Joao was examining sea charts in his office in the mansion.
Sitting in his leather chair, Joao was browsing maps, sarttes of the ond and test cards.
He made some evaluations about the possibilities (like the author) of harassing, and boarding a convoy of Indianmans, after having rid it of its escorts.
He threw away small model boats and navigation charts, not finding how to make a realistic boarding (like the author).
This lasted several days and nights (like the author).
He took a deep breath and found the scale models in order to continue to do some simulations with or without success of the rudder and chain holds to block the direction of the targeted boats.
The boardings, considering that the hulls modified, with reinforced supports, with the deployment of a wrought iron screen coated with sulphur rubber coupled with a layer of wool deployed at the bow in order to smooth the packages.
Considering the overweight that could handicap the increased resistance for intentional collisions...
Joao remained confident, however, the charts do not describe all the real possibilities, the timing of the current, the drifts by the current, the drifts by the winds....
The deployment of the incapacitating nets has already been done a few times, in order to test the practical feasibility and also its usefulness.
Preliminary tests are yielding results.
At first the nets would slide most of the time directly under the boat and come out without having blocked anything.
So a few hooks were added, mostly made of solid wood, in order to avoid the overweight of iron hooks so that the net would grip the big links of the rudder steering chains and the results became ... explicit: the manoeuvrability becomes almost nil, all that remains is to drift... a boat in this state is more than vulnerable, the escorts could be staggered by a concentration of fire on them.
What is a disadvantage, as well as a disadvantage, is that it takes divers armed with custom-made cutting knives to get rid of them afterwards, which makes several hours of work to clear the entire rudder system.
The downside is that there aren't many guys who can pull off this rudder system clearance operation for after the boat is taken over.
Joao talked for hours with the naval engineer and the various craftsmen and other shipyard labourers, during the finishing of the frigates modified for boarding, in order to assess the most likely results:
One frigate lost, and up to 5 indiaman to take, with their escort eliminate, more and it would be... lots of luck....: compulsory swimming lessons for everyone; despite some superstitious reluctance to learn: salaires + booty: or get out if you don't learn ..., most often "salary plus booty" ... converted to learning to swim even the more reluctant....
Meanwhile, the recruits were pouring in, to the surprise of Joao and Crew, the contract established by Joao, as Luis expected, attracted people.
In fact a lot of people: the rumors of successful merchants, recently arrived from India with a hitherto unknown find: the rubber, attracted attention, interest, and most of all, as "coming back" from the indies, and the reputation of this crew by the sometimes somewhat exaggerated gossip of the real witnesses of some of their piracy activities, had convinced many people that the possibility of booty in addition to a salary is all there is In addition.. Real.
Taking into consideration, that the equipment is provided to them for the activities, Joao and crew had established an unprecedented contract in the field of legal piracy, without them realizing it.
The directors of "Horizon Brazil" continued to find it difficult to apprehend their "new fortune".
We should not underestimate what most people feel when a fortune arrives, some have waited for it for a long time as an end to their projects, the psychology of Joao and crew was a little different: Brazil! Become owners in brazil of land and/or others.
In fact, all this had begun in India. There, Joao had told them about his thoughts, his philosophy of "work for" and "work with".
It was after a meeting with the muslims: the "Work for" muslims, their idol. Their idol can see everything, the idol knows everything.
Their idol is so learned... that his "creatures" must do everything: hide the fact that it is an idol, glorify their idol, if they lose it is because they have done something that displeased their idol, and if they win, it is because they have done what their idol wanted.
Those "work for", have explicitly written in their book: that most "work for" don't know.
What Joao said about it was this: You have to be outside to realize it.
So he imagined an exterior, because he had to admit it: the "work for" are many, more numerous than the "work with" after inventing that he started talking about it with the crew... Contrary to what you may think, most pirates are not bloodthirsty brutes, but simple guys who want to live more confortably like most guys who have applied for a contract with this salary and share of loot....
With rare exceptions, if a pirate was not happy he left the crew or a new captain got elected, but there are almost no whips, contrary to what produces the "work for": idiots, cruel and ... slaves to their doctrine of "work for"dism.
At the beginning the crew was certainly not very interested, but Joao demonstrated several times that his ... Allusions to turning out anticipated actions, had exact relate. And so: the Indian crew voted for him after another stampede against VOC ships.
That's what Joao was thinking in his office while he was preparing a speech for the new recruits....
And then Diogo arrived:
"You just have to give them the same speech you do, right?"
"Which one?"
"well not the one who talks about money.... That's already done .. "
"yes, which one?"
"Come on: so when I'm the one who commands "there are those who work for and those who work with", "those who are with me shall prosper those who are against me shall perish"
" ..... ha yes it's true that I said that .... "
"And then the rest later..."
"yes why not...."
"Ok we do it like this..."
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Ho copyright god ! May you be merciful !!!
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To better understand their approach: Don't neglect this Kraken, which some take seriously, like Joao for example. People had a tendacy to believe more easily stories, or at least to love the gossips
This is probably not for nothing.
In addition, in addition to their personal apprehensions, other companies felt somewhat in danger, their trade routes, and other guilds when the influx of applications for participation began.
Which became a kind of danger for their established structures, like all the "work for", not admitting that they "work for" they want to prove that it is not "work for" and so they start to "work for" to imagine all kinds of traps and other ambushes as if their pitiful way of existence that they call their life had any value...., in the end they "work for" life has no value.
And so the "work with" also have methods of attack and defense... a bit like the Jesuits... convert and conquer, but not "work for".
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It was Luis and Diogo who resolved the potential conflicts by limiting the number of recruits from the outset, and also by contracting a few companies to bring them more rubber, and to allocate part of the distribution of the products to them.
It was a great victory for them.... typical of "work for", and for "work with" it was simply a matter of: "anyway. Our little company needed this to continue its activities while the crew worked to: "deprive the VOC, of some of its boats.""
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( sorry if it's not very interesting, it's to explain more about the crew way of life, that is really important when the "brazilian dream" begin, eventually you all know: dream are dreams ... most people will never dream of such avant gardisme, and so on, for exemple during the french revolution, one of the accountants: declared it was beautiful dream, and people shouldn't dream, it was a swiss banker ... named jacob that stayed incredul along many others- it's in the description of the novel, but honestly: the manner accounts for more than the results- )
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In addition, the company's steward tried to negotiate with mestre domingos the creation of a specialized workshop to process rubber.
But mestre domingos refused, instead he pushed forward and presented one of his apprentices to take charge of this workshop.
Which the intendant accepted.
This followed Luis and Diogo's negotiations with other companies and guilds.
Moreover, the sales of luxury clothes had been initially underestimated, after the arrival of Genoese and Venetian merchants, very interested in these products and not at all put off by the price, in the end, the company "Horizon brazil" made more profit than expected.
With these new relationships, several other companies began to try to produce modified rubber, but so far without success.
In any case, the only rubber tree plantation belongs to "Horizon Brazil" which guarantees some years of peace of mind for the directors before having any real competition
For certain other companies which had no importance in it, in the Holy Roman Empire these cloaks could be sold for as much as 700 to 800 cruzados, and about the same in the various Italian principalities. The ideal for them would have been to buy the non-luxurious storm capes for the sailors at a lower cost and to put the fabric additions in themselves, but the agreements with these companies prevent them from having access to them, at least for the time being.
Buy at about 100 cruzados in lisbon and resold with profits equivalent to sugar, can be more.
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February 1655
After receiving the new ships from early December until mid-January, the new recruits began operations.
The organization was even more serious than for a commercial expedition.
The training maneuvers were demanding, and unlike most known boardings.
The ships worked in tandem, although very few practice shots were fired, there was at least one per boat, in order to accustom the crew to firing the guns.
The final preparations for departure for Luanda, Angola, the "soldiers of the line" have already been warned that they will have "real training" on the probably almost battlegrounds of angola before the "big capture operation".
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Venice February 1655
"And this thing is .. waterproof?"
"Yes sir, look", the representative of a Venetian family took a filled water and threw it on the "rubber", then the water flowed all around leaving large puddles of water that servants hurried to clean by bending over with rags so as not to let the water infiltrate everywhere.
"Impressive... and you can make me a garment of great luxury? Completely waterproof?"
"Ha sir, completely waterproof I think it's not yet possible, this material was imported at great expense from Lisbon directly from the distant Indies (a merchant perfectly familiar with his product will never change the quality of the product... )
"The distant indies? Hahahaha certainly you were duped and paid too much, this is from brazil ... It seems to me that this product grows on trees"
"Ha sir is a connoisseur – the merchant had bought waterproof barrels at a great price, and extracted the rubber from the tuns - In any case the fact remains that only this product is as water-resistant, much better than any existing leather protection, and all you have to do is tell me what clothes you want, and I will integrate this product, Look at this malleability, this feeling to the touch... "
"Oh yes indeed, to tell you the truth I had never seen one before, although I had heard of it"
"5000 ducats for two, embroidered with gold" the nobleman clapped his hands and had a servant seize two of his favorite clothes in order to expose them to the merchant "one like this, and another like this one. but with this material.... "
"Ha 5000 ducats only? This material is endemic to Portugal.... Even in the distant Indies they don't know how to get this texture," the merchant assured
"In Brazil either? Hmm, so it's only the Portuguese who have this material? "
"Not for the modest sum of 10,000 ducats"
"Hahahahahahahahaha ( rio né répondé plu...)
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March 1655
Luanda is in sight.
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interlude Author's thoughts, ( I couldn't resist the nature of my joke ...): An alien, freshly landed on Earth, enters a New York café. He approaches the counter, hands out a brand new $1,000,000 dollars bill and asks, very seriously: Hello, human. What does this hieroglyph mean? The waiter, taken aback, looks at the banknote, then at the alien: Uh... sir, do you know what you have here?" The alien looks closely at the bill, squints at the "$" symbol and the pyramid with its flaming eye on the back and exclaims: Isn't this sinuous pictogram a hieroglyph? A kind of coded message? The waiter, amused: No, it's the dollar sign. The alien, enthusiastic: Dollar... dollar... Is it a word of power? Like "abracadabra"? No, it's money. Money? I thought it was paper... Yes, but it's worth a lot. The alien, perplexed, turns the note over, points to the top of the pyramid: And this triangular symbol? A warning? A secret code for insiders? No, that's... uh... It's complicated. So, to sum up: you exchange drinks for leaves decorated with mysterious symbols, with pyramids and magic eyes? Exactly. The alien, delighted, hands out the note: In this case, I'll have a drink... and the recipe for the spell, please.
Moral: On Earth, it's a bit like hieroglyphics: everyone talks about it, but no one really knows what it means. ( joke elaborated while I was studying the difficulty of MC's to apprehend their recent "wealth")
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Sorry for this short chapter.