My British Empire

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After untold hardships, Hawkins finally led the entire fleet to the small Spanish island——Hispaniola Island. Another common name is Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the North American Caribbean Islands.

Of course, Little Spain Island is not its official name, it was named by the Spaniards - Santo Domingo.

It's just that Hispaniola is bordered by Haiti to the west and the Dominican Republic to the east.

Haiti was originally inhabited by the Arawak Indian tribe. When Hispaniola Island was discovered, there were about 1 million Indians living on the island, mainly Taino people, and a little Sivone lived in the northwest of the island. people.

At that time, there were already five native Indian regimes on the island. They lived in large densely populated villages, caught birds, fish, rodents, and cultivated the land. The Indians of Hispaniola used stone axes to cultivate and cultivated with wooden shovels. Their main food was cassava and sweet potatoes.

In 1492, during the first voyage of the great navigator Columbus, because his flagship ran aground and could not bring the crew of the other two ships back to Spain, the Navidade Castle was established near today's Cap-Haitien.

When Columbus returned here in 1493, he found no one alive in the fort.

He then established the Isabella Colony on the north coast of Hispaniola, and colonization of the island began.

In 1502, Hispaniola officially became a Spanish colony, and the military resistance of the Indians on the island was crushed. In the 16th century, the Spaniards had established 15 cities on the island.

In addition, Spanish officers and soldiers allotted the land on the island and turned the Indians living on these lands into slaves for mining gold, growing sugar cane and raising cattle.

Due to the impact of smallpox, the Arawaks disappeared on the island in 1544, so the western part of Haiti Island was abandoned by the Spaniards. It became a stronghold for immigrants and fishermen from other countries, and also became a paradise for pirates and smugglers.

The black slave trade has always been monopolized by the Spaniards, so Hawkins' pedestrians, in a sense, are smugglers.

Therefore, he was in the early morning, around five o'clock, and there was a thin mist in the sky, making it difficult to see clearly.

However, Hawkins still took his three boats and quietly parked on a simple pier. There were already several boats docked near the berth, but they were all small boats.

Seeing these small boats, Hawkins frowned. Although he has enough personnel, these few boats are not a big or small trouble.

Afterwards, the fog gradually dissipated, and the entire small pier was clearly presented in front of his eyes.

Five middle-aged men in clothes and leather shoes waited anxiously. They were followed by dozens of guards, who also followed their masters, looking anxious.

After looking carefully, he knew the bald man in the middle. This was the plantation owner he had met last time through his relationship. He had introduced the other four plantation owners.

His arrival was obviously also seen by the plantation owners, and their faces were overjoyed.

"Oh! my dear Mr. Hawkins, I have waited so hard for you!"

As soon as John Hawkins got off the boat, the bald man greeted him and gave him a big hug.

This made Hawkins, who is somewhat reserved and unique to the English, a little unaccustomed, but for the sake of gold coins, he had to endure it.

"Hello, Mr. Francois, and gentlemen!" Hawkins gave a gentleman's salute after leaving his arms, and then pointed to the three ships behind him and said:

"The nigger you want has arrived!"

Immediately, Hawkins clapped his hands, and the sailors who had already prepared on the ship quickly escorted the naked black slaves down one by one.

After walking at sea for more than a week, these people were locked in a narrow space, and their daily food was nothing more than some leftover and wormy bread of some sailors.

All of them were so hungry that their bodies were weak, their eyes were dull, and they were a little bit floating when they walked.

In order to prevent infectious diseases, Hawkins listened to Domingo's advice, let these black slaves be naked, and washed them with sea water several times vigorously, and then he was relieved.

The black slaves were strung together with ropes and pulled off the ship by the sailors.

Hawkins, on the other hand, communicated and chatted with these plantation owners.

The guards brought by the plantation owners opened the mouths of the blacks from time to time, as if they were looking at livestock, to check their teeth, pat their arms and thighs, and check their physical condition.

Some pinched the breasts of black women, looking serious, as if they were checking the production conditions of women.

It was the first time for Hawkins to do this kind of black slave business. Seeing this from the corner of his eye, he felt a little uncomfortable for a while, and felt a little nervous.

After all, treating humans as livestock is a bit of a challenge to the nerves.

After getting used to it for a while, and thinking about the gold coins he was about to get, Hawkins felt much better.

"Mr. Hawkins, you have a total of one thousand one hundred and sixteen black slaves. I want two hundred males and one hundred females. The male price is five pounds, the females are three pounds, and the children are two pounds. So here Thirteen hundred pounds is yours!"

"I want one hundred!" "I want three hundred!"...

After receiving feedback from their subordinates, the five plantation owners quickly bid and brought out boxes of gold coins.

In this way, at this moment, more than a thousand black slaves were sold out, and Hawkins made a profit of 3,800 pounds, which was his profit for this month.

After making an appointment with these plantation owners, Hawkins sailed the empty ship to Santo Domingo, the central city of Little Spain Island.

Since Spain and England had signed an agreement, the English were allowed to do business in Spain and the colonies.

Therefore, Hawkins bought a lot of ginger, sugar, and tobacco with slave money, and prepared to bring them to England for sale.

In this way, full of harvest, Hawkins and others returned to England.

On the way home, the wind was smooth all the way, until they were more than a hundred miles away from England, when a merchant ship suddenly appeared in front of them, flying the flag of Portugal.

Hawkins quickly looked through the binoculars, and saw that the armed merchant ship had a heavy draft and was about 150 tons in size.

"It's such a big fat sheep. I didn't expect that it will make a lot of money when it's almost home!"

Hawkins' eyes widened, he wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, and muttered softly.

"Boss, let's do this vote! This will make us eat a lot of inflation!"

The first officer at the side came over, just like him, watching the merchant ship gradually accelerating ahead, swallowing his saliva, and kept saying.

"Okay, it's done!" Hawkins waved his fist and shouted excitedly, and then there were cheers on the boat.