The Chrysanthemum, the Cross, and the Dragon

by Iver P. Cooper

  "Now that we man the parapets and cannon of the Keelung forts, I can spare you twenty men. The Golden Venture isn't carrying its usual load, so it should be able to accommodate them. And the war junks Brother Dragon assigned to you will accompany you too. I doubt you'll encounter any Dutch on that short a passage, but if you do, that should give them pause."

  "Will you also give me one of the troop ships to bring back the soldiers from Tamsui."

  Bao brooded over this question for a few minutes. "No, I think not. I will send word to Xiamen to have them fetched when we are ready to take them to Cebu. Until then, I think it ... imprudent ... to add to the number of Spanish soldiers in Keelung. Just in case Romero changes his mind."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Before making any recruitment attempts, Juan reviewed the personnel records at Fort San Salvador and the judicial records at the governor's house. It would be imprudent, he thought, to try recruiting someone and then discover belatedly that the person in question was a known dullard, thief, cheat, malingerer, or worse.

  Juan then started talking to the soldiers, without much luck. He complained about this to Mingyu. "I know this is the middle of nowhere, but with Cebu threatened by the Japanese, the Dutch, and the Moros, the soldiers' future in Cebu is uncertain. So why haven't I gotten any bites so far?"

  "You are, perhaps, using the wrong bait," said Mingyu. "They are surely nervous about how they would fare under Chinese rule."

  "The Portuguese have done well enough in Macau."

  "They at least enjoy the illusion of local rule."

  "I will talk to Bao."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  "If they want the full rights of a citizen, they must swear fealty to the Zheng family," Bao declared. "Otherwise, all they can have is the same license to reside and trade, on the same terms, that the Chinese had under Spanish rule. That is fair, yes?"

  "It is perhaps all they have a right to expect, but if you want more to stay, you have to offer more."

  'Very well, I'll think about it. Come back in the morning for my answer."

  Bao's answer was that the Spanish who met certain minimum criteria could remain if they swore not to take up arms against China and the Zheng family or to provide aid and comfort to anyone who did. Also, that they would be free of head tax for the first year following the Zheng takeover of Keelung and, if they decided after that year that they wanted to return to the Philippines, they would be given the opportunity. It wouldn't be a special run, but they could sail to Xiamen and then be transferred at the family's convenience to a trading ship going to the Philippines.

  Juan was happy with Bao's answer and, more important, some of the Spanish he was most interested in recruiting were too. Still, most of them had one important reservation: would they still be able to attend church?

  "So," Juan told Mingyu, "I have to persuade some of the priests to remain."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  That proved to be harder than Juan expected. It appeared that the position of chaplain for Fort San Salvador was an unpopular one, as the Spanish soldiers were, in the eyes of the clergy, appallingly immoral.

  "It's annoying," Juan complained to Mingyu, "that the soldiers are too immoral for the clergy to tolerate them but not immoral enough to dispense with services and the confessional altogether.

  "I talked to the Dominicans at St. Joseph of Quimaurri and Saint John the Baptist of Taparri. They were happy to be told that they could stay to minister to the Basayans. And the Jesuit priest for the church in the parian gave a similar answer. But as soon as I asked that one of them take on the chaplainship too, oh, did they have excuses!"

  Chapter 12

  Keelung

  Year of the Dog, Fifth Month (May 27 to June 24, 1634)

  Juan had finished interviewing the soldiers when he was approached by one of the Spanish civilians. "Excuse me, Senor, you are the intrepid lieutenant from Manila?"

  "I am Lieutenant Cardona. I don't know whether I'd call myself 'intrepid,' but I did survive the attack."

  "And I am Domingo Aguilar, at your service."

  Domingo Aguilar had a short moustache, a curl of hair that snuck out from under a floppy-brimmed hat, and an engaging smile.

  Juan distrusted him immediately. It was the sort of smile that made you want to check that your purse was still where it should be.

  "Your accent, you are from Spain?"

  "I am. Born there in 1604. Went to Mexico to make my fortune. That didn't work out as I planned so I came to Manila. No better luck there so I came here. I married the favorite niece of the chief of Taparri, so if anyone can help you understand the situation here, it's me. Not that idiot Romero. And I, for one, wish to remain here, not hare off to Cebu. Can you arrange that?"

  "Perhaps. What do you know about the situation in Tamsui?"

  "You are going there, I take it? This Bao the Panther, he wants to replace the Spanish garrison there with one of his own?"

  'That's right." Juan gave him points for perception.

  "You'll want to take one or more of the Basayans with you. They are the big traders here in the north, even more so than the Chinese, since they are willing to travel inland. They get along with pretty much everyone, whereas the other aborigines are prone to quarreling. The mountain tribes raid the coastal plains, and there are plenty of rivalries among the plains tribes too. Over by Tamsui, the tribes on the south side of the river hate those on the north side."

  "That's good to know. Where can I find these Basayans?"

  "Well, those are my wife's people... So I can set you up with some guides. First thing tomorrow morning."

  "Splendid."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Juan decided he wanted to know more about this Domingo Aguilar. So he spoke to Romero, the "idiot."

  "Aguilar? Yes he was born in Spain. But did he tell you that he was arrested in Mexico in 1623? I think it was for smuggling. He was sent to Manila to serve a five-year sentence as a galley slave. After his term was up he couldn't find work in Manila, so he came here. Married a savage, can you believe it?"

  Juan believed every word. Still, even though Aguilar was a scoundrel, perhaps he would prove to be a useful scoundrel.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Juan told Mingyu about both conversations.

  Mingyu laughed. "You certainly don't expect me to fault someone for having been a smuggler, do you? Although it is perhaps a strike against him that he was an unsuccessful smuggler. What are you going to do?"

  "Take him and his Basayans, of course. They'll serve as a counterbalance to Romero and his cronies, whom I am stuck with anyway.

  "But there's a larger issue that Aguilar awakened me to: what should Bao do with the Spanish or Filipinos who don't have special skills but do have local connections, whether with the natives or with the Chinese, but don't want to leave?"

  Mingyu shrugged. Let's ask him."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Juan, accompanied by Mingyu, told Bao about the conversation with Aguilar and pointed out that some of the residents of Keelung, even if they weren't gunners or artisans, probably had useful knowledge of the natives and the resources. Knowledge that ought not be shipped off to Cebu if they were willing to share it with Bao."

  "You make a good point," said Bao. "We'll handle them on a case-by-case basis. You can tell Aguilar that he needs to prove that he's useful to us."

  He turned to Mingyu. "Has Juan been learning to speak Chinese?"

  She shrugged. "Slowly."

  "Her Spanish is so good, it hardly seems worth trying to learn a language that dismays even the scholars of my country," said Juan in an apologetic tone.

  "Well, after you come back from Tamsui, I am going to want you to train my men in the proper handling of the fort's cannon. The cannon on our war-junks are mounted differently. I suspect that you will also need to experiment with our Chinese powder to find the right charge for the Spanish cannon.

  "And you will need to learn how to give military commands in Chinese, not make my men lea
rn Spanish or have Mingyu tag along as a translator."

  "If you or one of your lieutenants tells me the commands he needs to know, I will teach them to Juan while we are in Tamsui," Mingyu promised.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Tamsui was only about thirty-six miles from Keelung. The wind was on their beam for the first half of the journey, so they made very quick time. Once they crested the northern tip of Taiwan, they had to sail close-hauled, which reduced their speed. Four days after leaving Keelung, they sighted the mouth of the Tamsui River.

  They did not enter the river immediately, however. In Keelung, the Chinese had told Captain Huang that there was coral at the mouth and that he should take care, especially at low tide. He had the boat lowered, and the sailors took soundings. But once they determined where the deepest channel lay, Captain Huang gave the orders to proceed.

  After heading upriver for a short time, they sighted the fort, Santo Domingo, about a mile from the mouth on the north shore of the river. Juan was unimpressed; it was a small, quadrangular, wood fort with towers at three of the corners. These towers were flush with the wall, so they didn't provide enfilading fire.

  The village lay just outside the fort and was protected on the land side by a semicircular wooden palisade. There were two clusters of buildings, a half-dozen or so including a church, near the fort and then, after a gap, another three or four at the far end. The latter, Juan surmised, was the parian, where the Chinese merchants would live, possibly only for part of the year.

  The fort fired a warning shot, and Captain Huang signaled his little flotilla to halt. "Now what?" he said to Juan.

  "Raise a white flag so they know we want to parley. Then put down the ship's boat, and Sergeant-Major Romero and I will continue on to the town in it."

  This was done, and soon Juan and Romero were being rowed by a half-dozen Chinese toward the fort. The waters here were choppy, as the river water met the sea, but they made good time. On the shore, they could see piles of logs; Romero told Juan that the river brought down logs after every flood, and floods were common in the typhoon season.

  The boat crew secured the boat and were left behind, smoking tobacco, as Juan and Romero walked up to the gate.

  Romero identified himself, and the gate swung open. "Take me to the commander."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The commander, Luis de Guzman, was in one of the towers. They climbed up the ladder and joined him there.

  Unlike Romero, de Guzman appeared to take pains over his appearance. Whether he took the same pains over the drilling of his soldiers remained to be seen, but Juan wanted to believe that there was at least one competent Spanish officer in this godforsaken corner of the Spanish empire. Not that it mattered much, with the Spanish moving out and the Zheng family's troops moving in.

  Romero introduced Juan and then stood to Juan's side and a little behind him.

  De Guzman raised his eyebrows, plainly surprised by Romero's deference. "What brings a Manila lieutenant out here?" de Guzman asked.

  "Bad news," said Juan, and then repeated his story for the umpteenth time.

  De Guzman shook his head in disbelief. "I take it that we are transferring this garrison and its guns to San Salvador?"

  "That is true in part," said Romero. "We are evacuating everyone to Cebu in October. And the Chinese are taking over Santo Domingo and San Salvador."

  "You have orders to do this?"

  'With Manila fallen? No, but three companies are of more use to Spain in Cebu than they are in Isla Hermosa."

  "That's true, but I am glad that you, Sergeant-Major, are the one making that decision, not me."

  "While the Spanish and Filipinos will not be evacuated until October, the Chinese want them to move from the fort to the village now," said Juan.

  De Guzman looked at Romero. "Is that your order?"

  "It's part of the deal. They are providing the ships to get us to Cebu. And with supplies in the meantime."

  "Very well. I will assemble the garrison."

  De Guzman gave them the unwelcome news.

  After he had done so, Juan whispered to him, "If I may say a word?"

  De Guzman motioned him forward. Juan began by reminding them that they were soldiers of the great Kingdom of Spain and that the Spanish had overcome adversity before. They would defend Cebu and eventually retake Manila. As to the Chinese, they would keep the forts out of Dutch hands and get the Spanish safely to Cebu.

  Then he added, "such is the fame of Spanish arms that they would welcome it if a few gunners were to remain to guide them. They would be well paid, and an advance could be obtained...."

  There were no immediate volunteers, but Juan was hopeful. The Spanish army was not known for promptness when it came to paying its soldiers.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Juan and Romero returned to the Golden Venture, and that ship and its companions sailed as close to the fort as was safe and came to anchor. The Chinese soldiers landed and took over the fort, and Captain Huang and Mingyu went to the local parian to question the Chinese there about the sulfur trade.

  Juan's job was to talk to the resident priest, both about Spanish and Filipinos who might be persuaded to stay and about relations with the aborigines.

  However, there was a problem.... Father Francisco Vaez, of the Order of Preachers, had been kidnapped. Or so de Guzman believed.

  "Is he newly arrived in Tamsui? Could he have gotten lost while making his circuit of the native villages?"

  "Certainly not," said de Guzman. "He has been here since 1626."

  "What were his last known whereabouts?"

  "In Pantao. He had long resided in Senar, but thought it was time to bring the Holy Faith to another tribe. He disappeared while traveling between two of the Pantao pueblos. The people of Pantao are now very agitated. Now that you have taken over ... " He spread his hands. "It is your problem, yes?"

  "I see. Give me a description of Father Francisco, and I will take out a search party."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  First, however, Juan consulted with Domingo Aguilar, who in turn discussed the matter with his Basayan companions. They thought, Aguilar reported, that there were several possibilities.

  "Father Francisco may have offended one of the Pantao tribesmen, who killed him and then hid the body to avoid retribution.

  "Or he announced that he was planning to return to Senar, and the warriors of Pantao killed him, because they hate the people of Senar.

  "Or the warriors of Senar felt that he betrayed them by going to Pantao and went to bring him back, and when he resisted, killed him."

  "None of these scenarios sound very promising for Father Francisco," said Juan drily.

  Domingo shrugged. "Perhaps he is being held prisoner somewhere, for Pantao or for Senar."

  "Then we should search their villages," said Juan.

  Domingo fidgeted.

  "What is the problem with that?"

  "The villagers outnumber us. There are several hundred of each tribe, and only fifty soldiers in Santo Domingo. I don't know how many soldiers you brought, but there can't be many more of you. They know the land way better than we do, so it is easy for them to ambush us on the way to or from their village."

  "But they don't have firearms."

  "But they do have bows and arrows, spears, and knives. And at close range, we only get off one round, perhaps not even that, before they are upon us."

  "Let's go question the people of Pantao. Ask your Basayans to listen closely to what they say and tell us if they think they are lying or telling us only part of the truth."

  "I'll do that."

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  In the meantime, Captain Huang and Mingyu had gone to speak to the local Chinese. They were all men, and only one knew about the local sulfur deposits. Or at least only one was willing to talk about it. His name was Li Cai, and he was from Quanzhou, a Fujianese city some miles further north than the Huangs' home port of Xiamen.

  Of course, they did not immediately as
k him about sulfur. That would have signaled that the information was of great importance to them and that he could charge them for it accordingly.

  So they began by asking about his family in Quanzhou and then brought the discussion around to his reasons for being in Tamsui. Li Cai told them that he came to Tamsui each year to trade cloth, salt, porcelain, and metalware for deerskin, dried venison and deer horns. And that he had two wives, a Chinese wife back home and an aboriginal wife here in Tamsui.

  "Business is good?" asked Captain Huang.

  Li Cai tugged on his beard. "I manage to eke out a living."

  Captain Huang and Mingyu exchanged looks. Chances were, if he came often enough to acquire even a "country wife," that he was doing substantially better than just "eking out."

  "You bring the hides back to China? Or do you take them up to Japan?" Mingyu asked. She knew that the demand was greater in Japan--the hides were used to make jackets, trousers, boots, leather armor, and quivers--but of course it was a longer trip and the waters between Taiwan and Japan were very stormy.

  "I tried the Nagasaki run once," the trader admitted. "My ship was badly battered on the return and it was only by the grace of Mazu that we limped back home."

  "Where is your ship? I saw none here," said Captain Huang.

  "It is my elder brother's ship, and it is at Keelung harbor."

  "That's where we came from," said Mingyu.

  "He collects hides there, and I collect them here," their informant explained. When the winter monsoon comes, he will fetch me, and take me and my goods back to Quanzhou."

  "What about sulfur? Do you deal in that, too?"

  "No." The trader spat. "The natives know how to hunt and skin deer, so that is easy to deal with. But they don't want to do the labor of digging, let alone processing. Even when it comes to farming, they grow just enough rice to feed themselves; they don't try to produce an export crop. They are just lazy.

  "And then, suppose I get the sulfur? There's only so much you can sell to the apothecaries for medical use."

  "There's plenty of demand for sulfur for making gunpowder, surely?"