Cornucopia

by John Kinsella

“We are looking for something to decorate our new Paris apartment.”

  “Ah, I hope Alexis can help you.”

  “I hope so too. Agnes is our expert. She’s with the Musée Cernuschi in Paris.”

  “Mr Kennedy is a collector.”

  “From where?” asked Princess Ameerah.

  “Hong Kong and London.”

  Lili, her curiosity aroused by the three women’s interest in Pat, arrived, took her husband’s arm possessively.

  “Let me introduce you to my wife.”

  The women exchanged polite nods.

  These princesses are from Saudi Arabia.

  “How nice,” Lili said. “Do you speak Cantonese?”

  “I speak a little Mandarin,” said Agnes.

  Lili turned to Pat and with a smile whispered in his ear, in Cantonese: “I’ll leave you with your princess, fakes like our more recent antiques.”

  “Please excuse me,” she said. “I hope you find something interesting. We have some excellent creators, past and present.”

  HONG KONG

  Jardine Matheson was familiar to Pat Kennedy, and it had every reason to be, Jardine House was the home to INI Hong Kong, a fifty two storey tower situated in Central at 1 Connaught Place, the tallest building in Hong Kong at the time of its construction.

  Jardine Matheson Holdings, a conglomerate incorporated in Bermuda, one of the original Hong Kong trading houses or Hongs, dated back to Imperial China, still earned over forty percent of its profits in China. After more than two centuries existence it was still controlled by the Keswick family, descendants of co-founder William Jardine's older sister.

  Jardine Matheson, or simply Jardines, was all that remained of the old Hongs and their family associations, rather like the Wu’s, which included bothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousin and in-laws on their company’s roll call where kinship was the general rule. European business heads, like Pat Kennedy, were known in Hong Kong as taipans.

  In the early years of the third millennium Hong Kong was a kaleidoscope of cultures and languages, though ninety percent percent of its people were Chinese, speaking many languages including, variations of Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka, Hokkien and many other dialects that were totally ignored by foreigners. The vast majority of Europeans spoke little or no Chinese, a few expats took lessons in Cantonese, others in Mandarin, but few were fluent.

  The Chinese educated classes, many of whom studied in the UK or the US, some in Swiss finishing schools, were Europeanised or internationalised, speaking excellent English, in addition to Cantonese, Mandarin and their local dialects.

  Hong Kong was not affected by China’s one-child policy which had been in place for over thirty years, which meant that before 1980, most families had more than one child.

  Lili was born of her father’s second marriage and had two step brothers from the first, both of whom had been born before the law came into force.

  After that date Chinese families were one child families, with the exception of those in isolated rural districts. This gave rise to what was called the 4-2-1 dynamic: four grandparents, two parents and one grandchild, on whom was bestowed the entire family wealth.

  On matters of religion the Chinese remained devoted to their families and ancestors with old Confucian ideas making their return. Mainland China however has been governed since 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party, an atheist institution that prohibited party members from practicing religion while in office, though in recent years there had been a return to Confucian traditions. Hongkongers on the other hand had always continued to pray to their multifarious gods.

  Though three hundred thousand Hongkongers were Christians or Muslims, a great many more were Daoists or Buddhists and a pantheon of dozens of divinities was supplicated daily for favours: gods of wealth, gods of happiness, of mercy, long life, wisdom, kitchen gods, sea gods and earth gods, all were part of a long list.

  As to Europeans, the better off amongst them spent Sundays on their roof terraces and the rich, like the Kennedys, in their extravagant pent house gardens entertaining friends as the sunset over the hills of Lantau Island. The Kennedys, and other who could afford it, often enjoyed weekend boating in Repulse Bay, the East Lamma Channel, or around the islands off the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Depending on their means they owned launches, yachts or motorized junks. The larger more luxurious junks were attended by trimly uniformed Chinese boat crews, who served the owners under white canvas awnings suspended over the high poop decks, where tables were laid with white tablecloths, silver cutlery and fine glasses with wine at the ready in silver coolers while the younger women were stretched out sunbathing on the prow.

  The was also Happy Valley Race Course, one of the most famous horse racing venues in the world, a meeting place for rich and poor alike. Before the handover in 1997, it was said that Hong Kong was ruled by the Jockey Club, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and the Governor … in that order.

  Behind the glamour of Hong Kong lurked the triads, secret societies, a kind of Mafia, with over fifty gangs and one hundred thousand or more members engaged in huge variety of illegal activities. Some of these, such as the Sun Yee On society, played a more or less visible role in the community, with emanations reaching out into every corner of China and beyond. Corruption was also omnipresent, traditionally known as cumshaw, squeeze or tea money.

  Many Hongkongers and visitors like Tom Barton enjoyed an evening walk in the warm humid air along the Kowloon waterfront, watching ships pass by, and ferries toing and froing against the fabulous backdrop of Hong Kong Island with its spectacular display of lights. Every year many thousands of ocean-going ships entered or left Hong Kong Harbour, providing a permanent around the clock spectacle.

  Almost twenty years after the transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong retained its economic power, with its four hundred plus square miles of territory and a population of over seven million, an integral part of China, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

  Since his move to Hong Kong Kennedy’s latent hostility towards the City of London and the British government had grown. London was a good place to live, but doing business there had become seriously risky. Of course Hong Kong was not without risks, which explained his interest in developing the bank’s business in the Caribbean, in this way he was no different to many of the Chinese and Russians he had got to know, for whom a last resort safe haven was a must if things went wrong, as he knew they eventually would.

  A

  junk in Victoria Harbour – Hong Kong

  His references were City & Colonial and HSBC, both banks had long links to the former colony. The former was founded in London, but its business was built around East Asian trade, the latter in Hong Kong. Both worked in their different ways, both were amongst the world’s largest. However, HSBC had a schizophrenic relationship with its former colonial home, where its biggest subsidiary was already based and supervised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

  Under the Wu family INI Hong Kong thrived in greater China, like its larger competitors, though it was small fry compared to HSBC, whose balance-sheet was nine times bigger than Hong Kong’s GDP.

  PART ELEVEN

  PANAMA

  The heads of state gathered together for the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama were the guests of President Juan Carlos Varela, at a state diner held in Panama Viejo’s historical park.

  The park was the site of the first Spanish settlement on the Pacific coast. It was founded in 1519, and became an important port for galleons arriving from Peru and Bolivia laden with gold and silver.

  At the beginning of 1671, the Welsh pirate, Henry Morgan1, attacked the city with one thousand two hundred men after marching across the jungle covered isthmus from the Caribbean coast. Morgan sacked the city, terrifying its ten thousand souls, raping, burning and killing. Many of those taken prisoner were sold into slavery.

  During the attack the Spanish defender, Captain General Don Juan Pérez de Guzmán, blew up t
he gunpowder magazines in the desperate hope it would frighten off the pirates, but the fires and explosion destroyed the city. It was rebuilt at a more defensible site to the west, a peninsula, around which was built a system of walls and fortifications: the present day old town of Panama City, Casco Viejo.

  Pat was fascinated by the story of Henry Morgan, who also sacked Granada, the rich colonial city founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernández, situated on the shores of Lake Nicaragua.

  In December 1663, Morgan and his men made their way up the San Juan River, crossed the lake to reach its eastern shores, where with their Indian guides trekked through dense unexplored jungle to reach their objective. After a journey fraught with dangers, Morgan launched a lightning attack on the city, hitherto reputed to be impregnable. The Spaniards were taken by surprise and after a short fight its defenders were neutralised rounded up and locked in the cathedral. The Spanish inhabitants fled whilst Morgan and his men plundering the city with its churches, monasteries and colleges, leaving loaded with gold, silver, jewellery and other valuables.

  It was the start of Morgan’s long and notoriously successful career as a privateer on the Spanish Main. Henry Morgan, the son of a Welsh farmer, was knighted by King Charles II, and became Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica where he died a rich man in 1688.

  After being shanghaied to Barbados, where he was indentured, his career as a soldier commenced when he was pressed into an army led by General Venables and Admiral Penn, sent by Cromwell in 1654, to capture Santo Domingo from the Spanish. After being repulsed the English forces found refuge on nearby Jamaica, a backwater of little interest to the Spanish, where some years later Morgan set out on his own singular career as a privateer: an adventurer licensed by the Charles II to attack and capture enemy ships, as part of cash strapped England’s attempt to pursue its plan to grab part of the action from the rich and all powerful Spanish Empire in the New World.

  H

  enry Morgan at Portobello

  The main event of the 2015 summit was the consecration of the reconciliation between the US and Cuba, when the American leader declared the days of US meddling in Latin American affairs relegated to history. Panama’s past had been part of a long history of Yankee skulduggery in Latin America. It was marked by the Spanish-American War with the protectorate of Cuba and its subsequent independence; and the secession of Panama from Colombia and its independence.

  In 1903, a treaty between the US and Colombia granted the use of the Isthmus of Panama to the US and was ratified by Washington, Colombia however was not satisfied by the terms and demanded the conditions be renegotiated. The US refusal signalled a Panamanian rebellion, encouraged by Washington, leading to the independence of the Isthmus from Colombia which was powerless faced with the overwhelming supremacy of the American navy.

  Just a few shots were fired with one casualty, who Pat Kennedy learned was an unlucky bystander, a certain Mr Wong, a Chinese citizen, who was killed by a shell fired from a Colombian gun boat.

  The untimely death of Mr Wong, written Wáng in standard Mandarin, seemed at first glance like a bad portent, but Pat recalled his visit to the canal museum at Miraflores, where he learnt thousands of Chinese had worked on the construction, and many of them had left their bones. He brushed the idea aside, after all Wong or Wang was a very common Chinese name.

  Following Panama’s declaration of independence, Washington moved fast and barely two weeks after, the newly created state, the República de Panamá, signed a treaty granting the US exclusive and permanent possession of the Canal Zone against a payment of ten million dollars in exchange, and an annuity of a quarter of a million dollars starting nine years after; the time deemed necessary to finish the canal commenced by Ferdinand de Lesseps ten years earlier.

  It was the start of a long and contentious presence of the US, which finally ended when the canal was ceded to the Panamanian government in 1999 by Jimmy Carter.

  Obama’s words were not lost on those present and more especially on Pat Kennedy, who saw it as a positive sign for the Nicaragua transoceanic canal. Whatever the economics on its viability or its environmental impact, the US would not intervene … at least be seen to do so directly.

  1. LIFE OF SIR HENRY MORGAN by E. A. Cruikshank 1935 The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd 1935 See Gutenberg Project

  ANOTHER PASSAGE

  Rio Brito was a muddy stream that flowed into the Pacific at the narrowest point of the Rivas Isthmus in the south of Nicaragua. It was the spot chosen to build an ocean port at the entry to the planned transoceanic canal. From Lake Nicaragua the river disappeared into the dry savannah-like woodland areas to the west of Rivas, an unremarkable small town crossed by the Pan-American highway.

  Before the construction of the Panama Canal, the only alternative for American transcontinental transport was by sailing ship around Cape Horn, a hazardous voyage for sailing ships, and even after the arrival of early steam ships the journey was long and fraught with danger.

  Before the North American transcontinental rail-road was built there was an alternative route that had existed since the time of the Conquistadors: the overland route via the Rio San Juan in Nicaragua, which became an important passage for travellers between New York and San Francisco wishing to avoid the treacherous Cape.

  In the middle of the nineteenth century the commercial exploitation of this route was granted to the American shipping magnate, Cornelius Vanderbilt, by the Nicaraguan government. Ships from New York sailed up the San Juan River from the Caribbean to Lake Nicaragua and across to Rivas, where passengers and goods were transported overland to the Pacific, across the low hills of the narrow Istmo de Rivas, to the Pacific by mules trains, horses and stagecoaches.

  Napoleon III formed the Nicaraguan Canal Company in 1869, but his project came to nothing when he was deposed after the Franco-Prussian War that ended in the Emperor’s humiliating defeat and exile. Any further idea to build a canal in Nicaragua was abandoned due to the country’s chronic instability, which forced governments, businessmen and investors to seek an alternative route, finally choosing Panama as the site to build their transoceanic canal.

  San Juan de Nicaragua, situated at the mouth of the Rio San Juan, formerly known as San Juan del Norte or Greytown, on the Caribbean coast, was founded by the Spanish explorers who arrived in 1539.

  Later the small town fell to the English, who, with Miskitos and Zambos: descended from African slaves, controlled the Miskitos Coast on and off until the independence of Central America from Spain in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

  In 1848, the British took control of the town and renamed it Greytown, attaching it to the Miskito Kingdom, a British protectorate to the north.

  Soon after Cornelius Vanderbilt set up his shipping company in Greytown and the town became the eastern terminus of a booming transoceanic link, with tens of thousands of travellers passing through each year on their way to the Pacific during the California Gold Rush.

  Sailing ships and steamers from New York and New Orleans docked in Greytown where passengers and goods were transferred onto river boats that made their way up the San Juan River past dense tropical jungles to San Carlos on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, which, almost thirty three metres above sea level, drained into the Caribbean via the Rio San Juan.

  At the time when Vanderbilt’s company transported passengers overland from the lake shore to the Pacific, a plan to build a canal had already been envisaged. However, when construction of the Panama Canal started the plan was shelved. Then, to pre-empt competition with the Panama Canal, a treaty was signed with the Nicaraguan government in 1916, giving the Americans exclusive rights to build a canal along Vanderbilt’s route. It was not until 1970 the treaty was finally rescinded, leaving the door open to other projects.

  Hernán Cortés is said to have written to the King of Spain: He who possesses the Rio San Juan could be considered the owner of the world.

  *

  Pat Kennedy drove from Managua to San Carlos, where a
fast launch was waiting for him at the point where the lake emptied into the Rio San Juan. He had planned an expedition, more like an excursion, to explore one of the proposed routes for the canal as part of his ad hoc fact finding mission, which he deemed necessary before investing time, effort and money in Wang’s canal project.

  San Carlos was not like he expected, it was a muddy shanty town with tumbledown shacks and shabby wooden buildings perched on stilts over the river banks. There he changed boats for the journey would take him nearly two hundred kilometres, through what was a vast nature reserve; an uninhabited pristine tropical jungle, to Greytown, where the river, which some called el Desaguadero, drained the lake into the Caribbean.

  The first leg led to El Castillo seventy kilometres downstream, a couple of hours from San Carlos. The once powerful Spanish colonial fort with its thirty two canons, the bane of river pirates, was perched on a grassy knoll overlooking a cluster of gaily coloured houses that lined the banks of the river. The Castillo de la Inmacula was a sombre, moss-covered mass, built to dominate the strategic junction on the river where the crocodile infested rapids formed a natural barrier, making it easy for the Spaniards to intercept enemy ships, where only experienced boatmen could navigate the treacherous stretch of the river.

  From then on any remaining vestige of civilisation was left behind as the river wound its way deep into the jungle. On either side of the muddy green waters of the river lay a dense rain forest, silent except for the cries of birds and the whooping of howler monkeys.

  Mark Twain, one of Vanderbilt’s passengers on his Rio San Juan riverboat steamer, wrote a description of the area in 1886:

  Dark grottos, fairy festoons, tunnels, temples, columns, pillars, towers, pilasters, terraces, pyramids, mounds, domes, walls, in endless confusion of vine-work‒no shape known to architecture unimitated‒and all so webbed together that short distances within are only gained by glimpses. Monkeys here and there; birds warbling; gorgeous plumaged birds on the wing, Paradise itself, the imperial realm of beauty‒nothing to wish for to make it perfect.