Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 1 | Page 4

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voayages
Bradbury School, Kaur, Jasmin - 9
As Johnny Depp said , “ Life’s pretty good and why wouldn’t it be? I’m a pirate after all!”
Well, pirates used to travel the seas looking for precious items. But in the early 1400’s a fleet of ships set sail
from China. I carried boxes and cargoes of gold, silk and other precious things for the people on board to
give away as presents. There were seven voyages by the Ming treasure fleet.
Sometimes they met nice and peaceful people and gave them the presents they had brought. In other times
they had to fight battles and deal with nasty pirates. Luckily the ships also had weapons.
But this group of travellers did a wonderful thing by winning themselves a place in history. Historians,
looking back, said China truly ‘ruled the seas’ in those days.