Bandar-e Saghi

Bandar-e Saghi
Nation:	Constancia
Population:	7,029 (1669)
Predominant language:	Babkhi, Constancian (administrative)
Main roads:
Major districts:
Current mayor:	TBC
Map versions:

Bandar-e Saghi, a port in the Varaz province of Constancia, originally occupied and settled by Raspurid forces during the Second Euran War.

Town Records

• 11.IX.1669: The following persons have been noted as resident in the settlement as of this date, having been brought to the town square, such as it is, and marked into the tax register – 1 Raspurid gendarme, 2 clerks, 1 hērbad (Zurvanite rite), 1 tavern-keeper / harbour master, 14 women of negotiable virtue, 1 tea dancer, 1 sergeant & 40 Constancian Home Guard, 242 Zinijbari fishermen, 480 Norashti farmers, 1 carpenter, 1 blacksmith, 1,010 housewives, 1,732 female youths (ages 0-12), 1,371 male youths (ages 0-12), 1 elder, 9 degenerates, 1 imbecile. Addressed the assembly to impress upon them the nature of their obligations towards the Imperial State. They did not seem overly impressed. Will send for translator in the morning. Taken room in tavern - offered fish broth and hardtack for supper. Settlement does not appear to hold out much in the way of promise.
• 12.IX.1669: 3,103 children, and no school. Practically Shirerithian. The nearest qualified medical practitioner is in Nivardom. The newspaper in the tavern appears to be Mbasanan. A red brick "Tower of Silence", set on a shallow mound half a kilometre to the south of the town, is attended by soaring swirls of vultures. It appears to be the most well frequented public amenity in the entire settlement.
• 13.IX.1669: The Raspurids once intended this settlement to serve as their main entrepôt and as a rival to fabled Nivardom and the Bassarid occupied harbours further east along the coast. So much for that.
• 14.IX.1669: The tavern-keeper, the priest, and the local gendarme, each having hitherto assumed that they were in charge of the settlement, were displeased when notified of the need to hold elections for office of mayor. The Home Guard sergeant merely scoffed and went back to filling his tobacco pipe. The elections will be held on the 20th day of next month, with the formal announcement being made by proclamation on the 20th of this month - allowing four days for the registry of candidates and then a few weeks for whatever hustling and cajoling will pass for electioneering in this scummy hole.
• 18.IX.1669: 2,000 Iteran PoW's escorted by 120 Raspurid gendarmes have arrived by barge from Nivardom. The pier is too small and the waters too shallow as to permit the barge to dock, so the wretches were thrown into the muck and made to wade ashore, all the while under the watchful rifles of the gendarmerie on the barge and the waiting detachment of Home Guard lined up along the beach. Fishing boats have been sent out to held transfer the police and their equipment from the barge to the town. The locals turned out to watch the spectacle and made an occasion of it by pelting the bedraggled and mud splattered prisoners. Sharpened sticks and cudgels have been issued to those local lads willing to assist in guarding the prisoners while they clear the ground on the portion of wasteland outside the town that will become the work camp.
• 19.IX.1669: A letter arrives. It appears that I am to be the Superintendent of Works for the port, reporting to the Civil Administrator for the Protectorate. This will at least cut out the awkward business of having to make sense of the neo-Babkhan who somehow remains notionally in charge of the wider province. I have sent a note back asking for a radio and a suitably qualified operator, which might speed up the rate of communications appreciably.
• 20.IX.1669: Another letter arrives, unrelated to the first, written on expensive paper with an ESB letterhead but unsigned. Purports to be from the "Office of the Resident" in Nivardom. Some nonsense about "tropical red clay deposits" - am I supposed to be a mineralogist now?
• 21.IX.1669:
  • There are now 1,993 Iteran labourers fit for duty. One perished during the night and six others remain stricken in their sleeping pits. Copious vomiting. Food to be withheld until they next present themselves at work parade. Water to be made available but flasks are not to be shared with other prisoners.
  • Discussions with the carpenter. He is more than willing to assist provided that we pay up front and provide timber and labour. The workers, I assured him, would be available, and offered at letter of credit to cover the purchase of timber. He regarded it dubiously and suggested that he would need to see the plans before he could provide an estimate of costs. I will need to discuss with the gendarme Sotvan (captain), but for now the carpenter will be kept on a retainer. It is slightly unfortunate that the work has begun without the conception of what it is about having been fully fleshed out first, but such is the way of things. It is better, most assuredly, that something be seen to be done.