The Dukes of Fernau, for now.

[Sceonn]

Latin Alphabet and written translation will spread across Africa before you know it. They're already dealing with the Mande whose extensive trade networks and Griots will most definitely see it proliferate in West Africa, and the latter will certainly be interested in musical notation.

 

[traminer]

But one must ask if the Fante, or in fact any Akan speakers interacting with Courland, know the difference between a Baltic German from Courland and a native Courlander, specially considering that the main demographic of interaction are mariners. Usually the -hene is suffixed to cities or tribal groupings, so Kurhene would imply an interpretation of the Duke as the "King of the Kur tribe", while something more awkward like Kurlandhene would be uncharacteristic. I'm amused by the flag association:  Crayfish-people-hene!

Bang on, you read my mind here.

I was indeed coming at this from the language side. How quickly would these displaced Baltic people recognize that -hene might mean people-ruler where Duke might more mean land-ruler? How quickly would the "locals" learn the distinction?

And, with Courland left behind, are the exiles getting closer to having a Fernauhene in the exact same people/nation sense?

 

[traminer]

Gardens and Gardeners

"Michael, we are exhausted. Seven weeks at sea means seven more weeks out-of-date than we were when we left Fernau. We met ships from Europe, yes, but none with news from anywhere beyond Paris. You can send people for all the refreshments you wish, but I will suffer no delay as far as receiving news is concerned."

"Paris? So, the peace for Catalunya. All right, I..."

"COURLAND, Michael. Tell me of COURLAND. And Semigallia. And fucking Sweden."

"My lord. The... the land is largely lost. Everywhere without a castle is taken. Sweden holds almost all of Courland, Russia holds almost all of Semigallia. They attacked at once. Dünaburg and Kreuzburg probably both fell to Russia the same day Sweden marched from Riga to Mitau."

"Russia? Russia?"

"Russia marched West as far as Bauske. They passed it by and went to Mitau. Mitau was already besieged by Swedes. The Russians engaged neither the Swedes nor Mitau.... they simply went on marching west toward Doblen."

"So Russia and Sweden are neither at war, nor allied."

"I know too little to speculate, my lord. The Russians took Doblen, which was only lightly defended. But this gave Sweden time to send men west, who marched or rode beyond Doblen, toward Frauenburg or perhaps Goldingen."

"All right. Spare me the intermediate details. What is the most current information you have?"

"Mitau was still lightly besieged six weeks ago, but holding. Bauske, no news. It might have fallen to Russians. All Semigallia east of Bauske is in Russian hands, that's certain. West... is messy, my lord. All reports of the Russians have them trying to go west. To Libau? To anywhere on the Baltic? Who knows. And Sweden keeps trying to make that difficult, without fighting the Russians. If you go a bit north from Mitau, that's in Swedish hands. But if you go west, there are places seemingly controlled by Sweden, Russia, Courlanders, or no one at all."

"The coast?"

"Libau is besieged, or I should say blockaded. Windau too. Polangen, or other places, We've heard nothing."

"Libau, Windau, Mitau, and maybe Bauske. I can barely draw the map in my head with all the possibilities."

"Will you want rest, my lord? My lady?"

"No thank you, Michael. After so long on a ship, some walking, please. Let's see Tobago."

- - -

Fatigue, or possibly the presence of Louise Elisabeth, made Louise Charlotte more inclined than usual to want to see beauty in her garden. And it had brightly coloured flowers, brightly coloured fruits, trees that grew this way and that, plants with innumerable tiny leaves or few giant ones.

It was a joy to see Louise Elisabeth's delight at the taste of guayabana, banana, guava or other things. And the garden felt like a worthwhile enterprise for its strong emphasis on medicinal - or supposedly medicinal - plants.

The gardeners were mostly Europeans, assisted by some few slaves. She looked at their faces in search of where they had come from, but soon realized she was incapable of telling a face from around Gambia from a face from somewhere along the Guinea coast. Elisabeth Charlotte said they weren't La Belinguere's people.

They also looked at the sugar plantations, though only briefly, to get a sense of their size and to see what sugarcane looked like, what it tasted like when fresh. Louise Elisabeth was delighted again, and baby Ferdinand too.

The fields were worked by more slaves than they could easily count, though most of the harvesting was already done for the season. More slaves came across the Atlantic every few weeks, to work here or be sold onward to other islands. As her children enjoyed the taste of sugarcane, Louise Charlotte wondered at God's plan for these people. She was a Calvinist through and through, and believed firmly God had decided everyone's fate beyond anyone's ability to influence it. Why had God determined that these people should be brought so far from home? Why should they be the ones to sow, tend, and reap a plant hitherto unknown to them? She empathized a moment with them over being fellow exiles, people displaced by greater powers to persist far from home. But it was all according to God's plan. Her thoughts returned to other matters.

They saw none of the peoples who might have lived here before their arrival, travelling from island to island.

- - -

One such slave ship arrived two days after the Duke and Duchess. The captain delivered about a hundred adult male slaves to be sold onward to other islands. He reported the crossing was largely uneventful, save for one sailor having a new scar thanks to an impudent slave. While the captain declined to offer the Duchess a tour of his ship - his crew still needed to clean the hold, after all - he assured her it would be ready to transport sugarcane to Europe within a day or two.

- - -

Louise Charlotte and her daughter made decisions about just which fruit trees they most wanted to have sent to Fernau, or to Gambia. An expedition to Mexico should be returning with more wild and strange plants soon, to be planted or shared with the other colonies.

The Kettlers waited only for the last of the sugarcane harvest to be fully loaded, and set sail for Europe with the ships carrying it.

 

[Sceonn]

The voyage is one of the most dehumanizing aspects of the Transatlantic Slavery. Courlanders and through them Africans will have to directly come face to face with that and hopefully at least adapt a more African version.

 

[Tirion]

The voyage is one of the most dehumanizing aspects of the Transatlantic Slavery. Courlanders and through them Africans will have to directly come face to face with that and hopefully at least adapt a more African version.

Why would they? They are businessmen doing business. They pay for war captives to their neighbours and sell them to the American plantation colonies. Neither of the parties selling people ever see the slaves again so what pragmatic interests would they have in changing the system?

 

[Sceonn]

Why would they? They are businessmen doing business. They pay for war captives to their neighbours and sell them to the American plantation colonies. Neither of the parties selling people ever see the slaves again so what pragmatic interests would they have in changing the system?

Wasn't that what the Economic chapter implied? Maybe I misunderstood it, It seem Fernau adopted a near caste based slavery of the local variety.

 

[Tirion]

Wasn't that what the Economic chapter implied? Maybe I misunderstood it, It seem Fernau adopted a near caste based slavery of the local variety.

Local slavery and what they buy and sell abroad can be two very different things.

 

[Sceonn]

Local slavery and what they buy and sell abroad can be two very different things.

Where abroad? Most of their territories and colonies are Islands anyway and colonial powers get their own slaves.

Knowledge of the Middle Passage will make its way inland due to the cascades of Courland's own actions. There simply wasn't much knowledge around, people knew slaves could be sold to Europeans after being sold the third or fourth time, but very few had any idea what would happen after boarding a slave ship. Africans simply saw it through their own lenses, imagining largely the same treatment a slave in their own culture might expect.

Awareness of the fate awaiting you changes the calculus I think. Battles to capture slaves will be far more violent, pyrrhic at best and the First Passage nearly impossible to manage. I suppose arming intermediary tribes and kingdoms with better weapons is an option but that's a double edge sword however, esp. ttl.

 

[traminer]

The Ballad of John and Yoko Jakob and Louise Charlotte - part one

A simple plan:

1. sell sugar
2. sell other things
3. finish evicting Swedes from Guinea politely return Swedish traders home
4. get a child or two engaged
5. aid the duchy's defence if possible
6. diplomacy

Nothing proceeds simply according to simple plans.

- - -

Couronian ships were crossing the Atlantic via three routes. From Tobago, the "sugar fleet" carried the Duke and Duchess and two of their children, tropical fruit harvested tactically before it was ripe, and forty-three actual Swedes liberated from the Swedish trading posts on the Guinea coast, who Jakob brought across the Atlantic to avoid them arriving in Europe before he did. The sugar fleet sailed north along the windward isles. This was not out of tourism (though the variety of lumpy green islands made start of the the voyage more enjoyable than the transatlantic one had been). If you dyed all the winds of the North Atlantic with some colours you could see from an astronomical distance, then retreated to the moon to watch, you'd see a pattern of prevailing winds going generally clockwise around its entire basin from Brazil to Greenland, with some seasonal variation as the Earth nodded at the sun. They were cutting across the unwanted easterlies to find westerlies around Bermuda's latitude to bring them to the Azores and Lisbon or else Scotland and Flekkerøy.

Other ships that had helped root out the Swedish presence on the Guinea coast had been redistributing non-Swedish traders or mercenaries from the Swedish forts. Men seeking their fortunes in Africa were liable to return and seek it again (as had the Dutch head of the Swedish trading enterprise, Hendrik Carloff, the lone non-Swede Jakob insisted on taking away from Guinea). Since the fleet had had surplus capacity in Fernau, any wishing to return to Europe were offered passage there. Any who hadn't burned bridges with the WIC (many had) were brought to Elmina or other Dutch forts, or offered a place working for Courland alongside those who had burned bridges with the VOC. These ships were travelling anywhere from Fernau to Bandschul, until they either filled with supplies for Fernau, Gambia, Saint Helena or Loango and then went directly whichever of those; or else filled with slaves and crossed to the Americas.

Not long after Jakob had sailed for Tobago, these to-and-fro ships encountered a surprising number of damaged Dutch or Portuguese vessels, or ships evidently carrying an excess of sailors after other less-lucky ships had been sunk. The rivals for the South Atlantic were at it again. Portugal had apparently failed to root the Dutch out of Brazil for the third time, though they'd made it cost the Dutch quite a lot to remain. On the opposite side of the Atlantic, the Dutch had razed the sugar mills of Principe, as they had those of São Tomé twenty years ago. It wasn't clear whether they'd left an occupying force this time. South of Loango and Kongo, the Angola coast was dotted with both nations' raided outposts. This news travelled up the the coast toward Lisbon and beyond.

There may have been only place left, outside of Europe, where the Portuguese and Dutch did not fight: Saint Helena, the island of refreshment on the long return journey of the Indian Ocean. No one wanted to wear out their welcome at the only stop they might have in a months-long sea journey.

- - -

At Lisbon, Jakob discovered that Tobago's news of home was at least a month out-of-date. Mitau was besieged by Russian forces. Bauske had fallen. Sweden had reached Goldingen, his childhood home. Russia had not reached the Baltic.

News from the South Atlantic had reached Lisbon as well, and Jakob was asked whether, as sovereign of Saint Helena, he might host a meeting there between Portuguese and Dutch admirals, and mediate some peace between them. Informal gratitude was expressed that Jakob had removed one trading nation from the Guinea coast - possibly a hint at some incentive for mediating with the Dutch. Perhaps the greatest sign of gratitude was an introduction of Elisabeth Charlotte to Infante Pedro, and fleetingly with Prince Afonso.

They sold fruit, but not sugar. They bought arms and powder and sailcloth and tools. And wine: Fernau and Tobago would never have worthy vineyards. Perhaps they could make some worthy fruit brandy or geist with Fernau's or Tobago's growing variety of fruit. Failing that, maybe rum that didn't taste like bad medicine was possible. They left orders to hire adventurers and merchants who spoke more than only Portuguese, in time for their southward return journey. They sent a ship south to Morocco to buy goats and contract translators and teachers of Arabic or Berber languages.

- - -

At Edinburgh, enquiries about betrothals were politely declined. Oliver Cromwell was alternating between dying a protracted death and attempting to make a kingless England survive him. The dying left too little room for him to succeed at the political diplomacy. If anyone in England, Scotland, or Ireland still thought another non-royal leader of England could prevent a full restoration of Stuart rule, they didn't say so publicly.

Jakob was asked to mediate another peace, a permanent one, to return England to the Stuart rule like Ireland before it. Would he remain in Europe in summertime? Perhaps May? Perhaps in York, or at Hadrian's Wall?

Jakob would be an appealing mediator to the resurgent Levellers, eager for the sort of religious tolerance Jakob brought about in Courland, would he not? Perhaps then a reunited Kingdom might offer Jakob some more aid.... or perhaps invite Martin to Edinburgh or London for an extended stay....

Baby Ferdinand caught a cold in Scotland, delaying the next leg of their journey.

They sold sugar and fruit - including all the fruit varieties they thought would be beyond overripe by the time they reached Flekkerøy or Germany. They bought wool and tools. Elisabeth Charlotte was asked what one colour was most vital to include in a tartan to honour her father, and chose raspberry red. They agreed to take on apprentice glassworkers to learn from masters relocated from Libau to Fernau, and return them to Scotland as near-masters within two years.

- - -

To Flekkerøy went all the weapons and powder, and over half the sugar. Ships bound there did not wait for Ferdinand's recovery. Honouring a promise, the Kettlers themselves bypassed the island, and sailed for Amsterdam instead. The remaining fruit mostly went directly to Bremen and Hamburg, in search of markets to return to in the future. The fastest ship to Flekkerøy also brought all the correspondence from the colonies there, and - critically - collected all the correspondence it had been collecting for Jakob and numerous colonists. This was quickly triaged and either sent on the next ship leaving Europe or to catch up with Jakob in Amsterdam.

- - -

"Duke Jakob, if you wish your family to join with ours, you must either restore your rule over your homeland, or else show us how a stake in your overseas ventures will survive for our children to inherit...."

"...and so, my lord, here is that semaphore-frame. Swedish bullets broke its support post. It fell over 15 yards to the ground but didn't break further. Someone who knew the meaning of these things folded the fingers this way. But he died the next day. We decided it meant something to have the frame survive. So when we fled our village, we brought the frame with us. If you got this, maybe its means something for you too."

"Poland is every bit as landlocked as Lithuania now. Prussia holds the coast entire, and Swedish ships dock to unload more and more soldiers to head inland. The Poles have more military might than you did, my lord, but all they do is so uncoordinated. Your nation may indeed be faring better by avoiding battles than Poland is faring by bumbling into battles with little forethought."

"...and so, Jakob, Valdemar and Irina have been removed from duty as my representatives on Flekkerøy. I assumed after news of Russia invading your lands, you would not wish Irina so positioned. If you have preferences as to a replacement, a handful of suitable candidates are below. In the meantime, I've sent a reliable man...."

"Sister, I am so sorry. To ally with Sweden against Poland allows me the chance to better unite Prussia with Brandenburg, or at least East Pomerania. But in no way do I support their actions against Courland and Semigallia. We are all good Calvinsts, we know we will end up in hell anyway. But I didn't want that actions of one friend against another - or against family - land on my ledger of sins. I am hoping the Swedish misadventures further up the Vistula will leave them a somewhat spent force after, for what it's worth. I do not know where this message will reach you, or when, but I hope you are well."

- - -

At Amsterdam, the WIC confirmed they would accept Jakob as a mediator in their competition with Portugal. The VOC, for which the south Atlantic was a thoroughfare, would also send a representative. With more competition to be expected from a reunited Britain soon, it was time to distinguish between rivalry and piracy. They settled on September 6 in Saint Helena, agreeing to Jakob's and Portugal's terms for the meeting. The VOC, like Portugal, would be on better behaviour until then.

As Jakob was the first to note, settling this in Saint Helena gave everyone a little healthy distance to correct any oversights before any document might be ratified in Europe.

 

[traminer]

Why would they? They are businessmen doing business. They pay for war captives to their neighbours and sell them to the American plantation colonies. Neither of the parties selling people ever see the slaves again so what pragmatic interests would they have in changing the system?

Exactly this.

But I nonetheless see how I led Sceonn down this path:

Wasn't that what the Economic chapter implied? Maybe I misunderstood it, It seem Fernau adopted a near caste based slavery of the local variety.

I think you only extrapolated beyond what I'd intended to write. I think you're reading a sense of caste tiers into what I wrote about a population pyramid. That was only intended to reflect proportions of the population with a description of a visual. Being a slave is the same no matter which triangle or subtriangle you land in. Being a non-slave is the same too.

That said: the same post you're referring to also said this:

If you squint hard enough, you see little service economies, plopped down in the ocean, out-of-place.

That's where you might start to see blurred lines, or the potential for a caste system as you put it. A caste system isn't the direction I'll take it, but this timeline will (eventually) contrast how race is seen on each side of the Atlantic as things evolve - it's just a little early for that now.

 

[Tirion]

"Sister, I am so sorry. To ally with Sweden against Poland allows me the chance to better unite Prussia with Brandenburg, or at least East Pomerania. But in no way do I support their actions against Courland and Semigallia. We are all good Calvinsts, we know we will end up in hell anyway. But I didn't want that actions of one friend against another - or against family - on my ledger of sins. I am hoping the Swedish misadventures further up the Vistula will leave them a somewhat spent force after, for what it's worth. I do not know where this message will reach you, or when, but I hope you are well."

Oof. With allies like this...

 

[traminer]

Oof. With allies like this...

Just so. Prussia TTL had suggested both Prussia and Courland becoming vassals to Sweden instead of Poland as an alternate path (OTL, it was absolutely floated bilaterally between Sweden and the other two, but I honestly haven't checked whether it was discussed between Prussia and Courland, though it feels likely.)

Jakob OTL and TTL was very, very keen on diplomatic neutrality (at least partly because, if respected, it would let him focus on trade - basically, "oops"). The PLC was generally content to let him be. TTL, without Poland on his border with with pathetic military development, he was neither positioned nor inclined to turn on Poland. Prussia, on the other hand, was both positioned and inclined.

At worst, Prussia wants Courland and a chunk of Poland to be contiguous with Brandenburg. At best, Sweden wants Prussia to inherit a rump of Courland by Kettlercide.

On the bright side, Denmark is proactive and cordial, and, divested of European land, Jakob is suddenly diplomatically popular for his neutrality!

- - -

A quick reader pulse check:

My brain hasn't sorted out part 2 of Ballad above yet. I could either get that thinking done and continue in Europe, or else return for a colonial chapter before doing Ballad - 2. Any preferences out there?

 

[traminer]

The Ballad of John and Yoko Jakob and Louise Charlotte - part two

At Amsterdam, Jakob faced a frustrating hurdle: Courland and Semigallia being overrun by its neighbours was uninteresting.

People of influence (and people who merely aspired to influence) were more interested in human dramas. Now that peace seemed in reach in Britain, would prince Charles Stuart take a wife? Would a nice Protestant wife help soothe England? Maybe a nice Dutch wife? No, surely he'd choose a Catholic. Or surely his father would choose a Catholic for him. Well, if it had to be a Catholic, at least make it someone Portuguese or Catalan or French and not some Castilian.

So, Louise Charlotte and Jakob played matchmaker instead. Would Princess Maria youngest daughter of the second-last Stadholder, be available to marry Count Martin Kettler of Fernau? Princess Amalia, both Maria's mother and the chair of the regency council during this stadholderless time, was receptive... particularly with a dowry that might include a few recently-Swedish trading posts on the Guinea coast. Oh, but of course that Prince Charles Stuart would come first, if news of interest were to come from Edinburgh....

Liking the match, Louise Charlotte consented to have Martin remain uncommitted for now. Only peace with Sweden or Russia or match that came with a powerful army would sway them.

So Jakob put up the for sale sign on the Swedish forts - or their remains. It didn't put Martin ahead of Prince Charles in line for Maria's hand, and it didn't smoke out anyone interested in buying them on behalf of the WIC or any foreign buyer.

And their journey continued.

- - -

"Hendrik, however much you've enjoyed Couronian hospitality these last two months, it will soon be coming to an end."

"My Lady Duchess, do not be surprised if I'm back in Guinea before you are."

"As you shall soon be a free man once more, Courland will make no effort to stop you. But I would discourage you from coming with any Swedish flags next time. My husband is a trusting man, and you have well impressed him with your knowledge of the Guinea coast, its peoples and rulers. He would have hired you on as governor of those forts you'd built, started building, or stole from the Dutch for your resourcefulness." Hendrick smiled at the compliment. "Do you know why you're here with us now? No? It is the luxury of time, Henrdrik. With so long at sea, we - no, I, rather - have been able to take the measure of your character. Where my lord husband might have measured only your successes, I have measured the means of their achievement. We may not yet know what kind of presence we are building for Courland in Guinea, but our success will not be of your sort, sir."

"Do you not think Sweden will eagerly send me right back there?"

"They could, and if they do, the next Swedes you bring will return in accommodations more like those of the Guinea captives crossing to Tobago. It will take greater commitment to return and succeed than Sweden had when it agreed to send you the first time. And with armies in Courland, Semigallia, and Poland at present, I don't foresee that commitment being made for quite some time. What you need, sir, is a new master, one to which we, your current hosts, would not object."

"Is this... leading to a proposal?"

It was. Upon arrival in Copenhagen, Duke Jakob not only sold Denmark the trading lodge at Anomabo, which he had taken from Sweden and Sweden had taken from the Dutch WIC - he also gave them the experienced governor who had taken and lost it: Hendrik Carloff, formerly working for the WIC, then for Sweden, and now for Denmark.

Because he would not work for Courland and Semigallia, under Louise Charlotte's watch.

At least now he'd be working for a friend that meant Courland well.

- - -

They confirmed in Copenhagen what had been rumoured in Amsterdam: King Charles X Gustav was personally participating in Sweden's invasion of Poland. There was no possibility of direct talk between Charles and Jakob, save after some decisive battle in a Polish battlefield, where Jakob had no desire to go.

By the terms of his duchy's vassalage to Poland, he owed 3,000 to serve his suzerain if asked. Poland hadn't asked in any message that made it to Flekkerøy or elsewhere. Poland wouldn't be asking, having failed in its suzerain duty to protect its vassal.

Jakob got no closer to home than Copenhagen, having no interest in testing Swedish vigilance in the Baltic without assurances from the Swedish crown. Two ships did venture that way without him, carrying arms and goods in the Baltic along different courses, hoping to reinforce Libau, and maybe toss some flowers into the sea in honour of the Crocodile. The Swedes from the Guinea trading posts were deposited in Gothenburg instead of the Baltic, with Jakob's best wishes, delivered personally. IN character and population, Gothenburg was a mostly Dutch city, much as it had been since its inception decades earlier. As such, it was among the safer places for Couronian ships to visit with peaceful intent.

- - -

When they returned to Amsterdam, it was to sudden, shocking news. Within two weeks of one another, two deaths. Oliver Cromwell finally succumbed to illness, and Charles the I of Scotland, Ireland and tenuously England had died to sudden but allegedly natural causes. The English and Scottish ambassadors to the Netherlands were surprised to find Duke Jakob Kettler visiting them in person to fulfil his mediation promise to Charles I, if it was still wanted.

These tired men agreed it was wanted. Modest pre-negotiations began amongst themselves, and they sailed toward Britain and diplomacy.

The British Isles got the peace they needed. The Treaty of Lindisfarne gave England a new Stuart king-in-waiting, modestly improved freedoms of religion, and the promise of a new parliament less frustrating than those kingless ones, those useless ones.

For his part, Jakob Kettler had new friends, and the esteem and gratitude of a tired nation. Couronian ships would have a little less cause to travel north around Scotland sailing to or from Flekkerøy. The Duke's name was spoken across Protestant Europe, and half of Catholic Europe as well.

King Charles II, crowned at Edinburgh, then again in London, pledged to be patient in his search for a queen.

- - -

In that patience, a change of heart:

Dear Jakob,

It would greatly please me to introduce Princess Maria to your son Martin. In Amsterdam we well know how long it can take ships to travel to Guinea and back. But we are also patient. Perhaps he might come, study here for a time, and make Maria's acquaintance? Perhaps you might leave a trusted man to work out the details as you return south.

With gratitude and esteem,

AMALIA

 

[Sceonn]

Jacob, Duke extraordinaire!

 

[Elementary]

Interesting updates, thanks!

"With so long at sea, we - no, I, rather - have been able to take the measure of your character. Where my lord husband might have measured only your successes, I have measured the means of their achievement. We may not yet know what kind of presence we are building for Courland in Guinea, but our success will not be of your sort, sir."

Hm, what didn't the Duchess like about Hendrik's character?

 

[traminer]

Interesting updates, thanks!

Cheers!

Hm, what didn't the Duchess like about Hendrik's character?

this could be a rhetorical question. But if not: It’s quitting on each team he’s played for. The earlier chapter mentioned men who hadn’t burned their bridges with the WIC. Carloff was a serial opportunist who had burned bridges.

I’d happily watch his biopic though.

 

[traminer]

Jacob, Duke extraordinaire!

Almost like being Duke Emeritus extraordinaire. Like the moments the ex-king of Romania was good for Romania to have around after they changed from communism to democracy. (I’m certainly not well-read enough on the ways it might have also been inconvenient.)

When Jakob is not seeking aid, he’s useful to others. Story-wise, I need a dose of this for others to one day be useful back.

But also: crap judge of character Jakob. It takes months of close quarters living for him to finally see a turncoat serial opportunist isn’t a man he needs in his employ.

 

[Elementary]

this could be a rhetorical question. But if not: It’s quitting on each team he’s played for. The earlier chapter mentioned men who hadn’t burned their bridges with the WIC. Carloff was a serial opportunist who had burned bridges.

Actually not rhetorical! I'd forgotten. Thanks for the explanation.

But also: crap judge of character Jakob. It takes months of close quarters living for him to finally see a turncoat serial opportunist isn’t a man he needs in his employ.

... and I wonder if being a poor judge of character extends to how he viewed his brother-in-law in Prussia. As Tirion said, with friends like that, who needs enemies?

 

[traminer]

Mangroves for Lübeck

Mangroves. They were everywhere along this coast, at least everywhere where salty seawater mixed with river water. Too many plants - and trees especially - hated the salt water. Mangroves didn't mind things a little salty, just not too salty. And so few other plants competed with them there. So even though mangroves themselves grew taller and stronger a touch inland, where it was less mucky and less salty, they had the mucker, saltier spots mostly to themselves.

Fernau had just recently passed the point of having some of its people sleep in tents, or still on boats. Some people still lived in longer, larger shelters they'd built to put roofs over as many heads as possible as quickly as possible. But now there were starting to be individual houses starting up too. Martin remembered their visit to the hall of the Mansa of Kombo. The visit was less memorable than the visit to the Mansa of Barra to him, but the hall itself he remembered. The wood it was made of was mangrove. Around the Casamance, it was the preferred wood for building. Fernau itself had a negligible amount of mangrove forest - too few rivers, apparently. But the numerous river mouths on the continent to the north and east had plenty, if less than the Casamance and rivers around there and the Gambia.

Courland, and perhaps more so Semigallia, were places of timber harvesting, milling and trade. Martin set a challenge: if mangroves are a good wood for construction, learn it. Build the new Kettler family home or lodge from mangrove, and do it in Gambian or Guinean or Loango or whatever local ways made sense to follow. Only think of home for considerations on how the building will be used, not how it will look or be made.

Among the smaller groups of religious refugees to come to first to Courland and then to Fernau were Mennonites from Danzig and the Vistula Delta in Poland. They'd come to Courland (settling only a little up the Barta river from Libau). As many Polish Jews had, they sought to leave behind growing intolerance of non-Catholics. Those that had come south to Fernau didn't expect much better treatment at the hands of Sweden.

In their new home, they remained a tight-knit group, more sticking with their own than seeking to stand apart. They gravitated to construction work, and it was one of their number who went to Martin to ask about his challenge.

"Count Martin. I am Peter. In Courland, my family were farmers. On Fernau, we have been builders. If you have timber-men to find your mangrove boles and bring them to Fernau, we will be glad to build your hall with it."

"I am happy to agree, Peter. Would you like to cross to the continent to select the timber to harvest?"

"I... this is timber we do not know. Would it help?"

"Peter, I know little of construction. I know less of timber. I know least of all of mangroves. But I can combine people with knowledge of each. I can hope they accomplish more together than apart."

So they set out across the water together: Peter - a farmer serving as a builder in Fernau, travelled with Njikobiya - a merchant serving as a teacher and translator in Fernau, and natives of Casamance or the Gambia who might better know their mangroves, plus the necessary sailors and lumberjacks and saw-millers of Fernau, whatever their professions might have been in Europe or elsewhere in Africa.

And Martin set to other problems of who might accomplish more together than apart.

- - -

Four Dutch ships - apparently VOC, not WIC - limped to Fernau after failing to capture São Tomé (or failing to hold it? It was getting harder to keep track of who was raiding versus invading whose factories) and suffering too much damage to continue onward to the Indian Ocean. Fernau was not used to foreign visitors, but Martin resolved to show them hospitality. Fernau had able shipwrights if not shipyards, and offered help for a fair price.

Two ships would need weeks of work. The impatient captains asked whether they might instead rent two ships from Fernau. Martin politely refused, but suggested an alternative: not two, but three Couronian ships, with Couronian crews and Couronian captains, could join the VOC ships on their voyage, not only to Batavia or whichever islands they were heading to, but all the way back to Amsterdam after. Courland asked only for a share of the profit befitting the risk they were assuming, and a promise the return voyage would pass by Saint Helena or another Couronian port. Agreement came fairly quickly - the Courland ships would not get to lay eyes on VOC charts, but could have VOC pilots on board where it mattered. Martin's third ship was to gather plants - though the VOC could restrict where from. Tevel ben Elisha, of course, send his finest mapmaker on the journey.

Days after the two VOC and 3 Courland ships sailed south, word came from Lisbon of the coming negotiations to occur on Saint Helena between Portugal and the WIC. When the damaged ships were repaired, they sailed on to Elmina with rather less fear of attack. Their captains might have wondered whether their fellows' deal was one they would still have made now.

- - -

Another challenge Martin set for the people of Fernau was intended to keep their enterprise vibrantly alive. Communication between four points on the Gambia River had inspired the semaphores in Courland and Semigallia that had spread vital but limited news around the duchy. It was accepted by all that though these had not meaningfully changed Courland's defence, they had saved lives, livelihoods, and empowered this exodus where it might have instead been a feeble flight. Martin asked for a semaphore that would let Fernau communicate with the mainland.

Fernau's great mountain - Bisila, they were calling it - stared across the water an even greater one. Martin asked: how large a frame would we need to see that from Fernau? How high up the mountain would it have to be? How strong and well-made must the telescopes on each mountain be to see each other's frames across thirty to forty miles? Would it be worth building even higher up each mountain, say, to see more clearly? Could these mountains communicate to each other above the clouds?

This inspired another, smaller challenge: while Bisila had a name now, as well as Rohia, the hard-to-reach garden and resting place high up its flank, the other mountain did not. Nor did the other two, or any bays save Concepcion where Portugal had failed with its first plantation from decades earlier. Martin asked that there be more names for places. The map of Fernau should have more text to go with the improving shapes.

- - -

The mangroves-timber expedition returned from larger river mouth to the north. And they returned with two names: the river was Oyono. The people living by that river had simply called the mountain "mountain" - nothing else they knew was a mountain. But they said other people nearby talked differently and could have different names. Tevel said the people on the southeast side of the mountain also called it "mountain" - Fako in their language.

Tevel asked Martin why he wanted to find these names, as they together watched (and sometimes participated) in the building of the Mangrove Lodge.

"Any other Europeans that come here, bring European names. El mina was named because its area was thought of as a gold mine at first. Cape of Good Hope was named because Cape of Storms sounded depressing to Portuguese royalty. The man Saint-Louis was named after wasn't a saint who ever set foot on this continent. And the little bay named Conception on the east side of Fernau didn't get that name because anyone mistakes it for where God made the Virgin Mary pregnant."

"Which you don't believe. By creed, because you are a Jew. Also by practice, because you've named your library here after my sisters."

"As your father made some Saint Martin the patron of an academy he was more honestly naming after you. A man worth following, your father."

"Fair, Tevel. I'm thinking of people. Where will our next colonists come from?"

"Your father would say he'd accept colonists from anywhere. Dutchmen. Germans. Danes, perhaps. And once the war ends, more Courlanders and Baltic - "

Martin cut him off. "Once the war ends is when, in this plan? A fixed date, like Christmas? A conditional one, like when current the King of Sweden dies? Or something more ephemeral, like when hope is nearly lost?"

"I..." Tevel turned and looked toward Fako, then the other way up to the peak of Bisila. "I have to admit I think of Europe less and less, Martin. I'm no judge of how anything will unfold there. But: I am not a man who loses hope. If it is harder to find, I look in new ways and places, and I find it."

"And you find it here. My father seeks it in Europe even now. But if this war continues, what he will not find is new colonists. The Dutch will mostly join Dutch colonies. The Portuguese will join Portuguese ones. The English and Scots will eventually get fully back to investing colonial enterprise. At most, we might expect some Germans to join our cause. Because of common language, or culture. Look around you, Tevel. This is our great surge of people. Without peace, there will not be another from Europe."

"We can always add more slaves. Fernau and Saint Helena have so few, compared to Tobago, or even Gambia."

"We can. I think we will. I haven't been here as long as you, Tevel. Can you tell me: do slaves become Courlanders?"

At Martin's open, curious expression, Tevel knew this wasn't a trap question. "I'm not sure I've been here long enough to answer that either, Martin. They learn our language. They know what we value. In their own way, they contribute to Courland. But not out of loyalty to any vision, nor for any expectation to share in the profit of the enterprise they support."

"Which is part of what makes that enterprise more profitable. Let's set that thought aside. Courland will continue trading and using slaves. Let me use your words. How do we add to the number of people who will contribute to Courland, with loyalty to our vision, with an expectation to grow our common enterprise and its profit?"

"Without peace in the Baltic., that is?"

"Without peace in the Baltic."

Tevel sighed. "The Jews of Loango could join our enterprise, though they may remain in Loango more than they'd come here."

"That's the Fernau I see too, Tevel. Your vision of strong relations with neighbours. We teach them. We learn from them. We share enterprise and profit with them. We work with them. Maybe we preferentially seek slaves from among their rivals if it helps."

"I came to these lands seeking community, Martin. Whatever else I do, I find fulfillment in that. I think you may be looking farther though. And I can't say whether the future you're looking to is unreasonably skewed by your assumption peace in Europe will take a long time."

"I assume nothing. But if peace were to come slowly, or not at all, what then? Then we are but Dukes of Fernau. Of Gambia. Of Saint Helena. Of Tobago. Lastly, of ships sailing between them."

"You are young to speak so, Martin."

Martin smiled, hesitantly. "You prefer optimism. Fine. Here is my vision, my hope. If we can not rely on Europe, we have to make more of ourselves here. We must make neighbours become more like us. You came from Ruthenia and became a Courlander. You were and remain a Jew. Now you are in Fernau. You befriend black and half-black and however-many-quarters-black Jews to our community. Their neighbours, too. Teaching them. Trading with them. We haven't the might or population for these colonies to be an empire. Not like the VOC, WIC, Portugal or Spain. Even if we have so many ships here, now, how many naval battles can we win? The first? Surely. The second? Probably. Beyond that, we would be repairing and rebuilding more than winning. This colonial enterprise would be taken over."

"I serve your family because of the positive opportunities that have so far managed to align with your father's colonial ambitions."

"Then consider this vision, and help me attune it to suit the neighbours we have: Courland will never be an empire. Fernau should not try to be an empire. We can't outcompete anything another European country's trading company can do on the coast. We invest in learning neighbours' ways and we teach ours. We can learn the rules of trade here where they exist. We will set the rules of trade where they are lacking. So: see your Loango Jews, see the people on Fako and the Oyono river. See all the places all our neighbours can help us reach beyond. Say we do reach them, together. I see all these places of welcome as Kontors of a black Hanseatic League reaching into this continent. I see Fernau as it's Lübeck. Tell me, Tevel: can we build this?"

Tevel looked at the outline of the Mangrove Lodge taking shape. He shook his head. He chuckled.

"You'll need this lodge larger, Martin. Nothing you Kettlers ever envision is ever quite vast enough. And I know that's not a proper answer. Grant me a day or two to reflect on this and I'll let you know whether I can see half as far as you. If I can't, at least I'll have good men draw the maps of wherever your vision leads."

 

[Sceonn]

Martin politely refused, but suggested an alternative: not two, but three Couronian ships, with Couronian crews and Couronian captains, could join the VOC ships on their voyage, not only to Batavia or whichever islands they were heading to, but all the way back to Amsterdam after. Courland asked only for a share of the profit befitting the risk they were assuming, and a promise the return voyage would pass by Saint Helena or another Couronian port.

The middle man of the Middle man. "Take care less they help themselves to your pie while you busy yourself warding off a rival."

We haven't the might or population for these colonies to be an empire. Not like the VOC, WIC, Portugal or Spain.

A blessing all things considered. Also they could attract young men with few prospects from lands not part in the colonial venture like the Italian Kingdoms, Aragon, Poland or the HRE on their Merchant Navy.

I see all these places of welcome as Kontors of a black Hanseatic League reaching into this continent. I see Fernau as it's Lübeck. Tell me, Tevel: can we build this?"

This is big. Should the Courlanders intermix as he envisions, the interior will be opened to them centuries before the Empires of Europe, and it'll be too late then because Courland will also be a power.