Chapter 1367 Green Sea, Amazon Jungle!

"Lord! Where did we get blown to after that week-long storm? At 8 to 9 degrees north latitude, so far south, we actually encountered a piece of land, and it was a continuous tropical jungle... and the coastline of this jungle extends from the southeast to the northwest, and we have sailed at least one or two thousand miles!..."

"Damn! Is this an island or a continent? Now there is such a wide freshwater estuary, which has washed out a light-colored sea... No matter how you look at it, the upper reaches of this river should be extremely wide, and it looks like a large piece of land!..."

"Holy Mother! How can there be a hot land at this latitude? A continent that has never been seen in the maritime records, that the Kingdom’s navigators have never imagined, and that even the Castilians had never discovered before? … Could this really be India? ! …”

“Impossible! We sailed west from the Azores for only 10,000 miles, and we arrived in India? … India is to the west of the southern continent, even closer than going east from the southern continent? … How is this possible? ! It doesn’t make sense at all! … It can’t be that this is a new continent that no one knows about? …”

The gray-white shoal reflected the azure waters, and the endless green rainforest was connected on the winding coast. Here, green seemed to be the only background, with an endless sea of ​​forests extending from the swamps near the coast to the estuaries that diverged inland. Even if the lookout climbed up the tall mast and looked south, he still couldn’t see any colors other than green, and still couldn’t see any gaps in the southern rainforest!

“Bang! Bang! …”

The sound of matchlock guns shooting came from deep in the southern rainforest. It's not far away, but it sounds like it's miles away. This vast rainforest is really too dense! The leaves are all folded together, almost blocking the sky and leaving only a little bit of light. Large vines and fallen roots are also entangled together, blocking the way forward. Too many trees, grasses and vines block the view, and even the sound is absorbed by the dense leaves!

The deep tropical rainforest, this vast and deep from ancient times, is firmly dominating everything on land! Myrtle, laurel, palm trees, acacia, yellow sandalwood, Brazil nuts, rubber trees, and Amazon cedars. Whether these trees are known to the crew of the exploration fleet or not, they are still standing tall, from the coast to the swamp, from the swamp to the river, and then to another wetland swamp. And in this green that drowns everything, there are vibrant animals, each of which is colorful and has eye-catching colors that are unforgettable at first sight!

"Damn it! This endless tropical forest is so evil!... Just like what we saw in the tropics of the southern continent nine years ago when we followed Diogo!... It was a land shrouded by the devil, and the devil's curse was everywhere! At least half of our crew died in the curse of going deep into the devil's land until we met the terrible witch who was the messenger of Satan!..."

"Hiss! I really don't want to recall that kind of horrifying evil, but those scenes are always unforgettable... Thanks to the protection and blessing of the Lord! We have gone through thousands of difficulties and finally escaped!..."

Thinking of the first exploration experience in the Congo rainforest nine years ago, Bruno couldn't help shivering! At this moment, he remembered the miserable condition of his brother-in-law, the boatswain Paul, who had repeated cold and heat attacks, and the voodoo temple where he finally fell into a deep sleep. If you have experienced such an experience once in your life, it's enough! Even if you beat him to death, you never want to experience it again!

The same thing happened to the other brothers on the same boat. Seeing such a dense tropical rainforest, their hands and feet trembled and they were terrified. They really had post-traumatic stress disorder and it was difficult for them to muster up any courage to go deep into the rainforest. Even Martin, the noble scholar who was forced to board the ship and had a dead face all the time, saw such a forest and immediately remembered the devilish journey to Congo a few years ago... He also looked terrified and was determined not to go ashore!

Finally, it was another captain of the exploration fleet, the young Knight Silvera, who had never been to the southern continent, who volunteered to take the sailors to the forest on the shore to look for traces of the native villages and find the fleet's running out of water supplies...

"Boss, the crew led by Silvera has returned from the forest in the south! They still didn't find any traces of human habitation, let alone any native villages... However, they shot and killed a strange long-nosed beast at the edge of the forest. It is estimated that there are two or three hundred kilograms of meat, which should be enough for the fifty people on the two ships to eat for a week?..."

"They are back? No one is cursed?... It's impossible to eat for that long! In such a hot place, and this... It's so damp! If fresh meat is not smoked, it won't last for a week, it will go bad in four or five days at most... Eat to your heart's content! We've been hungry for so many days at sea, everyone should eat well today! ..."

"Boss, it's too damp here, it's hard to find some dry firewood and leaves! It's hard to start a fire... Otherwise, open a barrel of gunpowder for cannons? ..."

"Get lost! Gunpowder for cannons is in barrels, carefully sealed, and it will get damp if it's opened, and it won't be powerful enough to fire! ... Um... Aren't there some small bags of matchlock powder? Wrapped in small kraft paper, open a bag to start a fire! ... Hey! What kind of strange long-nosed beast is this? Even in the strange southern continent, I've never seen it before! ..."

Bruno got off the sailboat and rowed to the beach. He looked suspiciously at Captain Silveira who went deep into the jungle, and then looked carefully at the sailors who came back from the woods. He was relieved until he was sure that everyone looked normal and no one was hit by the "devil's curse" with hot and cold.

Then, he held the captain's sword at his waist and took a good look at the prey the sailors had brought back: a South American tapir as big as a deer, with an extremely long nose and a tuft of upright brown hair on the back of its neck!

"Haha! Captain Bruno, you are still too cautious! What devil's curse, what devil's altar, what devil's apostle you are talking about... Maybe you are too cautious, or maybe they only exist on the southern continent, but I haven't seen any of them here!..."

Silveira raised her head, carrying a matchlock in one hand and stepping on the South American tapir with one foot, and said with a boastful laugh.

"Haha! Although there are no people in this vast forest, it is really rich! I saw many fruit trees, and the sailors collected some of them. There are many fish and snakes in the puddles, and the sailors also caught a few... Of course, the Virgin Mary bless you! The most beautiful harvest this time is this fat deer with a long nose and this purple bird with gorgeous feathers!..."

Speaking, Silveira opened the leather bag behind him and took out a shot bird from it. The bird is about half a meter long, with feathers as gorgeous as red wine, and a slight blue arc on the edge of its wings. It is very rare and gorgeous!

And there is indeed no such bird in the entire European continent and the entire African continent. Because it is the white-winged purple umbrella bird unique to South America!

"Oh! What a gorgeous purple bird! If it is presented to the Sintra Palace, King João will definitely be very happy!..."

Since the Roman era, the pursuit of "luxurious purple" by European nobles has never changed. For purple feathers like this, the Palace of Sintra will definitely pay a high price for them. And if they are sold to a well-connected Jewish merchant, the price will be calculated in Venetian gold coins...

Bruno turned around and looked at the jungle nearby, his eyes full of vigilance, greed, desire and yearning. At this moment, he forgot about the diseases and curses of the southern continent, but remembered the ivory rewarded by the King of Congo and the gold ornaments robbed from the southern continent. That was the first big pot of gold he used to make a fortune, marry a wife and buy a house...

"Oh! Oh!..."

"Chirp! Chirp!..."

Colorful tropical birds live in the high and low trees, curiously looking at the white-skinned bipeds and big fish sailboats that they have never seen before. They chirped happily, looking around, and looking for delicious food, especially refreshing tree frogs and soft worms.

Countless bright frogs and colorful exotic insects and snakes live on every tall tree. Some of them make drum-like calls, while others quietly crawl closer. This moist and warm tropical forest is their most comfortable constant temperature home, where they do not have to endure the scorching heat of the direct sun, nor the killing intent of the bitter winter. And for temperature-changing amphibians and reptiles, this is indeed a paradise!

Further down, under the continuous sea of ​​trees, it is also full of moisture, secrets and vitality. Under the trees are either thick rotten leaves, swamps with floating grass, or accumulated puddles. And in these moist and surprising water bodies, there are also countless colorful fish, frogs, insects, and snakes.

Some fish seem beautiful and colorful, but they have cannibalistic teeth that can bite bones. Some blue frogs are as clear as crystal, but only a little venom can knock down South American tapirs. Some insects are as slender as toothpicks and are the most pervasive parasites. Some snakes are silent but extremely large, able to circle around trees several times and easily strangle people and animals...

This is the complex Amazon jungle, the lungs of the earth with rivers flowing and endless jungles! In this era, this humid and dense jungle has not been invaded by mosquitoes and flies from tropical Africa, and still retains its last richness and livability!

At this moment, in this vast rainforest, there are hundreds of thousands or millions of Amazon tribes, living in various places in the 8,000-mile rainforest in the form of loose small tribes. The sound of the explorer's matchlock gun is like a striking signal in the jungle. Attracted by this strange sound, a team of Arawak hunters, covered in thick mud and carrying hunting bows and blowpipes, suddenly stopped.

"North, at the river mouth, thunder?"

"Birds are singing, birds are flying, but they are not landing..."

"It's people! What, a tribe?"

"I don't know, let's go and see!"

The Arawak captain thought about it and changed the direction of the team. A dozen hunters walked lightly, stepping on the thick rotten leaves, and turned to the river in the north!