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When they disembarked from the leaky, fetid carrack, they stepped foot on a land already cleared by death’s scythe.

Downstream, conunoners and highborn captains alike could see the hot green death swirling toward their rafts and carracks and ferries, borne on the current of the Blackwater.

According to the English account there were more than 1,100 on board the carrack, when she left Loanda, of whom only fifteen were saved!

Procrastination was perilous, and therefore, with all expedition, they thought convenient to charge the town, the fort, the galleys, and carrack, all at one instant.”

Known as kraak — apparently after the Portuguese ships, or carracks, that transported it — the porcelain became extremely popular.