Chapter 626: Spanish in East Africa

On the coast of Mozambique in southeastern Africa, at the mouth of the Save River, a group of white strong men is building a castle shirtless. They were the Spanish colonists who were flicked by Marin.

After being limped by Marin in Rome the year before, Ferdinand II was not at ease after returning home, so he sent a fleet and specially followed Marin's instructions to scout the coast of Mozambique in southeast Africa.

As a result, the Spaniards found Arab businessmen active on the coast of Mozambique. Seeing this, the Spanish fleet sent an interpreter who understood Arabic, deliberately close to the Arab merchants, and peeked at their goods ... Sure enough, the Spanish discovered that the Arabs came for gold ...

These Arab merchants are mainly from the emirate of Oman, who is good at sailing. The goods they bring are common materials such as cloth and glass, and some iron tools (mainly weapons such as swords). But what was brought back was expensive materials such as sands, ivory and copper mines ...

Gold is one of the most stable metals and is not easily oxidized. Therefore, there are many natural golds in gold mines in nature. Among them, the most natural gold is the golden sand, and the dog head gold ...

Although the ancient Zimbabwe Empire was regarded as a powerful civilization in southern Africa, they were still in the Stone Age and did not understand metallurgy. Therefore, although gold is produced locally, it is only produced from the gold sands that have been obtained from the gold ore. As for copper mines, there are also many localities, but Zimbabweans do not know how to smelt, so they directly trade copper mines with Arab merchants. Ivory is the best thing to do. They do n’t dare to offend the living elephants. Is the dead elephant easy to solve? Find an elephant cemetery, and take the ivory off the dead elephant carcass ...

After learning that the Arab merchants did trade a lot of gold, ivory and copper mines from the Zimbabwe Empire, the Spanish colonists returned excitedly to report to Ferdinand II.

At this point, Ferdinand II completely believed in Marin's judgment. Of course, Marin did not lie. Therefore, according to the agreement signed with Portugal, Ferdinand II publicly announced that the land between Limpopo and Zambezi in southeastern Africa belongs to Spain.

Then Ferdinand II organized thousands of colonists, boarded the ship, and headed towards the mouth of the Save River between Limpopo and Zambezi. Because, upstream of the Save River, it is close to the Great Zimbabwe Stone City that Marin said. Moreover, the ships that Spain had sent before did find Arab merchant ships at the mouth of the Save River.

Unfortunately, the first expeditionary forces failed ...

Why? Because of the first Spanish expeditionary forces, they were raged by tropical diseases. Well, to be more specific, malaria appeared in the army ...

Then, thousands of Spanish expeditionary soldiers fell directly halfway. The other half is also panicked.

At the same time, for the Spaniards who came to grab business, Arab businessmen from Oman were very hostile to them. As a result, Arab merchants gathered and hired many black tribes on the coast of Mozambique ... Including Arab sailors and black tribe warriors, a total of more than 2,000 people launched an attack on the low morale Spanish colonists ...

Under normal circumstances, the Spanish colonists did not say they could defeat their opponents, but at least they would not lose. Why? Because the Spaniards have a large number of matchlocks, and the Spanish phalanx learned from Marin. Under normal circumstances, it is sure to be able to defeat the opponent's more than two thousand miscellaneous troops.

It is a pity that the Spaniards fell to ordinary people because of malaria, and the people were panicked and lost their will to fight. As a result, the Spanish colonial army, which had the advantage, was defeated, and only a small number of people fled back to the ship in embarrassment. The bodies of most people were left on the shore. Moreover, the bodies were mostly roasted and eaten by some black uncles who like to eat people ...

The news came back to Spain and Ferdinand II was furious. However, he also knows that malaria is rampant in tropical regions. So he thought of a good way-let the soldiers who hadn't died after suffering from mild malaria form a new colonial legion to the mouth of the Save River in Mozambique, and establish a new colony again. Moreover, in order to defend the enemy, Ferdinand II ordered the construction of a military fortress directly at the mouth of the Save River to counter the attacks by Arab pirates and local indigenous people. The name of this coastal castle is Fort Ferdinand ...

Malaria is one of the terminally ill in this era. Although the mortality rate is high, it is not 100% fatal. There are also a very few people who, because of their mild condition and good physical fitness, have survived directly, and then have antibodies in their bodies. It is indeed a good idea to send such people to colonize Africa.

It's just that in the big Spain, people who didn't die after getting malaria turned around and found only 800 young people. Most of these young people were people who survived after colonizing Hispaniola (Haiti) with Columbus.

Although there were few people, Ferdinand II estimated that as long as ammunition was sufficient and a castle was built first, it was enough. Moreover, the sparse Spanish phalanx of 800 people should be enough to bully those black Africans. Because, according to the last information, the weapons of Africans are basically stone tools. Only those Arab sailors used iron scimitars. But in front of the powerful Marin Phalanx (Spanish Phalanx), no matter how good the Arabian sailor's knife is, it will also be smashed by Musquette's firearm gun ...

As for those black uncles, as long as the Spaniards are in good condition, it is not negotiable to abuse them. It is said that during the last war, some black soldiers heard gunshots and were so scared that they dropped their weapons and ran away ...

The second batch of Spanish expeditionary troops to the coast of Mozambique, in addition to the 800 warriors who are not afraid of malaria, have more than 2,000 slaves. These slaves were all captured from Granada, Spain.

After conquering the last Kingdom of God on the Iberian Peninsula, Granada, in 1492, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, as devout Christians, treated God in Granada. Persecuted. The religious tribunal they established was full of God believers and Jews. This time, in order to build a castle at the mouth of the Save River, Ferdinand II made a special order from the Inquisition Court to propose more than 2,000 God-Granadas to build the castle. As for the 800 fighters with malaria antibodies ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~, while supervising the building of the castle by the Granadas, they were also preparing for attacks by Arab businessmen and black tribes.

In this way, the castle was built day by day. During this period, Arab merchants also organized several sneak attacks, and local black tribes also launched several attacks.

However, after the last experience, the Spaniard was very alert and even brought a lot of dogs to watch the night and set off.

It stands to reason that black night raids are very terrible. Because, as long as they don't wear clothes (most black people in this era do not wear clothes), you can only see their eyes light up.

However, the Spanish actually brought a lot of dogs to watch the night. Therefore, several night raids by local black tribes failed because they were seen by dogs. Although the Spaniards could not see the black people hiding in the dark night, but the dog bites on which side, the gun is shot on which side ...

With the basic completion of the castle, especially the completion of the outer walls and gates, now neither the Arabs nor the blacks can threaten the small castle at the mouth of the Save River at Fort Ferdinand. The Spanish's next move is to rely on the castle and clean up nearby black villages. Then, go up the Save River until you find the stone-rich city of the capital of the great Zimbabwe Empire ...