A kruzado is worth about 43.6 East Coast Yuan at the latest exchange rate, which is only one-ninth of the price of immigrants in the Ming Dynasty, which is a reasonable price. Of course, at this price, it must be just an ordinary commodity, if you expect these Arabs to sell you some Persian slave girls who are all over the country and the city, then I advise you to cut off this luxury as soon as possible, it is impossible.

Even at this price, it is still more than double the cost of emigrating from Europe (about 15-20 yuan), but who will let the family sell you a slave? It was a free man from Europe, and at most he was a indentured slave for the first three years. These people are different, they are your property for the rest of their lives. However, the people on the East Coast certainly did not buy them as slaves, and it is estimated that the government council will still sign a three-year contract with them to work as indentured slaves, and they will be granted free citizen status when they expire.

The price of an adult male slave is generally around 2-3 Cruzardos, please note that this price refers to the price of the transaction in Mozambique, which means that you have to ship the person back, and the risk and cost of shipping are all borne by the buyer. After asking about the Muscat people who had about a thousand slaves in the local area and in the country, Guo Zili had the heart to buy them all, but after roughly estimating it, he felt that the money was still not enough, so he simply only wanted women and children.

The three ships of the Eastern Coast Republic Exploration Fleet were loaded with about 1,000 furs, more than 300 tusks, and a small number of weapons and armor, and less than 2,000 yuan in cash. Furs and ivory were traded from the Xhosa halfway through, and most of these things were not sold for a price by the Arabs, and the two things together might have sold for only about 10,000 yuan. However, there were about 50 suits of armor, 300 sabers, and 1,000 flintlock rifles in the cabin. These were meant to be used to explore fleets and trade with natives along the way. But it was the right time to sell to these Arab merchants. Judging by their thirst for advanced weapons, it is not a problem for this batch of arms to sell for more than 20,000 yuan.

With this money, there are enough people on the East Coast to buy hundreds of slave girls and children to go back, and the rest of the money can buy a good batch of supplies. After making up his mind, Guo Zili agreed to the Muscat merchants, and then solemnly invited the two parties to dinner, and the Muscat merchants agreed after discussing it.

The island of Mozambique is famous for its fishing grounds, which are famous for their lobsters, sea cucumbers, tuna and other seafood. The chefs aboard the battleship "Free Trade" were highly trained chefs on the East Coast. The seafood he makes by hand is full of color and flavor. Even these well-informed Muscat merchants were full of praise for eating, and the two sides chatted and ate, and the atmosphere gradually became harmonious.

More than 100 years have passed since the Portuguese colonized Oman at the beginning of the last century and occupied Muscat. These Muscat merchants were now merchants under the Portuguese colonial system, and they took advantage of their convenient status as Arab Muslims on the one hand and Portuguese colonists on the other hand to make a lot of business in the Middle East, the Ottoman and the coastal areas of East Africa.

Especially on the East African coast, the Omani people are very well-known because of the complex social formations of the region. Since BC, the Arabs have mastered the monsoon laws in the Indian Ocean. They sailed annually to the coast of East Africa to trade with the indigenous blacks. Over time, they began to set up trading houses in the area. Then gradually settled down.

Since the 7th century, a large number of Arabs have migrated from the peninsula to East Africa due to local wars and other factors. In particular, some entire Omani tribes have migrated over, forming a large Arab settlement in the coastal areas of East Africa. From Somalia to Kenya and Tanzania to Mozambique, the Arabs established dozens of city-states along the coast.

Over the centuries, these Arabs gradually intermarried with the local natives, and then formed the Swahili people of today. The Swahili people have a deep connection with the Arabs, especially the Omanis, and because they share the same religion, these Muscat traders from the Arabian Peninsula are very popular in the region.

The dinner lasted for more than two hours, and the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves. These Arab merchants from Muscat were ready to return to their homeland overnight, and they decided to collect as many "goods" as possible through some business partners from the Ottoman Empire and even Persia, and then take advantage of the Indian Ocean monsoon next spring to sail to the island of Mozambique to trade with the people on the east coast. Of course, before they left, the hundreds of Persian slave girls and a small number of children that were currently on the island were packaged and sold to the people of the East Coast. A total of more than 100 female slaves and more than 20 children were sold for only about 4,500 yuan, which was a small discount for the East Coasters, of course, the East Coast people paid not cash, but furs and ivory.

After the Arabs left, the Exploratory Fleet of the Eastern Republic spent another day in the port of Mozambique, and then on 2 October, it pulled anchor and departed, heading north-easterly towards the Antsiranana region at the northern tip of the island of Madagascar.

Before setting out, they hired two Portuguese guides on the island of Mozambique, who were familiar with the waters around the Mozambique Channel and had a lot of sailing experience, and one of them had even sailed to India. Hiring them can greatly speed up the East Coaster's exploration of the route for a paltry amount of money.

Five days later, on October 7, 1638, the exploration fleet of the Republic of China on the east coast of China crossed the inlet channel no more than 1,000 meters wide and sailed into the calm Antsiranana Bay. The entire Coast of Antsiraana is almost entirely natural deep water, and the fleet sails slowly along the southern coast. As far as the eye can see, there are lush forests dotted with ponds and miniature lakes where waterfowl fly around.

However, such a scene is very worrying in Guo Zili's view. For no other reason, this place has a tropical rainforest climate. Not to mention the humid climate, there are so many ponds and lakes on the shore, isn't this a natural breeding ground for mosquitoes? You must know that if you are bitten by a mosquito in this place, you can get malaria. In the era of lack of specific medicines, the mortality rate of this vicious disease was very high, and people were also very painful in the process of onset.

Malaria was a terrible disease for the European colonizers of this era. For example, in the Angola region colonized by the Portuguese, there are many records of early Portuguese colonists dying of the plague, which actually refers to malaria. At this time, Europeans only knew the severity of malaria, but they did not know that the main vector of the disease was mosquitoes, and they even thought that the disease was caused by breathing air with germs, which was similar to the "miasma" said by the Chinese in ancient times.

It can be said that the disease has hindered the process of global colonization by Europeans to a considerable extent, and they often do not dare to penetrate into some of the more primitive inland areas, where mosquitoes are mostly infested. Don't doubt the power of this disease, which still kills millions of people every year in the 21st century. This shows how painful and dangerous it was for people who suffered from this disease in the 17th century, when there was a shortage of medical treatment.

As for how to treat this disease, apart from the East coasters at this time, probably only some Spaniards and indigenous Indians in Peru knew about it. They ground the bark of the cinchona tree into a powder and then took it orally, which was very effective in treating malaria. The locals agreed not to divulge the secret, and violators were hanged.

Of course, for the traverser, they have a relatively clear idea of the ins and outs of the disease and how to treat it. At least they know that the vector of this disease is mosquitoes, so they can prevent it in a targeted manner; Moreover, this kind of occurrence occurs in tropical and subtropical hot and humid regions, so you need to be extra careful when going to these places; Finally, they also learned that Quinine had a special effect on the treatment of this disease.

Guo Zili's captain's room had a few packets of precious cinchona bark powder in place at the moment. The bark of the cinchona tree contains quinine, an antimalarial ingredient, but the Travelers currently lack the knowledge to isolate and refine quinine, so they can only take it all like the Indians. Unfortunately, it takes at least six years for a cinchona tree to grow, and the climate around the local town of Ping'an is relatively warm, and the seedlings and seeds of the cinchona trees brought back from the Andes are planted there. Until now, these precious trees have not grown up, and they can't regularly pick their bark to make medicines, and they can't synthesize quinine artificially, which is a pity.

The cinchona bark powder in Guo Zili's hands was obtained by the Executive Committee at a great cost from the Araucan rebels in Chile. Almost every bag of powder is worth the price of an 8-pound cannon, and it can only be said that the drug is as valuable as gold.

Looking at this land full of primitive and wild atmosphere, Guo Zili was silent for a long time. In such a place, even if we prepare in advance and have some treatment drugs, if we really develop it, the mortality rate will still be alarmingly high. And now the most lacking thing on the east coast is the population, everyone is precious, can not withstand random consumption, is it worth it to fill a large number of precious human lives in such an enclave far from the mainland?

The port is indeed a natural and excellent deep-water port, and the geographical location is excellent, which is the most suitable as a military port from a military point of view. It is no wonder that later generations of French people took a fancy to this place and used it as their own naval base, and indeed its own conditions were too superior. It's just that this is a tropical rainforest climate, not much cooler and drier in the mainland and South Africa, where the climate is quite hot and humid, and the annual precipitation is very high. With the current level of medical and health care in the East Coast Republic of China, I am afraid that it will not be able to control such a harsh environment. If you're going to force the development, then I'm sorry, but please be prepared for a large number of deaths. And this is precisely what the Eastern Republic cannot afford today. (To be continued......)