Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 216 The African Route (Continued Part [-])

Mozambique Island is located on the east side of Mossuril Bay at the northern end of the Mozambique Strait. It has an excellent geographical location. Since it was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Da Gama in 1498 and claimed as Portuguese territory, the island has been officially included in the Portuguese colonial system.After more than 100 years of construction, the Portuguese built churches, manors, commercial ports and the majestic Sebastian Castle at the northern end of the island.

Today, the island is the center of Portuguese rule in East Africa, dominating a vast area from Mombasa in the north to Lorenzo Marques (Marques of Lorenzo) in the south.At the same time, the island was the only way for the Portuguese to go to the East.Many ships traveling to and from India and even China have to stop here for supplies. Therefore, the commerce of this island is also extremely developed.

When the naval officers and soldiers of the Republic of the East Coast disembarked and walked to the pier trestle, a Portuguese tax official came up with several entourages.

"Good day, guests from the east coast. I am Sergio, the tax officer of this island. According to the regulations, I need to inspect your goods..." The Portuguese tax officer chattered in Spanish, but his words were still Before finishing speaking, he was interrupted by Lieutenant Juan.

Second Lieutenant Juan stuffed a 32-yuan coin into Sergio's hand, and said impatiently: "This is the entry fee! You don't need to check the goods, do you want to check that?" After finishing speaking, Second Lieutenant Juan was good at Yao pointed to the dark muzzle of the [-]-pound long-barreled heavy gun on the deck of the "Free Trade" battleship.

The Portuguese's face suddenly turned ugly, and the few followers behind him were even more disturbed.The forts on Mozambique Island only have a few dozen artillery pieces, and the maximum caliber is only 18 pounds. Most of them are 8-pound and 12-pound items, which are incomparable with the giant warships of the "August [-]" class battleship.

"Okay, people from the east coast." Sergio said with some displeasure: "Don't wander around in the city and don't cause trouble. You can stay for up to three days. If you overdue, you will have to pay the fee. I'm serious this time." Really 'Pay Fee."

Sergio's words are not wrong.You know, since the Portuguese began to vigorously manage the Angola and Mozambique colonies, the so-called "Penal system" (exile colonial system) has been vigorously promoted.Therefore, in these two places, the proportion of scum and criminals far exceeds the proportion of normal immigrants.These people were not good things in Europe, and they are even more lawless in the loosely governed colonies.For them, killing a lot of people is not a problem at all, as for robbery or something, it will happen every few days.

"We will pay attention." Second Lieutenant Juan nodded reservedly, "By the way, the fortress commander of Castle Sebastian, my officer wants to pay him a visit."

"Unfortunately, Your Excellency the Commander took people to Senna, and it has not been very peaceful there recently. Those Bantu blacks made trouble every day, and recently even attacked and killed several Purazuo Lords. Your Excellency Commander rushed over to deal with the affairs, and I I think maybe he can come back before the end of October, but it’s not sure.” After speaking, Sergio left with a few of his entourage.

These attendants appear to be of mixed race, which is common in East Africa today.After the arrival of the early Portuguese colonists, most of them were men, so many of them married local indigenous women, and their offspring were mulattos.Although these people were somewhat discriminated against, their status was much stronger than those of the indigenous Bantu blacks. Many of them served as officers in the Portuguese local colonial army (mainly indigenous soldiers).Of course, there were also some people who got into the colonial government and acted as followers of some low-level officials or white officials.

In fact, the nature of these people is the same as that of the Mamelucos in Brazil (mixed whites and Indians) and the Gauchos in La Plata (mixed whites and Indians). caused by the balance.Of course, the East Coast Republic of China is also quite entangled with the issue of the imbalance between men and women.Among the more than 2 citizens today, there are nearly 4000 more young and middle-aged men than women (13000:9000). Such an unbalanced ratio has led to an increase in the amount of domestic wedding gifts, and even those charuyas , Guaraní women are all rushing for it.

Many officers and soldiers even spent all their savings for many years in order to get married.Nowadays, the difficulty of marrying a daughter-in-law has faintly become a focus of attention of ordinary people in the East Coast Republic of China. For this reason, the Executive Committee and the Government Affairs Council are also troubled.On the one hand, they urgently sent a letter to the Bordeaux merchant station, asking them to focus on recruiting poor local women of the right age to come to the east bank in France, and to learn from the practice of the French church, to give generous dowry (land) to French women willing to settle in the east bank and cash); on the other hand, they even unscrupulously demanded that the east coast merchant ships traded in the port of Izmir of the Ottoman Empire try to buy a large number of female slaves back to the east coast.

The slave market in the Ottoman Empire has always been prosperous, especially those female slave markets that are exclusively used by dignitaries and dignitaries. The business is extremely hot.Except for a few domestic slaves sold by local people for various reasons, most of these slaves came from conquest wars or tribute from conquered areas.For example, after the Balkan Peninsula, the South Russian Plain, Hungary, Poland, Central Asia and other places were attacked by the Ottomans, many local residents collectively became slaves; another example, the perennial war between the Ottoman Empire and Persia created countless prisoners of war slaves.

Although the price of female slaves in the slave market is high, money is not the most important thing for today's East Coast Republic. People are always more important than money.Therefore, the merchant fleet was ordered to contact the Hornician family, simply bartering goods, exchanging the textiles and weapons on the east bank for female slaves on the spot, and then pulling them back to the east bank.

In addition to the orders they received to search for women, this East African exploration fleet even received orders to search for women.However, Guo Zili has lost his appetite for those black women, and at this stage, the domestic attitude towards the introduction of black people is basically negative, so he has never paid much attention to this issue.

After handing over to the Portuguese on the pier, the two second lieutenants Ji Wen and Juan led some people to conduct some supplies and business investigations.As a backup plan for the mid-section of the African route, the Portuguese island of Mozambique is the focus of everyone's investigation. The main investigation is the number of berths at the Portuguese port, whether there is sufficient food and water on the island, and so on.

Except for their expeditions, most of the officers and sailors remained on board.After all, being alone overseas, it is better to be more cautious in everything.Besides, this island currently has only a few thousand residents (about [-] white people), and its economy is mainly based on the cultivation of cashew nuts, corn, and tobacco, with at most some seafood. "They are all a little bit unmotivated about such a small place.

In the evening, when Guo Zili was lying on the rocking chair in the captain's cabin and looking at the chart comfortably, Ji Wen, Juan and others who went out to purchase and inspect finally came back.Along with them came back, in addition to some local black coolies who delivered supplies, and several local businessmen.

"Commander, these businessmen are from Muscat. I thought they might be useful to us, so I lured them back on my own initiative." Ji Wen walked to Guo Zili and said softly.

"Muscat? Where is this? It seems to be a city in the Middle East?" Guo Zili didn't realize it for a while, and then asked in somewhat unproficient Spanish: "Can you speak Spanish?"

Several Muscat businessmen looked at each other, obviously did not understand Guo Zili's words.

"They can speak a little Portuguese." Second Lieutenant Juan stepped forward and reminded him softly.This Hispanic officer can speak Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese, and he is considered a talent. He immediately said to several businessmen in Portuguese: "My officer doesn't like to listen to nonsense, please tell me what you just said." Repeat what you said to us in full for my officer to hear. If he makes a decision in your favor, believe me, you will gain far more wealth than you imagined, there is no doubt about it.”

An elderly Muscat businessman in a white gown and a checkered scarf stepped forward, saluted Guo Zili, and then said in a slightly excited tone: "Dear people from the East Bank, We are businessmen from Muscat. I heard that you intend to buy slaves. I think we have a good basis for cooperation. In Mozambique, Zanzibar, Mombasa and Mogadishu, we have thousands of Slaves. Of course, in Muscat, we have more slaves. The male slaves are strong and docile, while the female slaves are quite enchanting, and will definitely satisfy the distinguished guests." When talking about the female slaves, he paused slightly Next, and then made a look that a man can understand.

After Second Lieutenant Juan finished translating, Guo Zili sat up straight, then stared at the Muscat businessmen and said, "I think you made a mistake, Muscat people. I don't need those stupid Bantu slaves, do you understand? I don’t need blacks, not a single one! If you want to convince me to spend money, I’m afraid you’ll have to prepare some better goods.”

Several Muscat merchants whispered to each other, and then the older merchant stood up and said, "Dear guest, except for these Bantus. We happen to have a group of Persian slaves on hand, but at this price... ..."

"Persians?" Guo Zili pondered for a while, then nodded and agreed: "Persians can do it. We need a lot of women and children. How much is the price? Please be careful about quoting. From Muscat to Mozambique, you even It won't take a month. Maybe your only cost is to go to the Persian countryside to capture those slaves, so please don't fool me with an exorbitant price, which will make me doubt your sincerity."

Several Muscat businessmen whispered again, and some small quarrels even broke out during this period. Guo Zili looked at them quietly without urging them.

After a long time, the old businessman turned to Guo Zili again and said, "Dear guest, we have already negotiated. Each female slave costs 1 cruzado, and every two children gets 1 cruzado. You know , the Safavid dynasty in Persia is extremely strong now, and it is a very risky thing to go to them to capture slaves. If we are not careful, we will lose a lot of manpower. This price is already our lowest price, and it really cannot be lowered. gone."

①Plazo: The Portuguese soldiers, businessmen, adventurers and exiles who first entered the Zambezi River Basin obtained some land through various means (given by superiors, seized from the natives, gifted by the native king or obtained by trading), and at the same time they It also obtained the right to rule the Africans on the land, and such a territory was called a "Plazo".Initially, a Prazo was stipulated that it should not exceed three square leagues, and the owner had to live on the land, marry the Europeans on the land, and be responsible for the management of the land so that it could be colonized as soon as possible.

In the later period, many Plazo lords began to marry Africans and Indians. In order to ensure the status of local whites, the Portuguese government issued a regulation that the inheritance of the territory was limited to the eldest daughter of the owner of the territory, and she must also marry the Portuguese who was born in Portugal. Citizenship, otherwise there will be no inheritance rights.They could collect taxes from the natives on the land and pay taxes to the Portuguese colonial authorities and the church. They were later called "Zambezi Housewives".

(End of this chapter)