Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1369 The Future of Brazil and South Africa

A three-masted sailing ship from the Far East slowly sailed into the port of San Salvador.

This merchant ship with a displacement of only 23 to [-] tons set off from Goa. After nine deaths, it broke through the interception of the Omanis on the coast of East Africa, and the inspections of the East Coasters in the Mozambique Channel and the coast of South Africa, and then cautiously headed north in the coast of Angola— —Actually, this is just their imagination. In the coastal waters of Angola, there are very few warships on the east coast.—Finally, they sailed into the port of San Salvador after going through hardships. At this time, there were only [-] sailors on board who were still alive. up.

"It was a thrilling journey, thank God, we are still alive." The unshaven captain Christian crossed his hands and murmured: "I encountered a **** warship on the road, and we all shouted 'San Diego' to prepare for battle. It turned out that their ship was leaking, and we were lucky to escape. But compared to the enemy, the disease and lack of supplies are the worst nightmares. We can't replenish fresh oranges or lemons, causing a large number of crew members to get bad blood It's bad, it's bad, it's dead."

Antonio, the servant of Governor Silva who received him, first patiently listened to Captain Christian talking about the difficulties during the voyage, and then asked about the situation in the Far East as kindly as possible—God, the East Coast The human warship just withdrew from the mouth of El Salvador Bay a few days ago. Before that, they could only get news from other places. This efficiency is undoubtedly extremely low, so now he is unwilling to let go of every opportunity to get news from the outside world. , especially since the ship was sailing from Goa.

As Captain Christian spoke intermittently, Antonio gradually understood what happened there.To put it simply, the Cochin Fortress fell, and Kolam and Kannur may have fallen, because the Dutch East India Company Navy blocked there; the Sultan of Golconda also led his army to occupy Sao Tome (Myra Poole), because of local rumors that the Dutch East India Company was going to attack here, so the native sultan made an advance move, embarrassing the Kingdom of Portugal.

In addition, there was the important news that Goa was deeply displeased with the dowry of Princess Don Catarina de Braganza to Charles Stuart.To be precise, the officials headed by the Governor of Portuguese India, Antonio de Mello de Castro, held a fierce opposition attitude, because they believed that Mumbai Island had important strategic value and commercial potential, and they were resolutely unwilling to hand it over to the British Manuel Godinho, a Jesuit priest, was sent back to Lisbon to lobby on behalf of the Portuguese Indian side, but the attitude of the Duke of Mallor was quite clear on this matter, that is, it was necessary to make good friends with the British, so The conflict between the two parties is still quite intense.As for when Mumbai will be handed over, it is estimated that it will take some time, but Antonio predicts that it will be no later than 1665.

"The Dutch East India Company has strong funds, and it is indeed not something that Goa can resist, especially when our country is deeply involved in a war with the people on the east coast. This inexplicable war is really a big loss, and we should be more If you signed a peace agreement with the people on the east coast earlier, then the loss may be smaller." After hearing the old news in the Far East, Antonio couldn't help sighing: "In the competition between Ceylon, the Coromandel Coast, and the Malabar Coast , we have been completely defeated! The island of Ceylon, which produces a lot of cinnamon and is very important in terms of geographical location (controlling here is equivalent to holding back the traffic between the West Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal), has basically been lost to the Dutch; Most of the pepper was also robbed by the Dutch; the Coromandel coast was taken by the Dutch, which is a bit puzzling, because there is nothing worthy of them to seize it, and it can only be explained that occupying it can more effectively protect them. Trade in the Malay Peninsula. Alas, what a tragedy. Under the combined attack of the Dutch heretics and the East Coast heretics, the kingdom’s overseas colonial trade routes are in shambles. Now it will cost money to rebuild this route. It took a lot of energy. Moreover, even if it is to be rebuilt, how to build it and whether to redesign a route are also issues that the Governor must consider..."

"Captain Christian, you are so lucky, but the war is over. The Palermo Peace Treaty has been officially ratified by the East Coast People's Government, and now that it is in force, this damn war is finally over! Lucky man Hey, take your sailors to rest now, I think you need a delicious dinner first." Antonio motioned to the other two servants to take the captain back, and then he walked into the next room, shaking Shaking his head, he said to a middle-aged man who was drinking tea leisurely: "Mr. Charles, the news our people brought back from the East is not very optimistic. The Dutch East India Company is strong and has accelerated its efforts in the past few years. Taking advantage of our favorable opportunity to look east, we ended our trade in the Bay of Bengal, and the strength of the Pinto family was greatly damaged; in addition, the fall of the Cochin Fortress also marked our gradual loss of control over the Malabar coast, the fall of Ceylon and the fall of Koroman The loss of Del Coast has also made us even more unable to communicate with Macau, Timor and other places. Mr. Charles, as far as I am concerned, your country’s East India Company and our Goa colony, combined, may not be the opponent of the Dutch Now, they are too powerful now, not to mention they have the support of the emerging country on the east coast that dominates the western Indian Ocean."

The person sitting here drinking tea is of course Mr. Charles, the head of the Golden Deer Merchant House, who is also the general representative of the British merchants in the east bank. It is outrageous for such a powerful country to establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level.

This time Mr. Charles came to San Salvador, which was the first time after the signing of the "Palermo Peace Treaty". This shows the eagerness of the English, eager to grab the commercial interests promised by the Portuguese back then.After all, war may break out between the mother country and the United Provinces at any time—among them, the attitude of the British is even more impatient—once a fight breaks out, the military expenditure will be huge, like a bottomless pit.And I don’t know how long it will last, so it is necessary to implement the local commercial privileges of British merchants as soon as possible, and at the same time support the Portuguese to resume commercial sugar cane planting in northeastern Brazil, so as to create a steady stream of commercial profits for England—and the profits are many Time often represents strength.

"The Dutch East India Company's financial strength is extremely strong, and its civilized employees in Asia have exceeded 2000, and the strength of the indigenous servant army is even stronger. In front of this behemoth, your two countries in India and the East India As for the archipelago, we have to rely on each other to survive. If our government goes to war with the United Provinces in the future, then I hope that your country can provide the necessary assistance, such as assistance in food and weapons, to the colonies of the East India Company in South Africa. Against the great enemy of the Dutch East India Company." Mr. Charles said leisurely while drinking tea.

Although the contradictions between the East India Companies of the two countries have always been great (vendetta incidents emerge in endlessly), it is also worth thinking about whether the South African region can kill each other under the pressure of the people on the east coast. This is due to multiple factors, namely external pressure, conflicts between the two parties, and the vision and quality of the local governors.

However, Mr. Charles naturally cannot place his hope on luck. With the gradual spread of the East Coast navigation and medical knowledge in the world, more and more people now realize the importance of South Africa, the southernmost land of the African continent. And do everything possible to come here to build their own colonies and supply stations.The British East India Company is no exception. They do not want to lose South Africa, an important intermediate node, so they are very afraid that the Dutch will send troops to seize it.Therefore, it is also necessary to find Portugal, its quasi-ally, in advance, so that they can send some food, weapons, medicine and other military resources to the British side when the two East India companies are fighting.Anyway, the Dutch East India Company has been attacking the Portuguese colonial forces in the Far East for these years, and Portugal has nothing to fear. They are sworn enemies anyway. Do you care what they think?

To a certain extent, the people on the east coast are actually happy to see a fight between the two East India companies, because it is obviously good for the East China Republic, but at the same time they don't want one of them to swallow up any other One family, because this is also not in the interests of the East Bank.The most ideal situation is that the people on the east coast should find a way to annex this land and rule it directly. But in this way, the Dutch East India Company will probably be upset, but who can control so much?After occupying the land first, South Africa is really important to the East Coast Republic of China!

"Providing food and some daily necessities is feasible. We produce a large amount of such things in our estate on the Zambezi River. And there, including the entire East African coast, is under the jurisdiction of Governor Castro of Goa. He should be responsible for anyone who can give The Dutch East India Company is very interested in the troubles caused by the Dutch East India Company, although he is very dissatisfied with handing over Mumbai Island to you." After Antonio thought for a while, he said: "But weapons and military resources are more troublesome, I suggest that you immediately go to the east coast They ordered it and put it in stock for a war with the Dutch. Now that the war has not started, I believe they will sell them these weapons, because they don't want to see you lose quickly in South Africa, do they?"

What Antonio said made Mr. Charles a little dumbfounded, and he could only say helplessly: "But I think you'd better advance a batch of equipment to us. Anyway, your war with the east coast is over, and there is no one else on the sea except the Dutch West India Company. Without the enemy, you can buy another batch from the old continent or even the east coast. In addition, the [-] soldiers sent to you last time may also be transferred later, at least part of them will be transferred. After all, the Cape Colony of the Dutch put too much pressure on us, and we need the support of these experienced soldiers."

In other words, since the last time the Kingdom of Portugal and England reached the so-called "sugar-for-army" agreement, they have successively sent a large number of army soldiers who are about to be disbanded to Brazil, some of which were intercepted and taken away by naval ships on the east coast, and some Arrived in Bahia and other places smoothly.But the war was coming to an end at that time, and the people on the east coast hadn’t launched any decent land offensives, so these people didn’t play a big role, that is, helping the Portuguese defend the city, suppressing and arresting those who escaped in the wild Blacks, Indian slaves.

Today, less than 2000 of these people are left after excluding those who died of acclimatization, disease or fighting. Unexpectedly, they are also being targeted by Mr. Charles.Forget it, anyway, Brazil doesn't need these British soldiers much anymore, and it's meaningless to force them to stay. It's better to settle the salary with them, and then send them to South Africa when it's suitable.Judging from the current situation, helping the British is really helping yourself. The Kingdom of Portugal needs a strong ally too much.

"You can transfer some of these people to South Africa. I think His Excellency Governor Silva will not refuse, but you should only transfer some of them. Recife, Fortaleza, Olinda, San Salvador, Ille The situation in Uz and other places also needs their help to calm down, and the new army that is being trained also needs some of their officers to be trained." Antonio's words were basically what Governor Silva meant, and Mr. Charles felt that it was nothing too big. He nodded his head and said nothing more.

"Talk about the people on the east coast." After a short silence, Mr. Charles said to Antonio: "I heard that your envoy, Mr. Eduardo, has already drawn the border with their people in the Porto Seguro area? What will happen in the future?" Intend?"

"Yes, it has been demarcated, and the two of them have already set off for Angola and Mozambique, preparing to make a new division of the border there. Generally speaking, the Brazilian side is based on 16°23' south latitude The south belongs to the people on the east coast, and the north belongs to us." Antonio said, "The future plan? That is, we must regain the wisdom of survival and handle various complicated relationships more carefully..."

Mr. Charles was stunned for a moment when he heard the words, and then smiled wryly.As a human being, how could he not understand the meaning of these words?The wisdom of survival, huh, this sentence has many meanings. It seems that Portugal has been conquered by the people on the east coast this time. In the future, when dealing with things involving the people on the east coast, they will definitely be more cautious. In many cases, they may not Follow England blindly.But this is also normal. Even though they have lost all the land south of Porto Seguro, they still retain the most elite general areas of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Ceara in Brazil. The future can still be expected. The premise is not to annoy the irritable neighbor on the east bank anymore, otherwise San Salvador may not be able to keep it next time.

(End of this chapter)