Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 313

New tales of the Ming Voyages
Korean International School Springboard, De Groot, Leonardo - 14
One day a captain in the ocean told me a tale about 616 years ago in the dynasty of Ming. He told me
that China had lots of men that had traveled all across the great ocean. In China, there was a large fleet that
carried lots of treasure to trade for other resources that they didn’t have. They traded for a giraffe, crocodile
and all the animals that they did not have. The captain told me that this is what they would get… Now this
is where the real story starts. One day when Ming the king was still in power he asked some men to make a
fleet of boats to sail all over the ocean and the main reason the ships set off was so they could make friends
with other countries and trade different things. They did sometimes take out their weapons to conquer
lands, but they were mostly friendly. One day as they sailed on the sea they saw land not far away. They
sailed to it and it took weeks to arrive at the shore. After they asked could they trade some of the things that
they didn’t have? But the people said “Yesterday, a man arrived at our village and then we traded our goods,
and treasure. We traded for hours, I even traded my boat for a box of chips”.
Later when they were on the sea, they saw land. On that land, they saw no one so they went on shore and
started to find treasure. Then they arrived at a mountainside and saw something shiny. They took out their
mining tools and started mining until they got all the shiny things and loaded them onto the ships. Then
they sailed to another island to gather loot and treasure and traded with some men. The captain sailed across
the sea to yet another island and began to trade with some men. They traded an elephant for some food,
herbs, medicine, gold, rubies, and some diamonds. The elephant was too big for the boat and as they set off
for the next island the boat sank and all the people drowned. The elephant was ok though, because
elephants are good swimmers.
The Treasure on the Spaceship
Korean International School Springboard, Lee, Hae Chan - 13
One day in the space center headquarters the Captain launched his space craft to trade treasure with other
planets. Onboard the spacecraft was the Captain and an army of soldiers to fight any invaders. They traveled
north to search for treasure using a telescope. Their plan was to dig silver and diamonds in space. After they
had dug enough silver and diamonds they went further into space. When they arrived on a planet the
captain used his sword to point at one of the space center enemies who were on the planet. They said, “No
way! You will never ever rob our treasures.” The Captain said, “Don’t feel scared. We are not here to
threaten you. We want to trade treasure. We don’t want to invade you, trust us.” The enemy said, “Ok you
are free to go for the rest of the day. Then at the end of today you must go back to digging silver and
diamonds in space.” All of the captain’s soldiers said “Ok” but when the enemies went away they took the
treasure off their enemies and ran back to their ship and went back to travel to their space center. When
they got back to their headquarters they looked at all the treasures they had stolen. There was shiny gold
coins and jewels. All of the soldiers really loved it. It was the best treasure anyone had ever seen. The captain
didn’t want the treasure because he didn’t like stolen things he wanted to trade with the enemies. Actually
the Captain thought the other planet enemies looked like robbers and criminals but he was an honest man.
The Captain also had a good mind towards the poor. He wanted to trade. The Captain was a famous leader
in space. He was the leader of the space center for about 50 years.