountain road to go, everyone can't carry too much supplies, and they don't know anything about the situation there.

This is a complete gambling operation!Knight Heywood made a judgment in his heart. He is a conservative and stable person. Cape Town has not yet reached the point of no return. There is no need to carry out such a very risky operation now, especially when there are a pair of malicious eyes staring at him all the time. their time.

"No, it's not suitable now, the risk is too great." Knight Heywood suddenly changed his attitude, "Did you forget that the task given to us by the company is to build a supply port in Cape Town? The significance of this port is Strategic, that's why you see people on the east coast deliberately trying to destroy our cause. If you give you too many people, Cape Town will not have enough strength to defend itself. Give less people , I don’t think these people can do anything in the unfamiliar mountains and wasteland.”

"I only need a hundred people, all equipped with the latest flintlock rifles, and sufficient food." Nick fought hard, "I will definitely be able to cross the Cape Mountains, reach the other side of the mountain, and then harvest enough supplies."

"I think what I mean is very clear, Mr. Nick Warnum!" Knight Heywood said with an emphasis, "If you have the time, why not send someone to help Captain Washington of the 'Gentleman' find a way, Their ship is badly damaged and in dire need of timber repairs. It would be of great help to us if the 'Gentleman' could be put into motion."

Speaking of which, the three-masted Galen ship "Gentleman" was unlucky enough.Not long after setting sail, it encountered bad weather, lost contact with the fleet, and the hull was seriously damaged. Later, it rushed to Cape Town to run aground and grab the beach, which saved it from the bad luck of sinking.But now they are also very short of wood to repair the ship, so they can only stop on the beach to find a way, and it has been more than a week.

Knight Heywood expressed his attitude, and Nick couldn't say much more, so he could only salute and arrange the construction of the castle.

In the next few days, taking advantage of the brief clearing of the weather, the English dispatched more than 100 people to Table Mountain to cut firewood.Those barbarians seemed to be very afraid of the large number of Englishmen armed with muskets. They just hid in the woods and shot bows and arrows at the Englishmen from a distance, causing several woodcutters to be injured, and then fled in a hurry.

After seeing the English go up the mountain to cut firewood, a group of savages reappeared outside the wall below the mountain, which caused a burst of exclamation from the British immigrants on the Fort of Good Hope construction site.But just after the British immigrants stopped working urgently under the command of the officer, and then rushed out of the fence in full armor, the gang of damned savages escaped faster than rabbits.

Not only that, but these shameless savages repeatedly rushed outside the wall in the middle of the night shouting, beating gongs and drums, throwing rockets, attacking and killing patrolling soldiers, doing everything they could to disturb the entire Fort of Good Hope construction site. .The British immigrants in Fort Good Hope worked extremely hard during the day, and they were already very tired. After being tossed and tossed by these savages every night, all of them wobbled when they walked during the day.

Moreover, since the two Irishmen escaped a few days ago, people have escaped almost every night these days.Especially at the chaotic moment when the barbarians came to attack, many people took advantage of the chaos to escape from Fort Good Hope and went straight to the north.To the grief of Knight Haywood and Nick, not only the Irish but also the English were fleeing, and there were even extreme cases where the soldiers guarding the gap escaped with the fugitives.

In the five days starting from August 8, more than 22 British immigrants in Fort Good Hope escaped, most of them were Irish farmers who had been abused, and a few were Englishmen who could not hold on.

What is even more worrying is the weather. On August 8, there was heavy snowfall in Cape Town, and the temperature dropped to around zero degrees Celsius.The frail English immigrants did not have enough nutrition to supplement the heat lost by their bodies, nor enough warm clothes, so they could only sit around the fire and shiver and warm themselves. A depressed and depressive atmosphere began to permeate the Fort of Good Hope. above.

(End of this chapter)