-‘All free and equal individuals of the Virginia community have gathered to establish in this land a governance in accord with the Lord’s will, to exalt justice, to guarantee the rightful rights of all, and to provide protection to those in need of it.
We shall offer goodwill and gifts to all who wish to be included in our community, and all who wish to be included in our community shall return to the community the goodwill and gifts that are due.
Furthermore···’
This was the “Preamble to the Fundamental Orders of Virginia.”
To be precise, it was a “copy” of it that Lord Nemo had made and given separately to Bacon. Francis Bacon, smoking the tobacco he had learned of from Manteo at some point, slowly read through each passage.
After the meeting ended, Hewett, Harriot, Raleigh, and the others had spent days and nights clinging to the task of writing the Fundamental Orders, and all manner of strange contents had found their way into them.
A clause stating that there would be no taxes for the state to demand from individuals first, and that the state would only give gifts and receive recompense for them.
A clause stating that, since such gifts included land to cultivate, food to eat, and homes to live in, the government must without fail provide such things.
A clause stating that, because all individuals were equal before the Lord, an assembly in which all people could vote regardless of status or sex would be established to make laws and resolve various problems.
“···.”
Much of it was still puzzling and hard to accept. The customs of the Algonquians and the common sense of Europeans had mingled together, giving birth not only to the “gift system,” but also to quite a few peculiar and unique provisions.
For instance, the clause stating that when someone died, if there was no separately designated will, their property would be divided and inherited by all close relatives regardless of sex.
Unlike Europe, where patrilineal inheritance was common, this clause had arisen because a considerable number of Algonquians maintained matrilineal inheritance and even served women as chiefs. Because of this, women also possessed the right to vote.
Freedom of religion was also guaranteed. It was an unavoidable clause if Catholics, spirit worshippers, and members of the Church of England were to live together in coexistence.
Various other contents had been included as well··· but since all of them had been decided through the verdict of the assembly, they did not seem unfamiliar to Bacon’s eyes.
“···.”
Bacon set down the document he had been holding for a moment and watched the people chattering in the distance.
Algonquians, Englishmen, and Spaniards were joking with one another in a strange mixture of English and Algonquian.
They pulled weeds and chatted among themselves··· then, as if suddenly remembering something, looked far off into the distance and made the sign of the cross.
In the direction their gazes had turned, there was an excavator. The excavator was once again tearing out tree roots and splitting rocks. It seemed they were preparing fields to distribute to new residents.
Without realizing it, Bacon followed them in making the sign of the cross.
Everyone was equal, everyone was free, and everyone had what they ought to have.
The philosophers and eminent teachers of Europe would likely assert that such a community could not last long. That soon disorder, chaos, indulgence, and immorality would run rampant, and men and beasts would copulate together.
But··· as Bacon saw it.
This place was astonishingly peaceful.
And abundant.
The “Fundamental Orders of Virginia” did not operate on its own. Behind those articles, there was another authority that supervised and supported them.
Therefore, this community, like a “utopia,” could continue. This abundance could continue.
And··· it could grow even larger.
When one listened closely whenever the angel explained his tools, they were undoubtedly designed based on great scientific knowledge that man did not yet understand well. They had clearly been produced through technologies far too superior for man to possess.
But would that be true forever?
Could man not one day make such things?
-“One day, man will be able to explain everything in the language called mathematics! Surely, he will!”
“···.”
Bacon recalled the words Harriot had once spoken.
-“Ask, and I shall answer you. Seek and seek again. Strive to gain knowledge, and to awaken. Ask. That is the second commandment I shall give unto you.”
Bacon also recalled the words the angel had bestowed upon the apostles.
···Perhaps.
Perhaps the day would come when this small community would become a model for all mankind.
Perhaps one day this community would become greater than any kingdom on earth, and the seeds of knowledge Lord Nemo had sown would bloom and bear fruit of unbelievable worth.
Thinking such thoughts··· Bacon absentmindedly wrote a single phrase in his notebook.
‘New Atlantis.’
One of the first works of utopian literature, which should have been published in 1628, was now being written here.
On a hill on the eastern coast of America, in February of 1594.
“Waaaaaaah!”
A roar of cheers. When Bacon suddenly turned around, he saw a sail spread wide in the distance, bearing the image of an angel holding a saw and a lamp.
A newly built ship was being launched.
***
“Look!”
Raleigh, beaming broadly, pointed out a ship that had just been launched.
···It was a clipper.
A completed clipper. A high-speed transport ship of enormous scale by the standards of this era, capable of carrying as many as eight cannons.
The final boss of sailing ships, built with engineering plastics and twenty-first-century steel for its internal framework.
Now··· at least within the next two hundred years, no ship greater than that would appear.
With that, it would be possible to roam the Atlantic in a little under a month. If handled well, it might even be possible to reach China or India.
“The clipper is complete! That great ship has finally been launched on the shores of Virginia!”
As I thought of all the hardships we had suffered making that thing, tears welled up in my eyes too. Seriously, with just a few of those, we could transport pretty much any goods we wanted.
Since the interior had a storage hold armed with urethane foam and all sorts of equipment, it shouldn’t be difficult to deliver fruits in fresher condition either.
At last··· we had accomplished the grand undertaking of full-scale exports of American-grown grapes to Europe.
Fifteen minutes after I had hugged Raleigh and rejoiced with him, the ship reached the dock, and Vicente walked toward me with a bright smile.
“T-Truly, I have never seen a ship like this before! This great vessel will go down in history!”
Of course it would.
It was the first ship ever made using plastic, after all.
“What shall you name the vessel?”
“···Enterprise.”
“A fine name! Enterprise, indeed!”
Once I cleared away various idle thoughts, the things I needed to do came to mind.
“Walter.”
“Yes, Lord Nemo.”
“To test that ship’s performance as well, how about taking a look around the coast of North America?”
“You mean an··· expedition?”
“No. Not quite to that extent. For now, move along the nearby coast. And do you still have the map I gave you last time?”
“Of course I still have it! Though I still do not know why that map has no borders or important cities marked on it···”
Of course I gave him one with nothing marked on it. If I’d just handed over a twenty-first-century world map with words like Washington, D.C. stamped on it in huge letters, who knew what kind of misunderstanding that might cause?
“···In the eyes of the Lord, would borders drawn by man be important?”
“Ah, as expected···!”
As expected, as long as I had the title of angel attached to me, it was nice being able to make up any excuse. I patted Raleigh on the shoulder and encouraged him.
“In any case, I’m glad you have the map I gave you. Just lightly examine how different that map and the current coastline are. And don’t take too much time.”
“Of course, I shall do so! I will surely complete a successful voyage and return!”
While we were at it, we could adjust the discrepancies between the twenty-first-century coastline and the sixteenth-century coastline, and test the performance of our newly built clipper.
After Raleigh departed northward like that, we gathered again for our regular meeting.
Aside from Raleigh and Vicente, who had set sail, everyone who had received a tablet sat before me. Along with the other representatives of the settlers.
I placed before them a topographical map enlarged around North America, roughly the same as the one I had given Raleigh, and said,
“This is a map of this land.”
“···.”
“···.”
“···.”
Among them, the majority did not know the shape of the land they were living on. They gazed at the map I had put forward as if it were fascinating, then passed it around among themselves.
Only after that brief commotion ended was I able to speak.
“Among you, who knows the geography of this vicinity best?”
“That would be Manteo, of course. He has traveled the most to interact with other tribes. He has also looked at things similar to this ‘map’ the most.”
“Good. Manteo?”
“Yes?”
When Manteo asked in confusion, I held out a set of crayons to him.
“From now on, we intend to draw a map of the powers around this area. We need to determine how many forces there are around us, and compared to them, how large an area our own force occupies.”
“···Hmm, I see. It would be convenient to have such a map.”
I pushed the map toward Manteo as he answered.
“Then first color in how much of this vicinity belongs to our force in blue, and draw the other forces in red, green, yellow, and so on.”
“Hmm··· Understood.”
The territory occupied by our community was roughly Croatoan Island and the area around Chesapeake Bay. More than 10,000 people were living gathered there.
Now that we had begun a gift offensive toward the tribes in various regions, it would be best to clearly understand the distribution of the surrounding powers. We had to send envoys to each force first, didn’t we?
Well, going beyond that, it wouldn’t hurt to accurately grasp our own capabilities and examine the circumstances of our neighboring forces.
In any case, for whatever purpose, we needed a map marking the territories occupied by each force.
Though since few among the Native Americans lived fully settled lives, the markings could not be entirely accurate. But···
“···.”
“···.”
“···.”
“···Manteo?”
“Ah, yes.”
Why was he just sitting there?
“Are you considering something? We have other copies of the map, so don’t worry about ruining it and just go ahead and color it in.”
“No··· it’s just···”
Manteo looked at the map and narrowed his eyes, then turned his head toward me and asked,
“Do I color in the rivers and the sea too?”
“No.”
“Understood. Then what should I take as the standard for ‘our territory’? Also, within each force there are smaller tribes as well, so it is difficult to decide what standard to use for the power map.”
Ah, right. In America, there were no fixed states or borders.
In short, it was probably similar to the problem of deciding, when drawing a map of the early Three Kingdoms period, whether to draw all of Chungcheong-do and Jeolla-do as Baekje territory, or to mark the subordinate states within it one by one.
To draw it properly, I had to set the standard.
After thinking for a moment, I said,
“If you go west from our territory, there is the Powhatan Confederacy, is there not?”
“Yes. That is correct.”
“Think of coloring them all in one color, and color our territory accordingly.”
“Ah! Now I understand!”
Good. A map would come out soon.
First, he would color in Croatoan Island, and then Chesapeake Bay as well. To the west of that··· Huh?
“Why are you drawing a red circle there?”
“Ah, because this is the territory of the Powhatan tribe.”
“You have not even colored in our territory yet, have you?”
“Ah, that’s because···”
Swoosh. Scratch.
“···.”
“You mean, roughly speaking, the territory that acknowledges our superiority and recognizes our leadership, do you not?”
“Uh··· That’s right. Manteo, but···”
“Then, excluding that red circle just now, everything up to the great mountain range in the west would be our territory.”
Scratch, scratch.
As Manteo colored in the vast area overlapping that red circle entirely in blue, he said,
“Whew! Since the map is large, coloring it all in was rather troublesome. How is it?”
With blue crayon dust all over his hand, Manteo spoke as if he were proud.
And I··· uh···
“Uh··· so the blue is···”
“Yes. It is our territory, colored in blue!”
I saw that what is today North Carolina and eastern Virginia had been entirely colored blue. Everything east of the Appalachian Mountains.
“All the tribes within this area, except for the Powhatan tribe, will recognize Lord Nemo as Great Chief!”
···The area was larger than the territory effectively controlled by the Republic of Korea.
No wonder the resources coming in had been so enormous.
The map was created by the author Mul-uibaekjak!