1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 715 Slave Trader
Although the Dutch merchant ship had been boarded and inspected before it docked, in order to prevent accidents during the process of accepting slaves, Roger still transferred a company of soldiers to the dock in advance to be on guard.If any restless slave among the slaves tries to cause trouble here, the Haihan militia will immediately teach them the rules that must be followed.

In addition, Li Dagui also transferred several foremen from Southeast Asia and East Africa to stand by in advance.These foremen have been on Ambuna Island for more than a month, but they can already understand some simple Chinese instructions, allowing them to communicate with the newly arrived slaves if necessary.

Jansen asked his subordinates to give some instructions, and soon the ship opened the hatch to let the slaves out.Although the Dutch gave up equipping the ship with cannons in order to transport more people, the crew still maintained basic armaments. They were all equipped with weapons such as waist knives and harpoons, which were arranged on both sides of the hatch leading from the cabin to the deck. A passage consisting of two human walls is formed.After the slaves came out of the cabin, they followed this passage to the gangplank on the side of the ship to the shore.

Probably in order to prevent these slaves from getting into trouble or jumping into the sea on the way, the Dutch used iron chains and shackles to connect every ten people together. This is similar to the method Haihan used when escorting prisoners of war or prisoners on a large scale. .After the slaves dragged their heavy shackles down to the shore, the Dutch crew stepped forward to undo the shackles one by one and let them sit cross-legged.

The staff at Haihan's side immediately began to check the physical condition of the slaves, mainly looking at the eyes and mouth, which are relatively easy to observe the physical condition, and whether there are obvious injuries or disabilities on the limbs and trunk.According to the agreement between the two parties, Haihan can reject or lower the price of slaves with obvious physical injuries or severe disabilities depending on the situation.And Haihan's staff also inspected very carefully, because if those slaves whose physical conditions were not qualified were not picked out at this stage, but were discovered afterwards, then the inspectors would have to bear the blame.

The physical quarantine of these slaves by the relevant departments is even more detailed than Hainan Island's acceptance of immigrants from other places.This is because the Ministry of Health has specially issued a notification request to prevent some strange tropical infectious diseases from flowing into the densely populated plantation areas on the island.Although this kind of manual inspection cannot completely avoid the inflow of infectious viruses, it can at least play a certain preventive role.Malaria, sleeping sickness, yellow fever, dengue fever and other highly contagious tropical diseases are currently the targets of strict prevention by the Ministry of Health. As long as relevant symptoms are found on slaves, Haihan will unconditionally reject them. suspected cases.

Before that, Roger had given instructions to try to suppress the supply price of the Dutch, so Li Dagui is also very strict today.Before all the slaves on the first boat got down to the shore, a dozen or so slaves in poor health had already been picked out and driven to the other side for concentration.

Seeing this situation, Jansen was also a little flustered, and hurriedly approached Roger and said, "My lord, these people are not in good condition temporarily because they have exhausted too much physical strength during the sea voyage, I promise They don't suffer from any disease that interferes with labor."

Roger replied with a smile: "Of course I believe what you say, Mr. Jansen. But you are the captain, and I am a soldier. We are not professional doctors, right? So I have to judge their physical condition. I think it’s better to trust the professionals.”

Yang Sen took a soft nail, stepped back with a smirk, and winked at Li Dagui again and again.When he transported two ships of slaves last time, Li Dagui was in charge of receiving them, and the two had known each other before. Jansen even gave Li Dagui a small bucket of wine from Europe as a gift.But the time for Li Dagui to be the master has obviously passed, and now this Haihan person is obviously much smarter than Li Dagui, and seeing Li Dagui's submissive appearance, he is obviously also a powerful figure in Haihan.Yang Sen could only hope that Li Dagui would think of his previous friendship, speak a few words of kindness for himself in front of this noble man, and loosen the scale a little.

However, Roger's authority is obviously far better than the shallow friendship between him and Li Dagui. Although Li Dagui couldn't understand the conversation between the two, he knew that Jansen probably hit a wall with Roger. , instead of giving him a voice, he said righteously, "Mr. Jansen, we are only acting according to the agreement that both parties agreed to at the beginning. You don't have any other thoughts about this, do you?"

Jansen replied with a wry smile, "Of course...no."

To be honest, the slaves that Jansen transported this time were indeed selected in the slave market in Batavia City, and the few slave traders who supplied him also sold their friendship, and kept all the slaves in better health. to him.Moreover, a lot of thought was put into the process of transporting them to the Abunna Islands, such as improving the ventilation of the cabin and hiring a doctor to observe the conditions of the slaves on board, in order to get a good price from the Haihan people.But with so many hundreds of people bored in the cabin and drifting at sea for more than 2000 miles, eating, drinking, and messing with each other, they can eat one meal a day to satisfy their hunger, and they can still live alive when they disembark.

If the Haihans refused to accept the singled out slaves, Jansen had no choice but to transport them back to Batavia.However, considering the physical condition of these people, it is not easy to say whether they can return to the slave market in Batavia alive, or they may not even be able to get their money back.

After an hour passed, the inventory of 310 seven slaves on the first ship was finally completed.Among them, 27 were singled out because of their suspicious physical conditions. This number made Jansen wipe away his sweat quietly.Taking into account the damage during the transportation, this ratio is basically acceptable.

The second ship carried more slaves, so it took longer, but more people were picked out due to physical reasons, but the ratio was not much different from the first ship, and it was also close to [-]%.

Seeing these sick patients being concentrated on the other side, Jansen's heart was bleeding, even if he bought these people in Batavia according to the cost price, this is not a small sum.In any case, he will try again to persuade Roger to accept this group of people.

"You see, my lord, if these poor fellows are to be shipped back to Batavia, perhaps they will be called by the Lord on the way. I would like to ask Your Excellency to allow them to stay on this island, It takes a few days to recover. If they can't make it through, then it is indeed a bad fate, and it is their fate to rest here. If they can recover, then this is also a good thing for you, isn't it Is it?" Jansen walked up to Roger again, trying to make him change his previous attitude.

Roger sat on a chair, held a glass of fresh coconut juice in his hand, looked up at Jansen and said with a smile, "You mean, you want me to pay for these slaves who may die of illness at any time?"

"No, no, no, I've thought of a compromise." Jansen quickly responded, "I can keep these people here, and I'll collect this part of the money when I come next time. Of course, only living people will be charged. part."

Roger replied: "This part needs to deduct the funeral expenses of the dead..."

"No problem." Jansen agreed without hesitation: "To be fair, let's use one-fifth of a slave's worth as funeral expenses. What do you think?"

"I accept your proposal." After a little calculation, Roger agreed.At present, there is still a shortage of labor force in the plantations on the island, and it is always good to have more manpower.As for the funeral expenses, it was nothing more than asking people to find a place to dig a hole to bury them. These slaves didn't even need to erect tombstones after they died.

For the slave trader Jansen, this avoids the trouble of returning all the more than 60 unqualified slaves who were singled out, and keeps them with the Haihan people, even avoiding the risk of damage on the way back.Moreover, these 60 people should not all die in a short period of time. At least Jansen would not believe in this evil. It is better to sell some of them than to lose all of them.Of course, for this reason, he probably needs to leave one or two crew members on the island to monitor whether the condition of these slaves has returned to the level of health required by the Haihan people.

Before the big stone could be put down in Jansen's heart, Roger continued: "But I have another thing to say hello to you. We are not interested in accepting the aborigines from these islands in the South China Sea."

"Ah? Then I'll bring more black people over next time." Jansen agreed, but felt something was wrong in his heart.

"I'm not talking about the next time, I'm talking about starting from this time." Sure enough, he was afraid of something, and with a smile on his face, Roger spit out a cold answer.

Yang Sen's heart trembled. Nearly half of the slaves transported this time were aborigines from islands in the South China Sea.These slaves were basically plundered by the various colonies of the East India Company. Because these people were lazy and had no production skills, the sales in the Batavia slave market were not very good.Jansen originally thought that the Haihan people who were in urgent need of labor would become a new sales channel, but now it seems that the Haihan people are obviously not optimistic about the performance of these guys.

"Honorable sir, there is nothing wrong with these people's physical condition, is there? They can work well for your plantation, even if there are some stupid among them, I believe they will learn quickly under the whip How should I serve the lords?" Jansen watched Haihan's soldiers distinguishing the Nanyang natives from the crowd, and hurriedly pleaded with Roger.

Roger glanced at the poor Jansen, and responded as if out of kindness: "Yeah, speaking of transporting these guys from Batavia, it should be a very troublesome thing..."

"It's not just a hassle, it's a toss!" Jansen immediately began to complain: "These guys don't have a unified language and writing, it is difficult to communicate, and only the whip can teach them the rules. If you refuse to accept these savages, then I would have to spend time and trouble transporting them back...it's a nightmare just to think about it!"

Roger clicked his tongue and said: "Since everyone has difficulties, I think it's better to be like this. I'll take half the price of the ones that have already been shipped this time. But when I trade next time, I don't want to see the natives of the South China Sea mixed in to make up the money again." .”

Yang Sen thought to himself that this Nima is also called a refill. This is a slave that is clearly marked on the slave market and sold publicly.
The slander belongs to the slander, but the business still has to be done, but it was cut in half by Roger's sentence, and Jansen would definitely not agree.If they traded according to Roger's quotation, there would be basically no profit for this trip.

Jansen frothed until the corners of his mouth frothed, and Roger finally let go—but only a little bit, from cutting off half to cutting off a third.

Jansen was still waiting to grind, Roger yawned and said: "Since Mr. Jansen is still not satisfied, why don't you stay at the port first, I will go to the mountains tomorrow, and we can talk again when I come back in a few days. "

How could Jansen dare to wait until a few days later to talk about it? Roger would still not say a word by then, but Jansen lost both time and money.At the moment, he didn't dare to grind anymore with Roger, and quickly finalized the final transaction agreement.Although Roger cut off a lot of it, but the transaction result is not bad, at least after keeping the cost of Jansen's trip, there is still a little profit.Of course, the premise is that the journey back to Batavia can be smooth and avoid bad weather. Otherwise, even if there is a few days of delay on the road, the consumption of the two boats is enough to eat up this little profit.

After the deal was finalized, Jansen immediately took the withdrawal slip signed by Roger to the Haihan Bank at the port to withdraw cash.Although Dutch merchant ships can berth here, he doesn't want to delay here at all. The Haihan people have set extremely strict rules. Inland towns are not allowed to go.This kind of regulation makes the crew members who want to go ashore to have a drink and find a few women to relax after docking are very unhappy.Moreover, the supplies provided by the Haihan people are very expensive, and if you delay here for one more day, you will consume more. Jansen is not willing to return the hard-earned profits to the Haihan people in this way.

After sending Jansen away, Roger said seriously to Li Dagui: "In the future, the slave trade with the Dutch will be handled according to the rules of this time. If they refuse to accept it, they will directly reject it. They are not the only ones doing the slave business. Don't get used to them!"

(End of this chapter)