Skade escaped the artillery fire of the Senate, and of course, he also kept the Dutch whose quarantine had expired for about ten more days. When he came back from Hongji, he was already holding a thick stack of relevant documents in his hand.
A plan to speed up the development of Hongji and strengthen the local defense force. When this plan was submitted to the Executive Committee and the Senate for review, he declared that he would "open up negotiations with the Dutch with all his strength" and went into hiding again.
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To reinforce Hongji and expand the scale of Hongji Station, the Ministry of Colonial Trade only has the right to propose a plan, which involves the allocation of materials, personnel allocation and troop mobilization. It still needs detailed discussion by the Executive Committee before it can be implemented. Skade told the Senate
He doesn’t particularly care about the bombardment over there: he has enough evidence to prove that Hongji’s insufficient equipment is entirely due to “limitation of national strength.” If there is insufficient defense force for important targets, Sanya’s defense force is particularly important based on its importance and investment amount.
Not enough. He didn’t want to deal with the Standing Committee simply because he felt it was a waste of time. According to his words, many people in the Senate Standing Committee were “too professional when they were professional, and too amateur when they were amateurs.” They were all difficult to deal with.
"Okay, we need to find a few people who understand German," Skade said to himself in the office. "Dutch is a small language." Dutch is commonly known as Low German and there is not much difference between it and German. So the Dutch East India Company
There were a large number of Germans employed there. Skade thought that there were quite a few among the elders who knew German, and most of them were affiliated with the Ministry of Colonial Trade.
Second report from Van Delantron, junior merchant officer of the Dutch East India Company on the Magdeburg, to De Carpentier, Governor of Batavia.
Your Excellency:
After a quarantine period of more than 20 days, we were finally allowed to go ashore. Thank God, no one died while we were on the ship. Everyone is healthy.
Originally we were supposed to end the quarantine at the end of February, but when it expired, the port officials informed us that a senior official who was going to meet us, who they called the "Executive Committee", was not in Lingao at the moment, so we were on the ship.
Stayed for one more week.
We found that the Australians use the concept of "week" just like us. When their people boarded the ship to talk to us, they often mentioned "day of the week" and "next week". They also mentioned "Sunday"
.
However, the officer sent us a document authorizing us to leave the ship. With this document, the crew could go ashore and check into the hotel on the shore. The sailors and soldiers were very happy to be able to go ashore. I ordered the captain to leave three people behind.
One-third of the sailors and soldiers were on board, and it was promised that they would be rotated every three days from now on.
The executive committee issued an order to the port official, ordering him to provide us with all our needs without shortage. We also ordered our personnel not to leave the port area without written permission.
The port officials issued a cardboard card to everyone who landed. On the card, their name, ship and departure port were written. Everyone was asked to put their fingerprints on the card. You must know:
This practice of pressing fingerprints is very popular among the Chinese and seems to be a sign of their credibility.
When we landed on land, people and workers in the port area crowded on the roadside to watch us. Some people even climbed onto the crane. The crowd of people watching made us feel very distressed. The officials discovered this and dispatched
The guards came to escort us. We left the pier and were immediately arranged to a house not far from the pier.
This house is very large. It is said that it is specially used to receive sailors. The house is a special kind of long house. There are many rows of such long houses in the yard. Each long house is equipped with double-decker beds in rows.
Forty or more people can live in one house - some longhouses are double-storeyed.
As senior crew members, we were placed alone in a courtyard. There is a similar double-story building here. It is the same brick structure as the longhouse. But the interior layout is more exquisite. Each room is equipped with various furniture.
As for whether each room sleeps one or three people, it's up to you. They have rooms with different numbers of beds. They can sleep up to 4 people.
Whether it is an ordinary sailor's longhouse or the small building where we live, the houses are very clean and tidy. There are no beddings on the beds, but there are straw mats and straw pillows - which is enough in the high climate. Every house
They are all equipped with toilets. The manager of the house strictly warned us that any act of prostitution will be subject to high fines and other penalties. For this reason, I had to communicate with the steward on the ship and asked him to strictly control the sailors.
And the behavior of the soldiers - you know most of them are Germans.
There is a restaurant in the Sailor's Inn that serves cooked meals. There is also a large shop here that provides a variety of goods for the sailors and fishermen who rest here.
The Australians seem to be less hospitable than the Chinese. The Spanish and some other people say that every time they go to the coast of China, they can get official hospitality as long as they go to the Chinese coast under the banner of "tribute". However, we here in Australia, all the items provided,
From accommodation to food, you have to pay for everything, but the price is acceptable.
We learned that this place is called "Bobu" - we were informed that we can move freely in Bobu Town, and those who go out must return to the hotel before 9 pm. However, those places that are listed as "restricted areas" cannot enter or exit.
Generally speaking, the Australians have very few restrictions on us. In addition to allowing us to move freely in the museum, there are no other restrictions on the coins and other items we carry - they just remind us that we need to exchange them for local currency before shopping.
currency, in addition to prohibiting the carrying of weapons. In addition, he also required sailors and soldiers to swear an oath to respect the laws of the place before going out.
A shrill flute is played every hour in the city - the sound is so loud that the whole city can hear it. The flutes in the morning, noon and evening last for a long time. Australians use this time telling system
They are so skillful that everyone can know the current moment. Australians work strictly according to the hour. As long as you live with them for a day, you can roughly know what they will do the next day.
After everyone had settled down at the Mariner's Inn, the person in charge of our reception, whom they called the Minister of Trade, wanted to meet us and discuss with us that the three of us decided to go together to talk to him.
On the morning of March 1st, we washed up early and put on our best clothes. In addition to Messrs. González and Leib Trini, we each took with us an entourage, and we also carried
Related gifts.
We were led down to the street by a young official sent from the "Ministry of Trade". A very beautiful four-wheel carriage has been prepared here! Yes, a carriage, this is the most surprising thing to me. In the whole of East Asia
, I don’t know where else to see such a light and beautiful carriage. You can’t find this type of vehicle even in Macau or Batavia. I don’t think you can find a similar vehicle even in Europe. This is really a piece of work.
Exquisite handicrafts! No, the so-called exquisite handicrafts do not mean how gorgeously decorated and intricately carved it is. On the contrary, there are almost no decorations or paintings on the carriage, and the body is also black. Except for the glass inlaid on the door and a pair of
There are no decorations worth mentioning except for the beautiful lights. But the size of the entire body, the structure and the symmetry of each part on it, and the perfection of the structure all give people an extremely strong shock. Sir, please forgive me for not being able to use it.
Words to describe this feeling.
The carriage passed through Bobu Town and headed to a town they called "Bairen". It was the center of Australian rule. Bobu Town was a very prosperous town with many houses in the town, making it a more prosperous city.
.We can see a large number of chimneys here, the height is amazing, each chimney is emitting black and white smoke. There is a strong pungent smell in the air. On the way we saw a towering castle - although it is not in our
The streets I passed were entirely made of red bricks, with large towers and turrets. There were also white and black smoke rising there, and huge metal collision sounds could be heard from time to time. I asked the accompanying officer where it was.
Where? The other party refused to answer my question. I think this should be an Australian smelter, munitions field or mint. If true, the Australians have invested a lot of money here.
The road from Bobu to Bairen is built along a large river. But this river is currently in a semi-dry state. The Australians seem to be carrying out some kind of dredging and construction project on this river. There is not much water in the river.
There is a smell. The road is well built and paved with black sandstone. The carriage does not feel bumpy at all when walking on it. There is carefully cultivated land everywhere along the road. The land is carefully taken care of. There is not an inch of land.
It has not been cultivated and planted with crops. The fields, like many places in Tuscany, are equipped with perfect canals, dams and waterwheels to fully irrigate the soil. This irrigation project is so exquisite that Mr. Trini praised it.
Never stop talking.
The local area, like Batavia, can be cultivated all year round. Green rice seedlings have been planted in the fields, and some are vegetables. The slopes that cannot be planted with rice have been planted with various crops and fruit trees that are unknown to us.
, even on both sides of the road, there are many coconut saplings planted.
What surprised us most was that there were some things of unknown purpose beside the road: some completely lifeless wooden piles, painted pitch black. The wooden piles stood in rows beside the road like street trees, with black marks between them.
Wire connection. There are also some glass bottles fixed to each wooden stake.
The three of us discussed the purpose of these wooden piles, but came to no conclusion at all - no one had ever seen such a thing. We asked the accompanying officials for advice, and once again received a silent answer.