November 1624

You felt so stupid. When drinking in a bar not long ago, completely drunk you signed a contract. A contract to work for the Dutch East India Company. Perhaps it wasn’t too bad, you didn’t have any work at the moment anyway. You needed some sort of income anyway

When you were on the ship, it didn’t seem as bad the first week. You got the hang of it pretty quickly and figured how it worked

But when more weeks went by. It didn’t go much better. The food wasn’t getting nicer, the fish full of salt as to keep it edible and keep from molding. Many men getting weak and ill

The crew was dying. But you had to carry on. Everyone did

Finally. December 1624

You and the crew arrived in ‘The East’, or the Dutch Indies, as it later on was called. You arrived at Batavia. You sighed, relieved. Before the captain spoke

“All right lads! Load the ship. We need pepper, cinnamon and sugar!” The captain yelled out, giving the crew an expectant look, and you knew you had to comply, you wouldn’t want to risk any trouble, or even worse, being keelhauled