Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 464 Formosa visitor ([-])

The "Castellicu" was sailing slowly on the blue sea. Today's weather is good, and the sea breeze in the middle and late April is quite comfortable.Now the wind direction on the sea in East Asia has gradually changed from howling north wind to mild south wind, which is very conducive to ships carrying out various expeditions to the north.

No, the two armed merchant ships "Castelliku" and "Bregens" that rushed to Formosa from Batavia are currently conducting such expeditions.They arrived in Zeelandia two weeks ago. After handing over a batch of supplies and ammunition, they rested for a few days. Then the two ships pulled anchor and left Formosa to continue their exploration north.

The expedition fleet was led by Captain Fries, who had arrived at the Capitol and the Company (Eturup Island and Defu Island) a few years ago. Naturally, their main task was not to search for nonsensical tasks like Treasure Island— ——This has been reduced to a secondary task. Their main task now is to find the city that the legendary East Coast people occupy in the "Land of Yesuo".If this city really exists, it will be a city that is not a small threat to the United Provinces of the Netherlands, because the fleet from here will easily threaten the Dutch in Formosa and Japan. trade between the two places.Governor Van Diemen of the East India Company is quite worried. Today, with the company's financial situation getting worse and the local board of directors increasingly dissatisfied with it, Formosa and Japan's trade have become extremely stable cash cows within the company.Van Diemen did not allow the two cows to be threatened in any way, so there was Captain Frith's northward exploration at this moment.

Following the familiar route, the fleet headed north from the eastern coast of Japan, crossed the Fris Strait (the waterway between Ituru Island and Defu Island), and then entered the Sea of ​​Okhotsk westward.Captain Fries is familiar with this sea area, and he almost walked all over here during his last expedition, so he crossed Cape Aniwa and entered Aniwa Bay with ease.

The outline of the land appeared in the distance in front of him. Captain Frith held up the binoculars and looked around. There were dense tall forests everywhere, and there were thick trees everywhere.From time to time, a herd of deer ran out from the edge of the forest, which moved Captain Fries' heart.This is a good place for hunting in summer. If the company can set up a stronghold here, conquer or hire the local natives to hunt the deer herds, and then buy their furs, it will probably be a good deal.And the Chinese seem to be very keen on some other weird parts of deer, and if you trade them with them, you can make a lot of money.

"Captain, we found two ships! No, three!" The lookout on the observation deck shouted in his Dutch with a strong Saxon accent.

What? !Captain Fries was taken aback, then rushed out of the bridge, and climbed up to the three-story gun deck of the poop in one breath.At this time, he could clearly observe without a telescope that three ships appeared on the western sea.The three ships form an inverted triangle formation, and the speed is not very fast, about 4 knots.The two ships in front are three-masted sailing ships, with horizontal sails hanging on the foremast and topmast, and stern sails on the mizzen, but the strange thing is that there is a large chimney constantly emitting black smoke in the midship of the ship, which made Captain Fries baffled. .The last ship is a flute-shaped ship that the Dutch are quite familiar with. It looks larger than the two ships under his command, but it is not that big.

The other party's ship had apparently spotted Captain Fries and the others, and they adjusted their course, and two strange ships puffing out black smoke rushed towards them.But the flute-shaped boat did not come over. It continued to sail slowly towards the northeast. The draft of the hull was also very deep, and it seemed to be fully loaded with cargo.Do they have a port there too?This question flashed through Captain Frith's mind.

But there wasn't much time for him to think.Two strange ships flying the flag of the East Coast Republic of China sailed over at a high speed of 7-8 knots. They followed the southwest wind blowing on the sea, but their speed was unbelievably fast. God, when will these ships be here? Driving at a high speed of more than 7 knots under this level of wind speed?Captain Fries was a little shocked, but he didn't forget the business.

Under his command, the sailors on the armed merchant ships "Castelliku" and "Bragens" tore off the gun covers of the artillery, then moved the ammunition, adjusted the artillery, and made all preparations for firing .And the navigators are also working hard to adjust the course of the ship, ready to seize the upper hand at any time.

The distance between the two sides was rapidly approaching. When the distance was less than three nautical miles, the two ships of the other side lowered part of their sails and slowed down their forward speed. This made Captain Fries a little puzzled. Are they not going to fight us? up?

After continuing to move forward for a while, a small boat was lowered from the front ship of the opponent, and then it rowed towards the "Castelliku" with all its strength.Captain Fries asked his men not to attack, and he decided to talk to the person who came from the other side first.

The two east coast envoys were quickly pulled onto the deck of the "Castellicu" by the boatswain.There were two young people who boarded the deck, and the person in front of them in a sky-blue uniform seemed to be the one talking.He looked at the deck of the "Castellicu", and then at the ragged boatswain who pulled him up, and then said in French with a slightly Spanish accent: "I am Huaxia. Ensign Juan of the East Coast Republic, I need a gentleman to talk to me."

The bosun blushed and stepped aside, feeling humiliated.Upon hearing this, Captain Fries walked off the bridge, and approached the young man surrounded by a group of officers or sailors. He also said in French: "I am an adventurer from the East India Company of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Captain Martin Gelitzson Fries, you will respect this name in the future. Now, arrogant East Coasters, please tell us why you came."

"Very good, I don't like wasting time either." Lieutenant Juan withdrew his gaze from looking around, then focused on Captain Fries, and said, "Unfortunately, Captain Fries, this is already the territorial waters of the East Coast Republic of China. Yours The company's ships have entered our country's territorial waters without permission. This is a great offense. Please leave immediately. Also please don't enter this sea again because it is not safe. I think you understand what I mean .”

"This is ridiculous. Last time I came here, there were only some savages here. No country or organization from the civilized world has ever claimed sovereignty over this place." Captain Fries said dissatisfiedly, "This is the high seas! Any ship can High seas of free navigation! You have no claim to this place, and there are no cities, ports, or facilities of any kind for you East Coasters!"

"But now there is." Second Lieutenant Juan said without a doubt, "Here is our city, our port, our people, and our fleet! Please strictly restrain your behavior and don't make any damage. The unwise relationship between your company and our side does not do any good. Your company and our government just signed a memorandum in the first half of last year. According to this spirit, the ships or personnel of both parties should exercise extreme restraint and not make random damage, Provocative, insulting or targeted unfriendly gestures. Captain Fries, I hope you will not blatantly discredit your company."

Captain Frith fell silent.In fact, he did see such a line in a large number of company documents brought by a communication ship a few months ago.This was also emphasized by the courier who came from the mainland, representing the shareholders of the company's board of directors, together with Governor Van Diemen and the gentlemen of the East Indies Committee.Captain Frith didn't know what other people's attitudes were towards this matter, but he knew very well that Governor Van Diemen was extremely dissatisfied with the memorandum signed by the senior management of the local company and the people on the east coast. He even thought it was a "betrayal."Just as the East India Company defeated the British in the Far East back then, but the mainland suddenly signed an armistice agreement with the British, and then sent people to the Far East to inform them, which aroused the colonial governor and senior officials of the East Indies. Dissatisfaction among officials.

But this time is different from last time.The last time the Dutch had the upper hand in the East Indies, the British couldn't hold their ground at all. As a result, the natives sent people to declare a truce with the British. At the same time, they had to work with the British to form a joint fleet to jointly maintain the East Indies The order of the islands.This agreement made the gentlemen of Batavia very puzzled. Everyone's resistance was quite serious. When implementing the agreement, they used all kinds of tricks and tricks to squeeze out the British.

In fact, Captain Fries can understand the ideas of all parties.The mainland was facing a serious threat from the Spaniards at the time, and the government was unwilling to deteriorate relations with the British at this time, so it was eager to sign a peace or even an alliance agreement with the British.But the gentlemen in the Far East don't think so. They have been fighting the British here for many years, and they have already gained a great upper hand, and they have controlled most of the spice producing areas in their own hands.But the locals suddenly told them to cease war with the British immediately, and to divide one-third of the spice share for the British to bring back to Europe for sale. Not only that, they even formed an alliance with those annoying enemies to form a joint fleet. How could this be!

Therefore, the gentlemen of the East Indies Affairs Committee were very angry at that time, and they strongly opposed it, which made the special envoy from the mainland very embarrassed.Later, the special envoy also spent a lot of time and energy, and finally persuaded these gentlemen to reluctantly agree to cooperate with the British.

(End of this chapter)