Chapter 997 The Sailing Diary of the Knowledgeable Person, the First Encounter of the Unanga People, the God of the Kingdom, Dadigang!
"Witness of the Lord God! The dead giants turned into mountains and islands, and the remaining blood of the gods turned into warm springs... Is this legend of giants in the ancestral island chain the origin of the ancestors of the Unanga people, and the giant divinity bestowed by the Lord God?"
The sun emerged from the clouds, illuminating distant icebergs. Those shining rays of light are always so pure and bright, as if carrying a desirable divinity.
"The light of divinity, the light of the Lord God!..."
The knowledgeable Mickey stood on tiptoe, squinting his eyes, looking at the dazzling snow-capped mountains at noon, his face full of piety and yearning. He didn't want to move his eyes away for a long time, until tears flowed from his eyes, then he slowly closed his eyes and prayed silently in his heart.
"Praise the Lord God! Praise you, that bright and majestic divine light will always guide us!..."
The tribes on the Mexican plateau, whether they are the Mexica, Prepecha, or Tlaxcala, all have ancient legends about the origin of the sacred mountain, and they also worship the white mountain of ice and snow from the bottom of their hearts. In fact, this tradition of worshiping white mountains seems to be a common feature of plateau peoples, just like the tribes of Tubo and Himalayas in the Old World.
"Blessed by the Lord God! This is the fifth big island in the ancestral island chain. It is called the Alpine Giant 'Atka' by the Unanga tribe...Well, I have decided that this island is called the fifth ancestor island, 'Shen Gaoshan Island'! And this stretch of snow-capped mountains should be named the ancestor's fifth sacred mountain, 'Shen Gao Mountain'... Shen Gao Mountain is characterized by three adjacent peaks, one of which is extremely high, and it is very conspicuous when navigating and identifying it..."
After praying for a moment, Mickey, the wise man, wiped away his tears, bowed his head, and named the highest snow-capped mountain on this island, and recorded it in the logbook.
With the exploration fleet on the extreme north coast, all the way west, they encountered many white snow-capped mountains along the way. Some of these snow-capped mountains are far away from the sea, while others are very close, but they are all the most eye-catching signs on the voyage, and can even be seen hundreds of miles away!
Therefore, when encountering heavy fog or losing their way during the voyage, the fleet can only stop, pray and wait silently. Until the fog dissipated, the peak of guidance appeared in the distant sky, just like the guidance of the main god! …
For the sake of future voyages and for the convenience of other ships in the kingdom, the knowledgeable Mickey named these islands and snow-capped mountains according to the names of the local tribes and the order in which they were discovered, and recorded the characteristics of the snow-capped mountains as the most important reference in the chart.
"The five ancestral islands are about a thousand miles away from the first ancestral island, Unimak. However, the voyage of this thousand miles has allowed us to sail for more than a month, with an average of only 30-40 miles per day. It can be described as extremely difficult!..."
"Witness of the Lord God! Compared with the previous coast voyage at around 60 degrees north latitude, this section of the ancestral island chain's thousand-mile sea route is actually more difficult even though it is on the warmer south side, even in the warm summer and autumn seasons! The main troubles for us are, first, the inability to take advantage of the currents, and second, the constantly changing wind direction... and the third most important point is the terrible, terrible, terrible fog!..."
As I write this, the knowledgeable Mickey looks to the east, looking at the direction of the island chain, with memories in his eyes.
"At the end of August, the only four remaining longships in the fleet arrived at the beginning of this island chain... After talking with the local Unanga tribe, we learned the name of the long and narrow island connected to the mainland, 'Unimak', which is also the 'broad land' in the Unanga population..."
"Lord God Enlightenment! I'm not sure whether this is an island or a peninsula connected to the mainland? However, as the starting point of the island chain going west, I still named it Ancestral Island, 'Shen Dadi Island'. Because, on this long and narrow island, I saw a full four white peaks! Among them, three peaks are on the east side, and one peak is on the westernmost side. The four white peaks are lined up and continue in the sky. What a strange and spectacular divine sight!..."
"The entire Shendadi Island is very long, and we don't have time to investigate carefully. But here, for the first time, we met many Unanga people! For the first time, we also learned about the hot springs near the mountains on the island chain, and even heard the details of the ancestor island chain going west!..."
"Praise the Lord God! Praise Your Majesty! Your Majesty's prophecy, like so many times before, was truly revealed before our eyes!...The whole fleet was overjoyed. They lit the firestones for heating by the sea, roasted the barbecue of sea beasts, and celebrated in the open air with the Unanga tribe by the hot spring!...Ha! That was really a pious and bright night!"
The well-informed Mickey raised his head slightly, recalling the celebration that night on God's Land Island, and couldn't help showing a heartfelt joyful smile on his face. He smiled and looked at the figure not far away, his face flushed from the cold showed a little bit of embarrassment. He murmured a few words, but they would never be recorded in the sailing diary.
"Praise the Lord God! The women of the Unanga tribe are tall, strong, and white, just like the white bears in the extreme north... Lord God! Gaowa is too tall, which made me feel a little embarrassed, so I had to take her down... Her strength is too great, she looks like a senior female warrior, and it is really difficult to defeat... Maybe this is the giant divinity inherited by the Unanga people!..."
"Cough! As the priest of the main god, I must have won the final victory, spread the glory of the main god, and had an accompanying wife!... After the grand celebration, Zuvaro decided to leave a long boat and fifty warrior sailors on the island of God's Land, and build the Kingdom's 'God's Land Port' right next to the Wunanga tribe's hot spring camp! Most of those small Unanga tribes also chose to join us..."
"The exploration fleet has been traveling all the way, and has to gradually reduce the number of ships, leave the crew one after another, and build a supply port around the coastal tribes in various places...Because we need to continue to concentrate the flint and food of the fleet on the ships that continue westward, and at least three months of food must be guaranteed!..."
"And the remaining crew members will rely on the kingdom's big boat fishing nets, bronze weapons and tools, and the local tribes... to hunt and fish, cut trees and mow grass, collect food and fuel, and prepare for the long and harsh winter!..."
Thinking of this, the knowledgeable Mickey let out a low sigh. Along the way, there have been fewer and fewer warriors and sailors from Prepecha, not even a third of the crew. The remaining two-thirds were sailors and hunters recruited from various northern tribes along the route.
After all, the climate and diet of the Kingdom of the Lake are so different from those of the extreme northern coast! Except for the particularly strong warriors of the kingdom, it is difficult for ordinary Prepecha people to adapt, and they will even die of illness because of the acclimatization during the difficult voyage! The expedition fleet had to leave them in various port camps, in warm huts and peaceful settlements, allowing them to survive the first and most difficult test of adaptation.
"Lord God bless! There are many coniferous forests around the 'Shendadi Port'. Although the trees are not tall, they are very tough and difficult to cut down. The kingdom's bronze ax can easily collect wood, which shocked the local Unanga tribe a lot, just like our flint for heating!..."
"The Unanga tribe is very small, mostly dozens of people, a few more than a hundred, and at most less than two hundred. Their ethnic group structure seems to be very simple, there is no hierarchy, and there is no particularly strong tribal concept. I think that everything they do in their daily lives is to survive, to survive in winter, as the most important purpose!..."
"Therefore, when the kingdom displayed the precise bows and arrows for shooting and hunting, the large boats and nets for fishing, the bronze tools for logging, the black coal and flint for heating, and the roaring tiger squatting bronze cannons...they chose to join our settlement without hesitation, and together with our left behind crew, built a small shed of Barabara, and soon believed in the Lord God!..."
"Praise the Lord God! Although their height, appearance, and language are very different from ours, Your Majesty has a revelation. They are indeed our first lost glue man brothers! These different tribal differences, presumably, are the divinity bestowed by the Lord God, which allows them to survive in the harsh cold of the extreme north. And their joining, as His Majesty said, can greatly speed up and help the exploration fleet to complete this divinely inspired and difficult westward exploration! …"
At this point, the knowledgeable Mickey touched his chin, and looked a few steps away, his wife Gaowa, who was sitting on a rock and knitting something, was also the Unanga woman he first converted to.
"Gao Wa, it's so cold, what are you doing?"
"Huh? Ong?"
Hearing this, Bai Xiong Gaowa blinked her eyes, and looked at her husband, the knowledgeable Mickey, with some doubts.
The Unanga tribe speaks an Eskimo-Aleut language with a very simple structure. They have only three vowels and more than a dozen consonants, and often use the same monosyllable word to express different meanings. The meaning of "Weng" here is "man, husband". By the way, they are an obvious polygamous tribe, allowing taller and stronger men to pass on more offspring, thus gaining a higher chance of survival for the tribe.
"I said... um... come here!..."
The knowledgeable Mickey beckoned, and Gaowa stood up, strode to Mickey's side, and looked down at her husband.
As the strongest Unanga woman in the tribe, Gaowa is more than 1.8 meters tall, with strong arms and can fight with cubs with bare hands. And the knowledgeable Mickey next to her is only less than 1.6 meters tall, and his figure is obviously smaller. The two stood together, like a snowy white bear accompanying a prairie dog.
"Weng Weng?"
Bai Xiong Gaowa blinked her pure black eyes, and looked at the husband who was a tribal leader despite being short and thin.
According to the tradition of the Unanga people, as a symbol of the integration of the two tribes, the strongest woman has always been combined with the most powerful man. Although she doesn't know how powerful her husband is, she must be powerful if he can command so many strong fighters! She heard people say that her husband can defeat a full-grown white bear with that roaring golden magic weapon. And she can only defeat the underage bear cub with bare hands... Hey! The gap between her and her husband is really too big! …
"Well, Gaowa...what is it in your hand?"
"Ask (asx)! Strawcloth!"
Baixiong Gaowa can understand such a simple Nahua language with hand gestures. She grinned, unfolded the grass cloth she wove in her hand, and gently wrapped it around Mickey's exposed neck, which instantly warmed her up a lot.
"Eh?...Gaowa...very good!..."
The knowledgeable Mickey was stunned, touched the "scarf" made of grass on his neck, and blinked. And Baixiong Gaowa also smiled happily, and responded to her husband with a wink. She even wanted to reach out and lift her husband up, just like when she was in a good mood, she carried a pine log back to the tribe.
Of course, the Unanga people in the extreme north do not have cotton cloth. They can only use furs of various animals and "grass cloth" woven from long grass to keep warm. Just like Baixiong Gaowa, although she is tall and strong, she is also very dexterous in her hands. She can arrange traps for hunting birds and weave daily "grass tools". The knowledgeable Mickey has gradually become familiar with the characteristics of these Unanga people during his one-month relationship with Gaowa. And the reason why he called Gao Wa over was...
"Gaowa, give me my bronze box..."
"Box?…"
"Yes! The Lord God blesses you! It's the most important one!"
"Oh! Here! What is this, Weng? . . . "
Bai Xiong Gaowa nodded, and easily took out a tightly sealed bronze box from the package behind her with one hand. The box was thick and heavy, and the outer layer was coated with expensive natural rubber, so it was waterproof.
The knowledgeable Mickey took it with both hands, carefully opened the lid of the box, and then removed the thick cotton cloth that was wrapped and protected. The rolls of strong leather paper appeared in the polar sun and shone in front of his eyes!
"Blessed by the Lord God! This is the most precious treasure, the fleet's voyage records! I wrote it with my own hands, "God-Enlightened Voyage Diary"!..."