"Boss! There is a native alive here! He has been pretending to be dead, but in fact he is not seriously injured... Hey! He is begging for mercy and begging us not to kill him!..."
"Huh? A survivor who is not seriously injured? Take him on board! Let's interrogate the intelligence in this area!..."
"Ah! But I can't understand what he said. He was gibbering. I don't know what he said..."
"Idiot! Ask with signs! Ask with pictures! ... By the way, isn't there that 'potato', that native guide? ... Let him come over and ask questions together, see if you can understand! ..."
"Yes! I listen to you, boss! Your majesty is really... more and more like Captain Diogo..."
Bruno smiled silently, with his hands behind his back, standing on the bow of the Caravel sailboat. He maintained a deep posture, staring at the southern rainforest on the left, and at the golden-red sunset sloping in front of him. In a stormy sea
After a long journey, he arrived at a foreign continent thousands of miles away and arrived at this mysterious forest sea that no one knew about. He really wanted to recite an immortal poem, but he didn't know what to say.
In fact, in Bruno's memory, all outstanding Portuguese captains, whether Diogo or Dias, are equally solemn, deep and quiet. This is also why a bombastic captain like Columbus is completely unpopular with the Portuguese.
reason.
At this time, the ethos of the upper class in Portugal was to use quietness, solemnity, and deep majesty as the standard for mature men. This concept of aristocratic judgment is completely different from that of Castile, Aragon, France, and Italy, but it is consistent with it.
Shinra is somewhat similar.
Similarly, at the end of the 15th century, "Os Lusiadas", which represents the Portuguese national epic, had not yet been born. And Camões' famous "pretentious" sentence that has been passed down to later generations, "Onde a
"terra a caba e o mar e?a", "the land ends here and the sea begins here." has never been created.
At the moment, Bruno couldn't find a suitable poem, so he could only stare at the sea quietly. It wasn't until the sun set and the stars rose into the sky that he seemed to wake up and gave instructions to the two most knowledgeable people on the ship.
"Navigator Pedro! The dark clouds are behind us, and the starry sky above our heads is pretty good... Measure the latitude here, be sure to be as accurate as possible!..."
"Scholar Martin! The same goes for you! Please measure the latitude of this place!..."
In this era, clock errors of more than a quarter of an hour made the measurement of longitude still out of reach. However, for the measurement of latitude, European scholars and Spanish and Portuguese navigators had relatively mature measurement methods.
Also observing the North Star to measure latitude, the Castilian navigator Pedro used his palm to record the angle, while the aristocratic scholar Martin took out an exquisite radian meter and placed it in front of his eyes to make gestures. The two of them
After repeating three average measurements, an approximate answer was given.
"Between 8 degrees and 9 degrees north latitude, slightly towards 8 degrees in the center..."
This is Pedro's answer, and it is also the limit of mental arithmetic based on the human eye.
"8.5 degrees north latitude, a quarter of a degree up and down..."
This is scholar Martin's answer, which is the result of a radian meter.
"8.5 degrees north latitude?...Hmm...This position is at the same latitude as the Lioness Mountain Range of the Southern Continent, that is, the Sierra Leone area? Then wouldn't it mean that we can go directly from the west side of the Southern Continent straight to
West, sail to this continent? That will definitely be much easier..."
"Holy Mother, let me recall this! We originally set out from the Azores Islands at 38 degrees north latitude, followed the northeast wind, and sailed southwest for two months, covering about ten thousand miles..."
"Then, we encountered a terrible storm! The northeast wind turned into a north wind... In order to escape the storm vortex, we had to change to the south and escape at full speed with full sail... After sailing randomly for a week, we suddenly discovered the offshore sea. It was simply weird and weird.
It’s just like Odysseus’ hallucination! When we first arrived at the southern coast, the latitude we measured was actually 6 degrees north latitude! It really scared everyone so much, how could we have wandered so far away?…”
Bruno frowned and reviewed the voyage of the past three months. In the first two months, he should have maintained a southwesterly sailing direction according to the records in Columbus's voyage diary.
But because Columbus set out from the Canary Islands further south, and he set out from the Azores Islands further north, the direction he set for his voyage was deliberately more southward of the two directions: west and south!
When the fleet sailed to about 25 degrees north latitude, when he was about to adjust its course to the west to find the Bahamas, which was also located at this latitude...a sudden storm forced the entire fleet to turn south, and in the end, it was even completely lost.
Direction, I don’t know how far I sailed!
The terrible storm that caused the voyage scared everyone, and the fleet was even swept away by four or five sailors! It was not until the storm dissipated, the dark clouds went away, and the fleet was able to re-measure the latitude that they discovered that they had headed south in one breath.
It has traveled more than a dozen latitudes and has long since deviated from its original route. And the water supply on the ship only has about a week left, and it will definitely not be able to reach the "Bahamas"!
Just when everyone was sharpening their knives and looking at the poor native guide "Siya" and the Castilian pilot Pedro who was asked to come... Scholar Martin was shocked to find that the color of the sea water had become significantly lighter, and the color of the sea water had become lighter.
There are some green floating objects, which is a sign that the sea floor has become shallower and the mainland is close at hand!
The result was exactly as the scholars predicted. Just four days later, they discovered a piece of land at 6 degrees north latitude. And this piece of land was so big that it seemed that it was not an island at all, but a truly vast tropical rain forest, without any records.
, not to mention the green continent that everyone expected!
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Merciful Virgin! In Columbus's voyage diary, what is the Sargasso Sea, what is the low-speed windless zone, what are the large and small indigenous islands
... Our fleet has not encountered anyone! Even the sailing distance to land is many leagues shorter than Columbus! Even if the fleet cannot measure it, I can be sure that the longitude distance we are sailing at this moment is longer than Columbus
At least 40% shorter!…”
Bruno was silent and puzzled. In fact, Columbus's first voyage was extremely difficult! He sailed straight west from the Canary Islands in North Africa at 28 degrees north latitude for more than 14,000 miles.
Finally, we arrived at the Bahamas Islands in North America, which is 24-26 degrees north. There was no storm in the process, and it did not involve the South American coast that stretches thousands of miles from east to west...
And this kind of voyage is almost the longest sailing distance between the Old World and the New World, spanning the entire Atlantic Ocean! And this unique new route, I don’t know whether it was fate’s preference for Columbus or fate.
Curse? But there is no doubt that it is a gift from fate that belongs exclusively to Columbus!
As for an ordinary captain like Bruno, he naturally did not have the special fate of Columbus. A storm, like the big hand of Poseidon, slapped him to the south! And the big net that caught him was the long South American coast.
, it is the thousands of miles of continent that cannot be avoided and cannot be crossed...
"If the longitude has only moved a little, and the latitude has reached the tropics...then where is this strange position? Is it really India?... Impossible, absolutely impossible, the longitude is completely wrong!... Or, this is
The eastern extension of Siris? But such a wild forest sea looks nothing like it!"
Bruno tried hard to recall all the navigation records and rumors, but in this position, they were all blank, as if they had never been recorded by anyone or any legend.
As Portugal's first-line navigator, he has sources within the kingdom and knows that India is on the east side of the southern continent, estimated to be between 0 and 30 degrees north latitude. Seris is further east of India, and slightly further away.
North. The Khitan is further north, and seems to have been merged with Seris. As for the Khitan further east, it is the ancient Japan of Xipan...
This series of key information was obtained by the Portuguese knight Pero da Covilhã, who had arrived in India from land. He carefully investigated and tried every means to pass it back to the Kingdom of Portugal. It can be said that it is the most accurate information obtained in the European Catholic world.
Eastern intelligence!
However, whether it is India, Seris, Khitan or Sipangu, they are completely incompatible with this continent at this location... So where is this vast land of forest and sea? It is about a distance from Xinjiang
How far away is the fertile east, the destination of the route?…
"Scholar Martin! We have been on this land for more than ten days, and you have also seen its vast forest... You have always been knowledgeable, do you have any ideas about the location here?..."
"..."
The aristocratic scholar Martin remained silent. He kept an expressionless face, but his eyebrows twitched slightly, revealing that he was not calm in his heart.
"What? Martin Scholar, we have all gone through that terrible trek storm and arrived in such a new jungle continent... Can't you let go of the little offense you committed before? If you really can't let go, I will bow my head to you.
Apologize, apologize from the bottom of my heart..."
Bruno took off his captain's hat, bowed his head, and saluted the scholar Martin sincerely. Then, he smiled slightly, pointed at the shining stars in the boundless night, and the vast shadow of the forest sea in the south, and sighed from the bottom of his heart.
"O Lord! What a splendid tropical galaxy! What a vast boundless forest sea! This is like the immortal journey of the Greek hero Odysseus. During his magnificent wandering, he saw unprecedented and unheard of magnificent sights! ... You
Say, is such a great and magnificent voyage exploration really not worth boarding a ship to experience and feel?!..."
