Li You, who was disguised as a Ming merchant, suddenly looked at the Portuguese Vega y Gomes who stayed behind in some surprise and asked, "Why did they leave like this?" Don't the tea, spices, and silk on our ships look down on your Goan merchants? ”

Vega i Gomes looked at the Ming merchant in front of him and said with a wry smile: "Goa has been blockaded by the Dutch for more than 4 years, and this year a larger merchant ship can't leave Goa's port. Although the goods you bring are very good, but our warehouses are full of such goods, how can we sell them at a starting price? ”

Li You looked at the other party with some suspicion and said, "Even if you can't bring it back to Europe, don't you need things like tea, spices, and silk even for the Indians in the interior?" ”

Gomez looked to the left and right, and saw that the guards on the dock were watching them with fierce eyes, so he couldn't help but lower his voice and said: "These things are also a long story, if you are willing to pay me 15 silver coins of cruzado, plus a commission of one and a half cents on the success of the transaction, then I can tell you in detail about the current situation in Goa." ”

The owner of the ship beside Li You suddenly questioned him with some dissatisfaction: "Since there is pumping, why do you have to pay for hiring?" Are you when we first went out into business? ”

Gomes replied disappreciatively: "You have come to Goa at this time and brought these goods, are you really here to trade?" I'm a native of Portugal and have been following my father since I was 16 years old, so I can tell you whatever you want to know. I think I'm worth the price. ”

The owner of the ship still had to fight, but Li You patted him on the shoulder to stop him, and then said to Gomez: "Okay, that's it, but you take us to find a place to live first, and then take us around Goa City, is there a problem?" ”

At Li You's suggestion, the shipowner took out his money bag and said helplessly: "Pay you 5 Cruzado silver coins first, and give you the rest when we complete the transaction." ”

Gomez took the silver coin from the owner's hand, looked at him and said firmly, "Give 10 first." The owner of the ship first looked at Li You's eyes, so he reluctantly counted out 5 silver coins.

After getting the silver coin, Gomez said to Li You: "You wait for me first, I will say hello to you and the guards who manage the docks, it is not enough to have a tax collector here." ”

Watching Gomez walk towards the guards standing in the distance, the owner of the ship beside Li You couldn't help but complain to him: "Why don't we contact the members of the Restoration Committee here, looking at him as just a very ordinary tooth man, didn't we lose our money in the water in vain?" ”

Li You shook his head and said, "God knows what the situation in Goa is, let's be an ordinary businessman first." If the Restoration Council still has control of the city, they will definitely know about our arrival and will naturally come to us. But if something changes in these days, and we have now revealed our identity, it is not a good thing. ”

After Gomez came back, Li You and a dozen others followed him out of the dock square, and they had been paying attention to their guards intentionally or unintentionally, so they no longer continued to care about the movements of their group, obviously Gomes's greeting was still effective.

When they walked out of the dock square, they were greeted by a cobblestone street called Straight Street. To Li You's surprise, there were many beggars lying on this street, not only the elderly and children, but also able-bodied adult men and women, of course, all dark-skinned Indians.

Gomes drove away the children who gathered around them, and stopped several young men from giving alms, warning the employers: "Don't show your kindness here, if you really sympathize with them, don't give money directly to the church, and the church will exchange your donation for food for the beggars." If you give them money directly, you'll only get yourself in trouble..."

Li You looked at Gomes, and then ordered the midshipmen disguised as men behind him to do as the Portuguese said. When they finally got away from the beggars and children, Li You pretended to be unintentional and said to Gomes: "Has the city of Goa reached such an embarrassing situation? It looks like we're in the wrong place. I heard in Macau that Goa is the largest trading port on the west coast of India, where you can sell any goods and buy any goods that can be produced in the world. ”

Gomez tidied up the wrinkled clothes of the children, and then said to Li You with a sigh: "You didn't come to the wrong place, you just chose the wrong time to come."

See the spacious open space over there? It was originally the largest free market in Goa City, and the first thing merchants from all over the world did when they arrived in Goa was to rent a bunk to display their goods. Don't look at the fact that this open space is overgrown with weeds, in the past, this market was full of people, and even walked sideways, so as not to run into others.

You can find everything from Europe to China here, and there are things you may not have seen in your life, but you can find everything you can imagine. We even have a variety of live goods here, from black slaves to Arab dancing girls, which are by no means inferior to the Ottoman slave market.

If you don't like people, you can also find good horses from Arabia and Persia, or beautiful harnesses made by Persian craftsmen, sometimes even more than a single horse. At that time, Goa was a merchant's paradise.

If you arrive just before November 25th, you can enjoy the great feast of St. Caterina, where the Governor of the castle and hundreds of nobles who live in the area come to the church in magnificent clothes and on tall horses.

The city's inhabitants dressed in their best clothes and danced to the church to receive communion, while seminary students offered sports and entertainment.

At that time, the sacred and the depraved, the prosperous and the poor, the noisy and the quiet, the bright and the magnificent, the European civilization and the culture of the local aborigines could coexist in the city. That's why it's also called: the Rome of the East.

But since the Dutch ships roamed outside our harbor and blocked the sea routes to Europe, little by little the city has changed to what it is now..."

Li You found that the 10 silver coins were indeed not in vain, and Gomes was not only talkative but also knew the city of Goa inside out. This gave him a preliminary impression of Goa during the conversation along the way.

In fact, Goa's decline was not only due to the Dutch blockade, but also to the outbreak of the largest plague in history in 1635, as the Goan government, which was busy dealing with the blockade of the Dutch fleet, was unable to help the sick, causing the city to decline rapidly.

Hearing that there had been an outbreak of plague in the city made Li You and the others nervous for a while, but Gomez immediately explained it to them.

The plague they refer to is malaria and dysentery, the former has become a common disease of the colonists, and everyone has nothing to do, but the latter is completely man-made.

Isa Island is actually a peninsula surrounded by two rivers, so Goa is actually a small river port town. The island's loose soil is prone to water seepage, and the Goans used to digging wells in the courtyards of their homes to get water, and after the Portuguese occupied Goa, they also chose this convenient way to get water.

However, due to the rapid increase in trade, the urban population has become a large amount of untreated domestic sewage in the city, and the Portuguese, who have no concept of public health, have chosen to discharge sewage arbitrarily, thus polluting the city's groundwater.

Almost all Goan households have water storage tanks that are prone to mosquitoes and flies because of the high temperatures. This, combined with the very limited level of medical knowledge and treatment of the Portuguese, soon made the Goa region an endemic area.

As early as 1542, the city of Goa was hit by an outbreak of cholera that lasted for several years, even the wild beasts and poultry were killed. Due to the large number of sick and dead people in the city, the governor of the time even ordered that the death knell should no longer be sounded for each dead according to Catholic custom, so as to avoid panic among the residents.

In the aftermath of this cholera epidemic, the Portuguese finally began to pay attention to public health in Goa, not only diverting water from the Panjim Fountain, far from the city, but also setting up a number of hospitals.

However, as the Panjim area was built as a military fortress and a large number of troops were stationed, the water source was quickly contaminated. The residents of Goa have not changed their habit of drinking raw water, and after a hundred years, the city has experienced another cholera epidemic.

After Gomez finished explaining, he sincerely thanked Li You and the others: "If it weren't for the Chinese merchants who sent us some bleaching powder when they passed through the port of Goa later, and told us how to purify the raw water and boil it for drinking, I am afraid we would not have been able to survive this plague now." Those officials can only pray to God with the priests, and nothing else can be done..."

Only then did Li You and the others understand why when they entered the estuary before, the Portuguese soldiers who came on the boat to inspect were so polite, and it seemed that someone had left some favors for the residents of Goa, which was convenient for them.

After walking a few streets, Gomes finally stopped in front of the garden of a small two-story building and said to them: "This is my aunt's inn, and although it is not the largest in the city, I can guarantee you clean bedding and food here..."

( = )