Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 55

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voyages
ELCHK Lutheran Academy, Wan, Jove - 14
Pirates. Pirates are thieves on giant ships who blunder and kill for their own desire. In the 1400s, I had
experienced meeting and even fighting these people many times. Pirates ruled the seven seas doing all those
despicable and diabolical things just because they wanted to, but I too was also a “pirate”. On the contrary, I
wasn’t stealing or murdering innocent lives, but I did the exact opposite. My crew and I were carrying
cargoes of gold and silk and other precious items for the captain and the sailors to give away as gifts, but I
wasn’t always part of the crew, so here’s how my journey began.
Back then, I was a young boy who had a poor childhood. I didn’t have a good house to live in or a
family take care of me. Ever since my father left the family to earn money for my mother and I, we had
been very lonely ever since. Till this day he had never came back and presumed missing after a couple of
years. Unfortunately my mother died shortly after due to a deadly disease before my journey began, so I
decided to head out all by myself to live on my own by starting a new life with some new people. After I
packed my stuff in a little backpack, I journeyed off to the shore to begin my journey. When I arrived at the
docks, I saw some sailors preparing to sail off into the sea with some silk and gold. When I asked the sailors
whether I can sail along with them, they immediately declined my offer and asked me to leave. The second
I turned around and walked away, the captain of the ship asked me to come back and was kind enough to
let me journey with them, so after that I went the captain’s giant ship and started our voyage across the
seven seas.
The first couple of weeks were quite boring to say the least, there was hardly anything to see or do
in the middle of the ocean, no land no hostile threats in our way. After the first couple of weeks, we started
to reach a land which is known as India. When we arrived on the shore, we docked our ship and took some
of our goods we brought before we started our journey. Unfortunately, there were some locals who thought
we were pirates who were trying to attack them and steal their resources, so I decided to inform them that
we were good pirates who give but not steal. The locals stopped and decided to trust us, so the captain and
the sailors gave them some of our gold and silk as gifts while they return some gold for our kindness. After
we made peace and allied with each other, we setted off into the sea once again to journey to more other
places. Because of me introducing ourselves to the locals in india, the captain decided to rank me as the right
hand man of the captain, making me an important person in the crew.
Several days had passed and we are once again lost in the sea. The clouds in the sky became grey
and it started to rain, but out of nowhere came a ship full of pirates looking for gold. Not long after, the
pirates started firing their cannons at us while we secure the goods we brought with us. The captain quickly
open a secret armory beneath the ship with tons and tons of weapons stored inside and ordered us to grab a
weapon and fight back. In a blink of an eye, the captain yelled,”BRACE!” as the pirates rams our ship and
prepares to board it. I was anxious and frightened of the fighting going on, so I decided to run into the safe
room of the ship, but as soon as I opened the door one of the pirates grabbed my shirt and took me as
hostage during the battle. Fortunately, one sailor in our crew took down the pirate who was taking me
hostage and cut down the ropes that ancored us to the enemy pirate ship and started to sail away as soon as
possible. At first I thought he looked familiar, then I found out that brave man who saved me for the pirate
was actually my father. He too recognises me and we were reunited after all those years. After the dust
cleared, we found some of the bodies of our crew lying on our ship. The captain carried the bodies and
placed them on the deck of ship to remember the loss of our fellow men who sacrificed themselves for
protecting the goods we were carrying, this tragedy however didn’t stop us from journeying on, so we kept
sailing until we found another country.
In the following month after the attack of our ship, we arrived to a beautiful country known as
africa. When we settled on shore, I saw some of the greatest scenery I had ever seen in my entire life. There
were beautiful plants and trees around the land with some wild zebras walking around. After some
journeying through the jungle near the dock, we found a small village full of native people. Unlike the locals
in India, there natives were kind and let us into their village. The captain grabbed the box full of goods and