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1835 · The Shattered Congress
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Jean Laborde had been hard at work for the past year working for Lastelle on his plantation. Lastelle’s keen eye for talent soon proved to be true as Laborde got to work. His background in smithing and experience being a salesman and mechanic in the indies made him a formidable asset. He would work on the simple stoves and iron ovens that were out of shape and could not only fix them but improve them. Jeans most impressive feat was when he fixed the various boilers attached to the sugar distillery by using a cast bronze tubing he had made himself from the spare copper of an old wagon. Lastelle knew that Laborde’s talent could go far beyond his simple plantation, and for working for him so diligently Lastelle would get him a personal recommendation.
Jean had made a four days trip to get Lastelle’s recommendation. He was tired yet determined to make it because the person who needed his skill was the most important and influential person on this island; Queen Ranavalona herself. He had met with the queen a week before and they talked profusely about various issues. At first the queen was quite wary to Laborde, after all she kicked out the Europeans for a reason. But after Lastelle, who was a prominent planter among the island and personally knew Ranavalona explained his position she came to lighten her gaze upon Laborde. She was impressed in Laborde’s technical skills and acknowledging the Europeans superior technology requested Laborde to construct an industrial factory that could produce rifles, ammunition, gunpowder, and other modern weaponry. Now Laborde had set out to create a new industrial plant capable of creating weaponry. His location of choice was upon the mamba river perfect for the use of hydropower. He would utilize the river to construct a dam and then create various water wheels to harness the energy and power the factory. As months went by he gathered the manpower and materials necessary to construct this project from around the kingdom utilizing the Queens authority. The lack of modern equipment made the construction process much more difficult and grueling at times which Laborde lamented but he reminded himself that this would allow future projects to made more efficiently. By the early months of 1834 the factory was up and running with Laborde working hard perfecting the equipment and finishing his rifle designs. The queen had given him some of the local Malagasy businessmen and laborers to teach the production process. Some high ranking officials from the army also joined to view the modern weaponry. Laborde handed his own rifle design to the military commander which he took inspecting the weapon then shouldering it as if he were about to fire. As the commander gave him back the prototype he remarked “you have eliminated our reliance on British weapons and with that you have made our army the strongest on this island, even to the Europeans we will be no laughing matter”.
