A Timeline for Old Meos

[Will in New Haven]

A Timeline for Old Meos

Since the first mention of the mouth of the Yoola River and the triple
harbor is in the records of the Elves of Malabar, I have used the
dates that are used on Malabar (or _at_ Malabar, as the Elves of the
Isles would have it) A year is a year, fortunately, whether noted by
the Elves or Men.

In the Year of Malabar 1200 (YM 1200) Cepahlan, a captain of the Black
Fleet explored the southern coast of the Great Land all the way to
where the Eastern Impassibles meet the Southern Ocean and further, to
where the Men of Chan were founding the first little kingdoms that are
now seen as ancestral to the Empire of the Sun. His report on the
mouth of the Yoola.

“Between the Western and Eastern Impassibles lies a broad and
beautiful valley, drained by a river I have dubbed the Dancer. The
river flows into the Southern Ocean in a tropical land, where the only
people are some Goblins and Hobgoblins who flee when our ships
approach. On the West bank of the river there are three wonderful
natural harbors. In a time of calm, we beached our ships in the
westernmost harbor. It is sheltered by a two penninsulas and three
barrier islands but the passage in is broad. Across the easternmost of
the penninsulas is a second harbor. It is narrower and goes farther
into the land, bounded by yet another penninsula to the east. On the
river itself is a third harbor, sheltered by the land. Since the
Southern Ocean is plagued with huge storms, these harbors would be
very valuable if anyone settled this land.”

However, the Elves of Malabar never troubled themselves to settle the
Great Land. They considered the three harbors to be within the
territory of the Elves of the Green Hills of the Lake Country, far to
the north. And those Elves would never bother to come further south
than the site of Rivergate. .

From YM1200 to YM2100 ships of both fleets, the Black and the Silver,
stopped at the three harbors 1100 times. The River Harbor was a
convenient place to haul out and work on a ship and the other harbors
were useful places to shelter in bad weather. Even the Elves of the
Isles found some of the weather coming off the Great South Sea quite
impressive.

In YM2102 Yelminio, a Captain of the Silver Fleet, reported a
settlement of Men on the west shore of the Dancer. She said that they
were friendly and were there for the fishing, speaking of their
settlement as if it might be temporary but might not be. She talked to
them in the language of the Hoovians of the South Sea but they were
mostly not Hoovians but people from much further east in the great
land, from the Kingdom of Balorn in Sindh.

This can be correlated with the records of the Balornans, who reported
that their western fishing fleet had founded a small settlement, a
village, on a great river in the west. The date of this record is LY
208, which we can assume was the equivalent of YM2101, since there was
no settlement in YM2100 and it was firmly established in YM2102.

The Elves did not sail the Great South Sea after YM2150, so we will
rely on the histories of Balorn for the next few entries. The
settlement is mentioned in 2104 and 2109 with notes that it was
growing and that the fishing in the Flying Fish Banks was very good.
Peaceful visitation from the Hoovians was mentioned several times and
the people of the settlement are descired, in YM2400, as being taller,
heavier and lighter-colored on the average than the people who founded
the village.

In 2514 a Royal Inspector reported that the village had 1950
inhabitants, that they had 60 seafaring fishing boats that worked the
Flying Fish Banks and elsewhere in the Great South Sea and 20 smaller
craft that worked the river and the nearby shallows. There was still
some movement of people back and forth between Sindh and the
settlement and the people still claimed an informal allegiance to
Balorn.