1632 Snippets

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 26 Chapter 18 April, 1635 The land breeze had begun in the afternoon, with a rainy, thunderous squall, and then continued as a moderate breeze. With this filling their sails, the Rode Draak and the Groen Feniks had exchanged salutes with Batavia Fort and headed north on April 1, 1635. Among the up-timers, there was some nervous joking about April Fools Day. They were taking the "inner passage," that is, skirting the east coasts of Sumatra, Malaya, and Vietnam, where they could take advantage of any favorable...

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 25 ***** Eric Garlow pushed back his chair slightly. "So, Maarten, please repeat for my colleagues what you have learned about current events." Maarten Gerritzoon Vries, Peter Minuit, Captain Lyell and the four up-timers were gathered around the conference table in the Great Cabin of the Rode Draak. The ship was docked, and so, while it still bobbed with the water, the movement was barely perceptible. "First, we have heard that the Portuguese Japan Fleet of 1633-34 was seized in Nagasaki Harbor," said Maarten....

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 24 Chapter 17 March 1635 Batavia (modern Jakarta, Island of Java, Indonesia) The Rode Draak and the Groen Feniks entered the Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java, which was one of the main connections between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. They passed a few miles to the east of Krakatau. The island was covered with trees, and there was not even a hint of steam emerging from the caldera. Jim Saluzzo openly marveled over how peaceful and idyllic it seemed, giving no hint that it would erupt cataclysmically...

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 23 Beijing, China Beijing, the Northern Capital, was really four cities in one. At the center was the Forbidden City, a north-south rectangle, where the imperial family and the eunuchs who served them lived. It had been constructed in the fourteenth century, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Around it lay the Imperial City, which held the many service buildings of the bureaucracy. Around that was the Northern City, a square with a dent in the northwest corner. Here the common folk lived. The Northern City...

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 22 Chapter 16 Eighth Year of the Reign of the Chongzhen Emperor Year of the Pig, First Month (February 17-March 18, 1635) The Ministry of Rites received an urgent report from the Beijing Astronomical Bureau: "In the Sun there was a black light that roiled and agitated it." The best scholars in the Hanlin Academy were instructed to research when this had last happened and what it might portend. They reported back that there was a similar occurrence listed in the Veritable Record for the 44th year of the Wanli...

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 21 "I agree," said Eric Garlow. "Surely it would be premature to assume a nobleman's guilt on the basis of the unwitnessed word of this woman," protested Salvius' servant, Anders Hansson. "She has reported unwelcome advances from him before," said Martina. "And Eva and I can testify to what we've witnessed him say and do." "For that matter, I think she should be confined under guard. How do we know that she didn't push him overboard?" Anders added. "She says he fell. And if she had pushed him, it would have...

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 20 Soon after Judith descended below, the hatch closed. Her nostrils were immediately assailed. She was not as fastidious as the up-timers, but the smell of sweat and garlic was so fierce that she found herself trying to hold her breath from time to time. The ventilation on the ship was never good, but with a storm on hand, the gunports and hatches were all shut. And soon afterward, the ship began rolling from side to side, and pitching forward and back, more than it had at any time since Judith had first...

1636 The China Venture - Snippet 19 PART III: 1635 On the road to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay, With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay! Rudyard Kipling, Mandalay Chapter 15 Eastern Indian Ocean February 1635 Judith Leyster and her sketchbook had become a familiar site on the open decks of the Rode Draak. At first, she had confined herself to the poop and quarter decks. The general policy on an East Indiaman was to keep the crew and the passengers separate, and the crew was not permitted aft of the main mast unless...