Chapter 1,375 Climb aboard their boat! The fierce Caribbean people
"Lord! The large and small islands we passed along the way have many rivers, and this island is the same! There must be a lot of precipitation in this tropical archipelago, perhaps twice as much as the coast of Portugal!..."
"Hey! Another smoking active volcano? This should be the second volcano, right? According to records, the land around the volcano is very fertile, just like southern Italy... Well, these islands are full of tropical mangroves.
There are also many wetlands with rich water and grass... which should have great development potential and are very suitable for growing valuable tropical crops!"
"Uh...Scholar Martin, what are the valuable tropical crops? Please tell me carefully! I can write a voyage report to His Majesty Joao..."
On the deck of the flagship, Bruno was smiling and shy, and he humbly asked the aristocratic scholar Martin for advice.
In this era, useful books and knowledge are scarcer than the wealth in the market, and are only in the hands of a small number of noble elites and senior priests. Bruno's "low-income family" does not have access to much knowledge.
Without this knowledge, he would not have been able to discover the wealth on these islands other than gold, silver and cloth, let alone write a report to King Joao...
"Oh! The most typical tropical crop is the sugar cane that the Portuguese have planted in large quantities on the Madeira Islands! There are also spices produced in the southern continent. The two most famous ones are cinnamon and pepper... By the way! I seem to
I also drank a wonderful drink from the southern continent, the refreshing coffee (kahve) of the Ottomans, which is very, very expensive and rare!…”
"Ah! Sugar cane! Cinnamon and pepper! ... Uh, coffee? What's that? I've never heard of it. You scholar... you're so knowledgeable! ..."
"Hahaha! Bruno, it's not your fault! There is really very little coffee. A small bag costs one gold coin. You can drink it once or twice and then it's gone. Only those in the Sultan's court can afford it! ... And my father still can't afford it!
When I was alive, I was elected as a member of the Republic of Venice and dealt with the Ottomans...cough! Let’s not talk about this! I have to take a closer look at the trees on these tropical islands. It seems that some are expensive mahogany, and some
It is the most suitable teak for shipbuilding!…”
The Portuguese exploration fleet traveled north along the Lesser Antilles, rediscovering and "naming" all the islands. After Trinidad's "Black Oil Island", there is the long and narrow Grenada Island in the bay.
.Then there was the island of St. Vincent, known as the "Rainbow Island" to the Caribbean population, where the killings had just broken out.
Further north, the first "Saint Lucia Island" appeared in later generations, which is also a very special volcanic island. There is a "sulfur spring" here, which produces a large amount of sulfur ore. Due to the corrosive influence of the sulfur spring, here
The legend of the "Poison Spring" spreads, which affects farming and hunting. There have never been many Caribbean tribes gathered on this island.
"Lord! This temperature? Hmm? It seems like... the 'safflower' in alchemy, the sulfur used to make gunpowder?"
The ship docked to replenish the lack of water. Scholar Martin smelled the smell in the air, and his expression changed obviously.
According to the "alchemy" that was secretly popular at this time, sulfur represents the "essence of fire" and is the "soul of gold". It is also often called "safflower" and "red king". And since it is the "soul of gold"
", then where it exists, there is likely to be gold deposits, and even the legendary immortal "Magic Stone"!...
"Captain Bruno! Are you sure it's safe here? If you're sure it's safe, I'd like to ask you to send some people to protect me ashore and take a look at the spring water here!..."
"Ah! Of course! Your request is my honor! Harold, please bring more people to protect Scholar Martin!..."
This was the first time that scholar Martin went ashore. Under the protection of Boatswain Haroldo, he climbed the hill at the mouth of the sulfur spring. When the green, yellow and blue hot springs with bright colors appeared in the sight of the sailors, everyone was stunned.
After standing there for a long time, I once again felt the unspeakable "evil"! The pungent volcanic smell in the air was unquestionable proof of evil!
The Portuguese fleet anchored at "Sulfur Springs Island" for two days. Scholar Martin found nothing, neither gold nor any trace of the magic stone. The sailors were full of complaints and wanted to leave this "evil" poisonous island as soon as possible.
Only Bruno was overjoyed and recorded this sulfur-rich island in his logbook, then erected the cross again and occupied it as the territory of the Kingdom of Portugal.
"Blessed Mother, continue heading north! The lookout saw the boat of the natives going north. There must be islands in the north, and there may be gold!..."
The possibility of the natives possessing gold once again inspired the morale of the fleet. Further north from Iwo Jima in St. Lucia, it took only one day's sailing to reach the island of Martinique in later generations!
The sun was bright and the view was very broad. When the beautiful islands in the north approached, dozens or hundreds of canoes, together with large villages with thatched huts on the seaside, suddenly appeared in front of the Portuguese fleet. And at least two to three hundred Caribbean warriors, like
The wasps that were alarmed in their hives poured out of the island villages and boarded the tribe's boats!
"Damn it! Why are there so many natives here? There are at least three hundred strong men! Looking at the size of this village, there may be thousands or even more natives?... Lord! Could this beautiful island be...
The lair of natives?!…”
Bruno looked surprised, looking at the southern coast of Martinique where nearly a hundred canoes gradually gathered together. The native warriors on the boat raised their hunting bows high, threw spears and blow darts at the two boats that suddenly appeared.
The big boat was shouting, not knowing what it was shouting.
At this moment, Bruno did not know that he had indeed stabbed the home of the Caribbean tribe. Martinique, also known as the "Island of Flowers" by the Caribbean people at this time, was the third largest island in the Lesser Antilles, but
The most fertile island! There is the 1,400-meter-high Pele active volcano here. Periodic volcanic eruptions bring fertile volcanic ash, extremely high cassava output, and also support the largest tribal population in the archipelago!
In fact, this "Flower Island" has the highest density of Caribbean tribes in the entire island chain. Before diseases were introduced from the Old World, the entire island probably had a population of 5,000 to 10,000 Caribbean tribes!
This is also the center of the Lesser Antilles. Caribbeans from all the islands have the tradition of coming here regularly to have intermarriages! In January now, it is the Caribbeans who exchange young men and women and intermarry with each other.
important festival!
In the original history, the Spanish's first colonization of this area was also repelled by the ferocious and xenophobic Caribbean tribes. However, the Caribbean people survived terrible plagues and diseases, stubbornly rejected the colonists, and fought to the end when they met.
! Their tribe also persisted on the "Flower Island" and continued successfully for more than a hundred years before it was finally invaded and occupied by the French. But at that time, it was already a story in the early 17th century...
"The heroic spirits of our ancestors! They are not tribes who came to intermarry. They are invading enemies and invaders!..."
"Blow the conch! Attack and defeat them!..."
"Hoha! Climb onto their boat and eat them!..."
"Dip!...Dip!..."
When there was no reply from the ship for a long time, the leaders of various Caribbean ministries did not hesitate, shouting loudly and blowing the conch shells for battle. Some of them wore shell headdresses, some wore grass headbands, and more were dyed purple.
, red hair and face. Then, all kinds of headdresses and hair were mixed together, excited shouts were accompanied by conch horns, and low canoes gathered into a torrent, rushing directly towards the two large ships bravely!
"Lord! Foda-se! This is really the nest of warlike savages! They actually took the initiative and launched an attack on us!..."
"Quick! Load the gunpowder quickly...Fire the gun quickly!..."
"Boom! Boom boom boom!..."
Soon, an eight-pounder cannon on the flagship and four two-pounder cannons on another ship fired simultaneously. The ferocious artillery fire was like thunder, but on the undulating sea, this amount of artillery fire, more
It's still intimidating, so it's difficult to hit accurately.
"Ah! What happened?!..."
"Spirits! Sea monsters that can make thunder!..."
The Caribbean people's canoes were like wasps rushing towards them. They were struck by the terrible thunder and fire and fled to various places around them. However, the actual number of casualties from the cannons was only seven or eight people who were shot, and a dozen fell into the water in shock...
"No, they are not spirits, they are evil shamans!..."
"Do you want to withdraw?..."
"You can't retreat! There are so many tribes here! If you retreat first at this time, you will be like a timid turtle... In this year's wedding festival, you won't be able to marry a woman!..."
"Fogo! Fire!"
“Boom!…Boom!…”
When the Caribbean boats dispersed, the second round of artillery casualties became significantly less, with only a few. Then came the third round...and when there were enough Caribbean boats, even those that had never been seen before
Even the terrible thunder could not drive them away.
"Damn it! Why are these lingering native boats always shouting around and can't even drive them away?!...This is definitely not an ordinary native tribe!...Could this be the barbaric native kingdom that Columbus talked about?
…”
Bruno frowned, watching more and more small boats of the natives. These small boats surrounded them, shooting out raindrops of fine arrows and slings, crackling and hitting the sides of the big ships. Even most of the attacks were in vain.
There were still a small number of light arrows that fell from the ship's strings and hit the sailors on the ship!
At this time, the total number of tribal warriors on the boat may have exceeded 400! In a situation like this, if they were surrounded by boats and allowed the natives to climb onto the two Caravel sailboats... then the outcome would be...
"O Lord! There are four hundred native warriors, and behind them there is a large tribe of at least two to three thousand people! And these people are so fierce, they don't even say hello when we meet, and they take the initiative to attack us? It's just like the group ambushing us in Heiyou
The natives in the lake are exactly the same!…”
“Foda-se! We can’t stay here any longer! The fleet must not dock on this beautiful but dangerous island!…”
Seeing the current situation, Bruno immediately made a decision. He would "temporarily let go" these troublesome natives, and wait until the kingdom's naval fleet came over later, and then "send them to heaven" one by one. And now...
"Quick! Don't get entangled with the natives! Turn the bow of the ship and cross the sail... Let's avoid this dangerous island! Avoid it and go northwest!..."