In this utopia, of Dutch origin, the protagonist is Spanish. He has a personal slave, Peter (Pedro).
The two men are told that, centuries ago, too, a European vessel was shipwrecked on this same island and that – with the exception of the Dutch on board – the boat people were detained in a large place of confinement. Rioting and hooliganism were common, and the neighbours started to complain.
The foreigners were subsequently exiled to an even more remote place. When their number increased to an unacceptable level and threatened to overwhelm the island, an army was dispatched to kill between 8,000 and 10,000 of them.The offspring of these migrants were still living in poverty on the island in 1708 and talked in a language of gibberish. Given these shocking experiences with foreigners, the inhabitants of Krinke Kesmes are forbidden from travelling abroad on pain of death.
The protagonist catches a mosquito and puts it under a microscope. “[…] now perchance I may discover through this glass, what Knepko is.
Knepko … is some matter which, when falling upon our skin, turns into a hard swelling, like one of your Peas … and when it is not thoroughly cured, it causes a peculiar disease, which sometimes is contagious.”
(Translation by Robert H. Leek in 1997/5913)
Text online at http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/smee001besc01_01/
(The Mighty Kingdom of Krinke Kesmes, presented by David Fausett, Amsterdam/Atlanta 1995, call no. 1997/5913)