The Saint Helena Longhouse - part 2
Different nations and companies sent their representatives from different directions to reach Saint Helena. Winds and currents made reaching the island an easy matter if you were coming from the south. In the southern hemisphere, winds and currents generally went counterclockwise around any ocean basin. Saint Helena was east-of-centre in the South Atlantic, so winds and currents would help you there from, say, the Cape of Good Hope, and hinder you from other places.
Unfortunately, most guests were coming from Europe, meaning those winds and currents were a hindrance.
The British, Portuguese, and Jakob himself travelled generally together from Lisbon, though they paused at different places along the way. Jakob lingered longest at Bandschul, the Portuguese at Cacheu, while the British had no great reason to linger any longer in any particular place.
The Dutch came from Brazil, sailing in a counterclockwise curlicue to seek the favour of the winds and currents, as though swirling around a drain midway between Brazil and Luanda.
The Danes came via the Guinea coast to the possession of Anomabo, having fought the currents to reach it, and took Martin up on an offer to sail with him the rest of the way. They headed south to Loango, past the mouth of the Zaire river, where even the seawater was fresh, then to Kongo and even Luanda before finally turning west into the ocean. They had left other ships and traders at each stop, and picked up other guests to come to Saint Helena.
France, Spain, the Pope, and even Catalunya sent only letters.
The ships all arrived by September 4th.
- - -
"Mother!"
"Martin, I swear you have gotten taller." Martin chose not to embrace his mother yet, though they had not seen each other for half a year. He stood back a half step, looking formal. His glance down took in his baby brother Ferdinand in her arms, grown so much in his life spent mostly at sea.
"I am so sorry about Charlotte. We tried to keep her alive, but her fever still took her. I wanted you to at least see her again."
Formality had its limits, and the duchess was beyond hers already. Still, Martin needed words first.
"Martin. I know you would have left nothing out, done everything you could have done for her. God's will is mysterious." She saw her son's face wince momentarily at that. "She was still so young, so... little."
As his mother's voice broke on the word 'little', Martin looked at his baby brother, not yet a year old. He stepped nearer. She'd expected to help strengthen him, not the other way around. My son is a man in yet another way. I lose a daughter to fever and a son to adulthood.
- - -
Upstairs, September 5th:
"We welcome you all to Saint Helena, gentlemen. This morning we will only get to know one another. I will then leave you free to roam this island should you choose, return to your ships if you choose, or relax in the nicer coves. I will insist that no one hunt on the island. The goats, sheep, ducks and cattle are needed to feed the island's guests year-round. The dodos are fearless in a daft way, and are best avoided. The islanders have quite fallen for them all the same, so please, help them avoid injury."
Freshly-baked sourdough bread, fresh fruit and yoghurt were served to all who'd climbed the 700 steps. This was not everyone: a couple of Martin's passengers from Courland's Ark were still recovering from sea-sickness. The meal was simple, but somewhat of a flex: you may have travelled further, to more exotic places, but here is simple, perfect European-ness realized on a rock in the South Atlantic.
Jakob introduced the leads of each delegation, and left them to introduce those accompanying them.
The Dutch delegation was led by Johan Maurits von Nassau-Siegen, governor of Brazil and Prince . WIC or VOC men could only defer to him. The Portuguese had sent an unknown man from a famous family, Henrique de Noronha, looking every part the maritime merchant, and able to speak some German seemingly learned from sailors.
Denmark had sent Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve - the second royal bastard the Danes have sent to deal with me, Jakob thought. However many islands Denmark had, Ulrik looked like he'd prefer more land around him than Saint Helena offered. Left behind in Anomabo was Hendrik Carloff. Britain had sent Sir Nicolas Crispe, head of the Royal Guinea Company, a merger of rival English and Scottish Guinea Companies that had amounted to little separately.
"In addition to your own esteemed selves, there are guests my son brought, who we shall hope to meet when they are recovered from the sea voyage. And there are letters."
Jakob held each letter up in turn, summarizing.
"France sends.... regards, mostly. They value peace and trade the world over, and for our purposes, in the Caribbean and Senegal in particular. They reaffirm their claim on Cayenne and Sinnamary, should the scope of our conversations reach so far west. Spain sends regrets, and insist the Treaty of Tordesillas be respected. The Pope wishes us all to make the lands and seas of which we shall speak places of welcome for those who spread the word of Christ. Charles Jacques Huault de Montmagny writes to inform us that the Knights Hospitaller offer Saint Barthélemy to the highest bidder, though a Catholic buyer and governor would be preferred. Dislodging the previous governor will likely be necessary. President de Calvo of Catalunya writes that he regrets he as of yet lacks the navy to play a part in these waters, but hopes to trade with us all some year soon. All these letters and any documents accompanying them I shall leave on this table for those who wish to read more detail for themselves."
And with that, the first official business was over. Side conversations began, smoothing the way for the next day's diplomacy. The remainder of the day was for rest, socializing, or the pleasure of walking for people who'd spend too much time on ships of late.
- - -
"These men who've never taken a sea journey of more than two months don't appreciate what you've made here, Duke Jakob."
"Have you yourself sailed beyond the Cape, Prince Johan?"
"No, but I've heard from those who have about your island here, and how they were already so glad to stop here even when you were less far along than you are now. With this longhouse, and all you're establishing to support it, they'll love it even more. Did you know some WIC governor proposed taking this island from you?"
"I didn't, but I'm hardly surprised."
"And I of course wouldn't have shared that if I thought it had any chance of surprising you. They don't call you the Skipper Duke for nothing. Everything here says you understand the world from a sailor's perspective, if not an admiral's. It stands to reason you can anticipate the perspective of a pirate."
"And Saint Helena was protected from this invasion by... bureaucracy, I take it?"
"Men who have visited Saint Helena in its Kettler era expressed their horror that men who haven't would seek to ruin a good thing. Good both in terms of the hospitality here and in terms of this being the one place Dutch and Portuguese ships don't battle one another."
"Neutrality never paid me such dividends in Europe, as you know. But here, it's a great success."
"Tell me, how often has this island divested Europe-bound ships of some fraction of their precious cargo? Some captains or sailors paying in a currency that might more rightfully belong to the ship's owners?"
"Have you met our lovely dodo birds? Those came from somewhere in the Indian Ocean." Johann only smirked. Jakob returned it. "If we kept precise records of such trades, fewer such trades would occur. Is that a better answer?"
"A fair and diplomatic one, as I've yet to earn a better one. But I will earn a better one before this visit ends. One more question: why build this longhouse 700 steps up a mountain?"
"I'm told the idea was that if a sailor intends to be too drunk to walk down 700 steps, or is unable to pay to spend the night Upstairs, then his value to us, and ours to him, is better exchanged as near to his ship as possible. On the other hand, a sailor able to afford to stay Upstairs, or prudent enough to stop drinking while still able to walk the stairs safely, deserves all that Upstairs can offer him. You might think of having 700 stairs between themselves and the cheaper drunks is part of the service we offer our most valued clients."
"Skipper Duke indeed! Would you by chance be open to bribes to reveal which WIC and VOC officers pay to remain Upstairs?"
Jakob laughed. "I don't see why not. The bribe would have to exceed the price they'd pay to keep their anonymity, of course. In any event, would those be the officers to promote, or the ones to suspect of fraud?"
"Either could be true, of course. Perhaps even both. But I'm sure it would be the interesting ones, either way."
- - -
Each party at the talks was to supply food for half of one meal, while Saint Helena supplied the rest. September 6th began with a half-Danish breakfast. No one's taste buds remembered the Danish contribution afterward. A purée of banana and sauermilch with cashew nuts and berry preserves outshone anything one might bring by ship.
Louise Charlotte started the day off, once the bowls and plates were cleared. Low German seemed to be the best lingua franca. There were occasional pauses for translation.
"Gentlemen, come to this smaller table, please. This is Tevel ben Elisha, who most of you will have met yesterday. He has been Jakob's governor in Fernau do Po, but for today, what is important is that all Couronian mapmaking has reported to Tevel for roughly the last decade. Tevel?"
"My lady. My lords. Duke Jakob commissioned this map of the South Atlantic Ocean - or Aethiopian Ocean if you prefer - for this gathering. Many of the coastlines you see here are copied from other maps. The Duke's own ships have helped us add detail in a few places. The map lacks colour by design, but you have some notable river mouths, islands, capes and points, and some names for places added. Passing roughly in a clockwise circle from the top, Senegal, Gambia, Casamance, Cacheu, then Cape 3 points, various factories including Elmina, Fernau, Principe, São Tomé, Loango, the Zaire river, Luanda, Benguela, eventually the Cape of Good Hope. To the south, the islands of Tristau da Cunha, then the nothing until you reach the southern part of South America in the bottom left corner. Moving up the left, Brazil's coast, before it curves away to toward the mouth of the Amazon river, past that, finally the Guianas. In the Ocean, here we are in Saint Helena, there is Ascension, Trinidade, your namesake Noronha."
Tevel stepped back. Jakob took over.
"Does anyone find anything already on the map objectionable?"
"No Saint Matthew Island?"
In other company, Tevel might have laughed. Instead: "No, sir."
"Well then, no objections." Now Tevel laughed, and wasn't alone in doing so. With help, he picked up a pane of glass slightly larger than the map from another table nearby, then laid it on top of the map.
"Glassworks, Jakob? Here?"
"Alas, no. In Fernau or Bandschul, soon. Either can ship good glass here." He paused to stare out at the sea for a second, as though shuffling his plans. "But we digress."
Tevel opened a box to reveal painted stones, painted wooden discs and pots of paint. He nodded to Martin.
"Tevel's map lacked colour so that we might add it. Orange for the Dutch. Pink for Britain. Green for Portugal. Red for Denmark. Black for Courland. Other colours for others as needed. If you hold a place today, place a disc there. If you claim a place someone else holds, place a stone on top of their disc. If you claim a place no one holds, be patient."
He placed a black disc on Fernau, another on Saint Helena, a third at the Gambia river, a fourth on Carolusborg, the best of the forts taken from Sweden. Tobago would have lain beyond the map's left edge.
In short order, various hands added discs of other colours. Martin added blue at Saint-Louis, just north of the Gambia.
Then, green stones were placed atop various orange discs, in Brazil and in places on the coast south of the Zaire river. Luanda had discs of both orange and green. On the same coast, green discs with orange stones. Elmina had a green stone on orange.
Jakob pointed at Luanda. "You both believe you hold Luanda presently?"
ThePortuguese and Dutch all nodded. Four newcomers entered - black men dressed as well as any European in the room. Martin stepped away from the table to greet them, in Portuguese and a language no other European in the room understood. The orange and green discs were suddenly far less interesting.
"It is all right, friends." He pointed at the most sumptuously dressed of the four. "I present to you Pedro Nzumbi a Mpudi and his assistant, representing King Garcia the second of Kongo. And here are Tati Gembe and his assistant, representing King Afonso of Loango. Gentlemen, I am so pleased you are recovered from the sea voyage."
Ulrik had never before been in a room where a black man was dressed better than a wealthy man's manservant. Sir Nicolas Crispe had never before been in a room where a black man was better-dressed than any white man present. There was a not-quite-stunned silence; Martin filled it by stepping back over to the table and retrieving more stones and discs from the box.
"Yellow for Loango. Light blue for Kongo." He placed the stones and discs in the hands of the newcomers. "Don't worry, everyone. These men sailed here with me on Courland's Ark. As Tevel can attest, they already understand this exercise."
Tati and Pedro followed to the map. Pedro said nothing, but placed a stone on Luanda, and a disc just south of the Zaire river. Tati placed one a little further north of the river than Pedro's lay to its south.
Pedro said something about Luanda, that no one quite understood, though some felt they should.
Pedro said it again, differently. Portuguese heads nodded. Martin translated for the others.
"Pedro says that we were at Luanda more recently than any of you. Which is true, we sailed that way. And he says that though Portugal has paid to hold Luanda in the past, Luanda is not held by anyone today. He adds that Luanda belongs to Kongo."
One of the WIC men spoke, in Dutch, to another. "Why did I almost understand how he said it the first time?"
Hearing him, Martin answered in Dutch: "The second time, he spoke in Portuguese. The first time, he spoke in Latin."
Few Protestants had heard Latin spoken out loud in generations.
"Shall we pause our placing of discs and stones to see that everyone is properly introduced?"
- - -
They allowed disagreements on the map to remain, and went to the next step. Where did the different parties claim a place neither they nor anyone else held? Portugal now filled in many gaps on both continents' shores with green. Johann Maurits added orange stones north and south of the orange discs in Brazil. Sir Nicolas added a pink stone to Ascension Island: "We would like to do there what our hosts have done here."
At that, Martin put a black stone on the Guinea coast opposite Fernau. "At Saulains we look across at Fako every day. Fako and Bisila belong together."
Orange, green, and pink stones all landed on the Cape of Good Hope, and the same colours alternated at intervals eastward toward the Indian Ocean.
When no more stones were being placed, Jakob spoke again.
"It seems clear where the greatest conflicts are. Are their claims anyone would withdraw if another party withdrew theirs?"
"The VOC will not have Portugal on the Cape."
"Portugal will not accept the VOC on the Cape either."
"Perhaps you might both accept Britain there?"
"No." / "No!"
"Let's set the Cape aside for the moment. Brazil?"
"Portugal would have peace with a smaller Dutch Brazil."
"In exchange for?"
"Peace."
- - -
Lunch was dried bush meat and kiwano from Kongo. The Longhouse added sweet potato, a light broth for those who wanted to soften the dried bush meat, olive oil and oat bread.
Even in the levity and gamesmanship, there was progress. Peace in Dutch Brazil was accepted. Its boundaries were not precisely fixed, but set vaguely by saying Dutch Brazil could never include lands whosewaters flowed to the São Francisco or Parnaíbas rivers. The Portuguese dropped all claim on Elmina. The Dutch pledged to drop any claim on Luanda, but Pedro reminded them that unlike Portugal, the Dutch had never paid or the privilege of occupying Luanda, a privilege that was only Kongo's to grant. If Johan Maurits was reluctant to cede too much standing to Kongo, it wasn't going to be over this.
Portugal would return to Luanda, and return to paying Kongo for the privilege. After so much good and bad between them, Kongo wanted to be friends with Portugal again.
Jakob took the paint and smeared lines of colour along certain coasts. Orange by Dutch Brazil, green north and south of it, tapering off to wherever the Treaty of Tordesillas might have suggested stopping. A short light blue smear south of the Zaire, a short smear of yellow north of it. South of Luanda, he placed a streak of green, then thought better of it and added light blue beside it. Looking further afield, he added green southward a bit from Cacheu, then black in a semicircle along the continental shores around Fernau.
"I submit to you all that these coasts are all areas where one nation or company's trading interests dominate others'. Portuguese or Dutch Brazil, Fernau and its opposite shore. At Luanda, Portugal is above others at sea, while Kongo is above all ashore. Everywhere else remains either available to claim or fight over as we all see fit."
"That is only helpful if there is reason to respect it."
"True. I don't believe we need the stones for their previous purpose any more." He cleared some away. "The reason to respect it is this: you will know where you can collaborate in trade, and where you compete. Here: Saint Helena." He placed stones of every colour. "All nations are welcome at Saint Helena to trade and expect peace. Fernau is the same." Again, he added stones of each colour there . "You are welcome to take fish from the ocean around Saint Helena, provided you check in at Saint Helena before or after. You are welcome to trade anywhere in this black shore around Fernau, again, provided you check in at Fernau before or after. Luanda - Henrique and Pedro will decide which stones to place there. But for each they place, that nation should be welcome to trade along that stretch of coast, provided they check in at Luanda."
Pedro awaited a translation, then replied without hesitation.
"Kongo accepts this way. All traders are welcome. But we set a further rule: to trade slaves along this coast, ship captains must first talk to our King's representative in Luanda or Kongo. Too many have been taken from Kongo already."
Henrique de Noronha had been ready to place a stone of each colour - except orange - at Luanda. Instead, he placed them all.
No one contested Jakob's black paint around Fernau. For the VOC, it was out of the way. For the WIC, it was unnecessary extra travel against winds and currents for no extra value, when they could seek gold and slaves and other trade without passing east of Elmina. Britain and Denmark were interested either slaves for Caribbean islands, or else waypoints on the journey to or from the Indian Ocean. For Portugal, it was an area where their interests had been in decline for half a century or more, with São Tomé and Principe both half in ruins anyway. They could find slaves and other trade south of Luanda, or else take whichever slaves Kongo could provide.
Britain said it would establish factories between Cacheu's green smudge and Cape Three Points. Sir Nicolas said King Charles could surely find a good Catholic governor for Saint Barthélemy if no other parties present wanted it. They would also establish a presence on Ascension Island.
Denmark said it might add a factory west of Cape Three Points as well, but would manage well enough improving Anomabo for now. Whatever Caribbean islands they managed to obtain, three or four factories on the Guinea coast should suffice to supply their slaves. Everywhere but Carolusborg that Jakob had taken from Sweden, he sold to Denmark. The price was low - most were little more than a warehouse and a stockade, and most quite damaged.
Which left the Cape as the great bone of contention. It became clear no parties present truly wanted the Cape for themselves, but denying it to others was somehow vital.
It was Pedro who found the compromise.
"None of you want anyone else in this cape unless it can be like this Saint Helena. Do not fight over who can not have it. Ask Duke Jakob to build there so you may end your argument."
Jakob resisted, thinking of his thinly-spread manpower of Europeans. But once the others accepted, he relented. "I will need to draw on migrants from elsewhere. My own Duchy is sadly closed for business at the moment."
Prince Johan Maurits slid a black disk on to the Cape of Good Hope. "We can surely help with that, Duke Jakob."
- - -
If there were doubts about handing the Cape to Jakob, they were eased or erased by herbed lamb and Gambian red pepper rice with fried banana. In some cases, eased by the comforts of women from various shores around this ocean and the Indian.
The next morning, what had been done in spoken words and maps was reproduced in the written word. Jakob and Pedro began in Latin, but not enough present were literate enough in Latin. So they wrote in both German and in Portuguese instead. All parties agreed that coasts left unpainted should be free to trade for all present, and free to others not present, though the signatories could reconvene if a some newcomer needed to be forced out.
All nations present could trade at any port already placed on the map, though any painted coast required they check in at a "key port" to "unlock" access to trade at that coast. As Pedro insisted, trading for slaves was special - the visit to the "key port" had to precede any trading of slaves on those coasts.
- - -
While the discussion and document-drafting continued at the largest table, Tati Gembe looked at the map on the smaller table with Martin. Martin gamely tried words learned from Njikobiya, but Njikobiya came from near the Zanaya river, much further north. Too many words were different. So they spoke mostly in different flavours of Portuguese.
"We were once Kongo too. Now Kongo is across the river from us. I feel so much more than a river separates us from Kongo. They have sent emissaries to Portugal and to Dutchland before. Even to your pope. Crossing even this much water made me sick. And there is still so much more water before getting to your home lands. Portugal and Dutchland and Popeland are so far away they do not even fit on this map. Your peoples" - he gestured to be clear he meant all those present - "come from so far, and claim so much. I can not imagine your Mbanzas and their people and wealth."
"Tati, in our homelands a talk like this would be about war. Whose land belongs to whom after fighting stops. This talk here is about trade. Who can trade with whom. Where can they trade. What can they trade. This is mostly about what moves between places. The only places on this map where land truly belongs to a king or duke or pope or any other ruler are Loango and Kongo. Maybe Saint Helena, since no one lived here before. Maybe Brazil, because the traders have great farms farther from the coast."
Tati reached for the pot of black paint and smeared Courland's black alongside the existing streak of Loango's yellow.
"If Portugal governs the sea approaching Luanda, Courland can govern the sea approaching Loango. These others trust you. These others give peace around you. Loango wishes peace and good trade. And if the trade is good trade," he removed all stones but the black and light blue from the yellow-and-now-black coast, "we need no partner from your distant lands but you peace bringers. This I can speak for Afonso. Courland has been good to Loango. I see Courland is good to others."
"This I can speak for my father: thank you. Courland will accept. And Courland will bring trade to Loango from the sea. May I tell you what I see on this map, Tati Gembe?"
"I see lines and discs and stones all showing a boundary."
"The boundary is of water and land."
"Sim. All the white men here trade by bringing things across water. They make more money the more water they cross. The black men here trade by meeting white people at the water. Or they meet other black men at other boundaries. Those boundaries are not on this map."
"Like Kakongo or Soyo."
"Yes. But you have already told me those reach the ocean."
"Like Makoko then, Ngriboma. Fungunu. They touch the rivers, but not the ocean."
"I wish to make more trade from Makoko, Ngriboma, and Fungunu come to Loango. More trade to Loango becomes more trade to Fernau and the ocean. Then more trade from the ocean comes to Loango. Loango brings more trade to Makoko, Ngriboma and Fungunu. They will come because trade with Loango brings what they want. What they want will be available. And they will bring what Loango wants. Or for what Courland wants. And Loango trades those things to Courland. Tell me, Tati Gembe, where is that trade?"
"I am still not used to seeing the world in pictures. Maps. Trade moves up and down the great river. Mostly on little boats."
"I thought this river could not be travelled by boat?"
"Not where white men have gone. Near the coast water is falling fast. But somewhere up here," he pointed in a vague circle near the "GO" of "LOANGO" on the map, it is wide and flat. The river is how trade moves."
"Does Loango have a town there? A Mbanza?"
"Some live there. The fishing is good. We can build."
"Then we will help you build a Mbanza on the flat part of the river. And we will help you make the best boats for trade on the river. And the people of the river will trade with Loango at that Mbanza."
"And Loango will trade with Courland at another trade-Mbanza at the coast."
"Yes. With clear rules for trade. The same rules at both Mbanzas."
"Your people have done this before?"
"There were once many small cities who wanted to enrich themselves by trade. Each city made rules of trade and grouped themselves in "Hansas." They traded with each other and began to have the same rules for trade between them. And trade between them grew more than trade between others whose Hansas had different rules. It came to be called the Hanseatic League."
"Hansa even sounds like Mbanza. Does it continue?"
"Yes and no. The cities of that league remain wealthier cities. But trade has become more similar everywhere. Their advantage is less."
"And trade here is more like trade was there, long ago."
"I believe so. We will learn together."
"Then let us begin our Mbanzeatic League after you return us home. And after we recover from the voyage. Which will require time."
- - -
Ships scattered as they had come. The Dutch, British, and one Portuguese ship followed the winds and currents northwest toward Cape Verde and Europe beyond. Two Danes travelled aboard the British ship, Jakob sent one witness north with each Europe-bound party. Another Portuguese ship fought the currents to reassert their presence in Luanda. Johan Maurits sailed in an arc, northwest then southwest, to return to Brazil "probably for the last time before Europe calls to me." A second British ship filled itself with grains, some olive trees, and other plants to bring to Ascension. They paid well for half the goods, the rest were Jakob's gift.
The Danes sailed northeast to return to Anomabo. Then finally, Jakob relaxed, and enjoyed the company of half his family. He would soon see his other children, too, in Fernau. But nowhere was he truly at home.
. Besides, i wonder what is/are Martin's "letter language(s?)", because when he wrote to Marie without knowing if she reads and writes, it came to me the question...In what language is he writing her? Considering their interaction, French is the obvious answer, but it is funny to me the thought of a baltic exilee teenager living in Bioko having correspondence with an african girl up north in the continent in French, like, French has nothing to do with none of the people involved, nor none of the places involved, lol.