Disobeying

I’m lying in my tent along the shores of Zanzibar, thinking about what the chief said. It was not what I wanted to hear at all.

He demanded that we leave his land in the morning. He appreciates how we care so much about gaining land for our nation, but he said to find it elsewhere because this island belongs to him. I argued and said that it’s hard to claim land anywhere else, either because we’ve already colonized it, another nation has claimed it, or we aren’t able to sail so far in our ships. Unfortunately, he didn’t think it through. His mind is made up that we’re leaving tomorrow morning.  

I promise that there is no chance of this nonsense occurring!  

This is the perfect opportunity to claim land for Portugal! If the natives don’t want to give up their precious village, then so be it. However, we’re willing to fight for it! We’re demanding war if need be. We are willing to fight for this land! Portugal has claimed quite a bit of land, but the more the better. Besides, I doubt the natives will be hard to defeat.  

I told the chief that if he respected our people, the natives would have a place in the colony once it got started. He actually thought about that for a minute. Unfortunately, he disagreed. He told me that he does not trust the white man and that we’d probably hurt the people. I replied, with anger in my voice, that we would only hurt his people if his hurt us. He scowled at this. His mind is made up that we’re leaving. 

There is absolutely no chance of that happening. We’re getting up extra early tomorrow morning to begin building and colonizing. About ¼ or a little less of my crew are going back to Lisbon to get more men to help us build our new settlement.  

This may shock the chief or cause a battle, but it’ll be worth it while I watch people living in the new land that I found. Besides, he’s already got a grudge against me, so there’s nothing to lose.  

Francisco de Almeida

 The natives, my crew, and I discussing the idea of me colonizing on Zanzibar.