Chapter 48: Trade

Van der Lants completed the handover procedures with the former commercial agent of the “Magdeburg.” This ship had only arrived from Holland a few months ago and was in quite good condition after repairs. Because this voyage was to the port of an unknown power, there was a certain degree of risk. The ship was reinforced with additional personnel. The entire ship was equipped with one hundred and twenty sailors and forty soldiers. The ship was originally equipped with only 4 cannons, and an additional 4 were installed. Although the voyage to Hainan Island was only a short trip, the ship was still equipped with two surgeons to care for the crew—though it was hard to say how useful they were, as there was never a voyage where a dozen or even dozens of bodies were not thrown into the sea. Of course, a chaplain was also indispensable on the ship to look after the souls of the crew.

Van der Lants held a brief meeting with the captain, Gonzalez, and Leib Trini. The Governor-General’s mission for Van der Lants was to open trade with the Australians and gather as much intelligence as possible. To achieve this, the first step was to choose suitable trade goods. If the Australians were not interested in the goods they brought, then neither trade relations nor intelligence gathering could be accomplished.

Van der Lants felt it was a very tricky situation. No one here had ever had any trade with the Australians, so no one knew what they liked or needed. Since the Australians were on the coast of China, they certainly had an ample supply of Chinese goods such as silk, raw silk, and porcelain. And from their large exports of sugar and paper, as well as glass products, it was clear that they had a very strong manufacturing capacity. Van der Lants thought it over and over. The only products from the entire East Indies that they might be interested in were probably spices. Pepper, cinnamon, and cloves were among the few goods that the Chinese were willing to import in large quantities from the Dutch.

If he could not find suitable bulk export goods, Van der Lants would have to transport a large amount of silver to trade with the Australians, which was the least desirable trade situation for the company.

The Governor-General’s secretary had given him a small booklet on the basic situation of the Australians. Van der Lants carefully studied the Australians’ imported goods. They imported a wide variety of things, but the largest commodities were rice, timber, pig iron, various metals, and cotton products. In particular, the import figures for cotton products were very large. Van der Lants was astonished because, according to the booklet, just from one trader, the cotton cloth and yarn they bought from India exceeded the total sales of all kinds of textiles to China since the East India Company began its trade with China. In fact, the East India Company not only failed to sell many cotton products to the Chinese but also imported a large amount of “Nanjing cloth” from Chinese merchants for sale every year.

It was clear that they had a great demand for textiles, Van der Lants thought. However, he was probably powerless when it came to cotton products, as these were mostly transported and sold by the British. Batavia had no stock of cotton products, unless they sent a ship to India to purchase them—which was obviously too late.

As for pig iron and metals, they were even scarcer. Whether it was ironware, lead, or copper, they were either shipped from Europe or imported from China and Japan. They were already quite scarce and could not be exported.

However, Batavia had a large amount of Dutch linen—a major export industrial product of the Netherlands. Because of its low price, it was practically being dumped on the European market. Someone at the time described its price as so low that “the poorest people can use it to make shirts.” In addition, he also planned to transport some high-quality woolen cloth. Although woolen cloth was not a bestseller in China, it was always bought by some as a luxury item.

After careful consideration and repeated study of the booklet, Van der Lants finally arranged a cargo list for the “Magdeburg.” The goods to be transported to Lingao for sale included: a large quantity of spices, Dutch linen, and logs, and a small amount of high-quality woolen cloth. Because he saw from the booklet that the clothes worn by the Australians were mostly blue and gray, he judged that the Australians lacked dyes other than indigo. He added dyes such as sappanwood to the cargo list. Finally, he also loaded several hundred bags of local rice. Even Europeans in the East Indies had to eat rice as their staple food.

Since no one among the Dutch had ever been to Hainan Island, but they knew the exact latitude and longitude of Lingao, and the Dutch often traded with Vietnam, they were not completely ignorant of the local situation. By referring to nautical charts and collected intelligence, Van der Lants roughly knew that Lingao was in the Qiongzhou Strait. He only needed to follow the route to Vietnam, and after arriving in Vietnam, turn east and enter the Qiongzhou Strait to find Lingao.

After the “Magdeburg” set sail, it passed through the Bangka Strait, sailed past Sumatra and the Philippine Islands, and after a thirty-five-day voyage, arrived at Cam Ranh Bay. After replenishing food and fresh water there, the “Magdeburg” turned its course to the northeast, preparing to cross the Gulf of Tonkin to find the entrance to the Qiongzhou Strait.

Since Li Siya had provided the approximate latitude and longitude of Lingao, the voyage was very smooth. In early February 1631, the “Magdeburg” sailed past Bach Long Vi Island, and the sailors on board spotted land—according to the nautical charts in their hands, this should be Hainan Island.

The “Magdeburg” sailed cautiously along the coast—so far, no European ship had ever entered the Qiongzhou Strait. After sailing along the coast for a few days, they finally found the narrow entrance to the strait. However, at this time, the lookout at the top of the mast issued a warning of “ships approaching.”

“Battle stations!” the captain immediately ordered.

Van der Lants, who had rushed out from the poop deck upon hearing the news, immediately shouted, “Do not fire without orders!”

He was afraid that the approaching ship was an Australian vessel, and if an armed conflict occurred, it would have a negative impact on his mission.

Sure enough, from the port side, at two points of the compass, a single-masted sailboat gradually appeared on the horizon.

Van der Lants leaned on the bow rail with both hands, staring at the gaff-rigged cutter that was approaching at full sail. This type of ship was very rare in the East Asian seas. It was a very typical European-style vessel. The ship did not look large, and its shape was very beautiful. It reminded him of the single-masted cutters he had seen along the Mediterranean coast and in the English Channel.

The flag flying at the top of the mast was one he did not recognize. He turned his gaze to the stern of the ship, where a blue and white flag was flying—exactly as described in the booklet. This was the Australian navy!

“This ship is really strange,” Gonzalez said. “A gaff-rigged cutter! Where did they get it? I’ve never seen anyone use this type of ship in East Asia!”

The commercial agent glanced at the officer speaking next to him. This was a Spaniard—Van der Lants hated all Spaniards. In the past, he had heard no shortage of stories about the various horrific atrocities committed by the Spanish during the War of Independence.

“Lower the pennant!” Van der Lants ordered. This was a gesture of respect to the other party, indicating no hostile intent. Of course, it was hard to say whether the other party understood the meaning. But Van der Lants believed that since the Australians were using a typical European-style ship, they probably also understood nautical signals.

Sure enough, the other party returned the salute in the same way, and the sailboat gradually approached.

Leib Trini also came out, holding his sketchbook. He quickly sketched the sailboat in his book with a charcoal stick and asked, “What do you think they want to do? They are waiting for us on our course. Do they want to make contact with us?” It was Leib Trini’s first time in East Asia, and his first long voyage.

“I don’t know. Maybe they want to make contact with us, or maybe they want to attack us. Get everyone on alert immediately,” Gonzalez said. “Their ship is small, with at most fifty men in total. Besides, our gunwales are much higher, so we have an advantage even in a boarding action. Have all the swivel guns loaded.”

Van der Lants ordered, “Do not lower the sails, continue sailing.” It was dangerous to come alongside a strange ship at sea. It was not uncommon for a large ship to be attacked by a small ship that came alongside and then taken by boarding.

“…Ship inspection…” someone on the other side was shouting.

“Oh, it sounds like Spanish? What are they saying?”

“Stop the ship for inspection!” the shout from the small boat on the other side grew louder. Although it was Spanish, the accent was very strange.

“Strange, they are speaking Spanish!” Gonzalez frowned. “They want us to stop for inspection.”

“We are clearly flying the Prince’s flag.”

“Maybe they don’t know the Prince,” Gonzalez had no love for the Dutch, and of course, no fondness for His Highness the Prince either.

“Oh! This is the first time I’ve encountered such a thing!” the Spaniard laughed. “How do you propose to handle this? My dear commercial agent. Let them board and inspect us in the middle of the vast sea?”

“Of course not, that’s not safe—besides, they might not even be Australians,” Van der Lants said. “Continue sailing.”

But the other party’s sailing speed was very fast, and their ship was much more agile than theirs. Soon, the gaff-rigged cutter was sailing alongside them. Now they could see the other party more clearly. The gaff-rigged cutter looked very new and should not have been launched for long. There were cannons on the deck, and their covers had been removed. Some sailors in blue short jackets were running around on the deck.

Everyone became tense. The gunners and musketeers lit their matches. The off-duty sailors of the “Prince’s Company” also armed themselves with cutlasses, axes, daggers, and other weapons, ready to fight at any moment.

At this time, a figure appeared on the poop deck of the cutter. He put a conical object to his mouth and shouted something loudly in Chinese.