Chapter 1369 The Great Journey of Odyssey! (Added for the Book Friend of the Leader 201705102)

"Boss! There is a native alive here! He has been pretending to be dead, but he is not seriously injured... Hey! He is begging for mercy, begging us not to kill him!..."

"Hmm? A living person who is not seriously injured? Bring him on board! Interrogate him for information about this area!..."

"Ah! But I don't understand what he is saying, it's all jabbering, I don't know what he is saying..."

"Idiot! Ask with gestures! Ask with drawings!... By the way, isn't there that 'Shu', the native guide?... Let him come over and interrogate together, see if he can understand!..."

"Yes! I will listen to you, boss! Your majesty is really... more and more like Captain Diogo..."

Bruno smiled silently, with his hands behind his back, standing at the bow of the caravel. He maintained a deep posture, staring at the distant southern rainforest on the left, and also staring at the golden red sunset in front of him. After a turbulent voyage, he arrived at a foreign continent thousands of miles away, and arrived at this unknown mysterious forest. He really wanted to chant 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, were equally solemn, deep and quiet. This is also the reason why the boastful captains like Columbus were completely unpopular with the Portuguese.

At this time, the atmosphere of the Portuguese upper class was to use quietness, solemnity, deep majesty as the standard of mature men. And this concept of aristocratic judgment is completely different from Castile, Aragon, France, and Italy, but it is somewhat similar to the Holy Roman Empire.

Similarly, at the end of the 15th century, the "Os Lusíadas", representing the Portuguese national epic, had not yet been born. And Camões' famous "pretentious" sentence, "Onde a terra a caba e o mar comea", "The land ends here and the sea begins here", was never created.

At the moment, Bruno could not find a suitable poem, so he could only stare at the sea quietly, until the sunset fell and the stars rose into the sky, he seemed to wake up and instructed the two most knowledgeable people on the ship.

"Pedro, the navigator! The dark clouds are behind us, and the starry sky above is not bad... Measure the latitude here, and be as accurate as possible!..."

"Martin, the scholar! You too! Please measure the latitude here!..."

In this era, the error of clocks and watches of more than a quarter of an hour made the measurement of longitude still out of reach. But for the measurement of latitude, European scholars and Spanish and Portuguese navigators have relatively mature measurement methods.

The Castilian navigator Pedro also observed the North Star to measure the latitude. He used his palm to record the angle, while the noble scholar Martin took out a delicate arc meter and put it in front of his eyes. After repeating the measurement three times and taking the average, both of them gave an approximate answer.

"Between 8 and 9 degrees north latitude, slightly biased to 8 degrees in the middle..."

This is Pedro's answer, which is also the limit of mental calculation by human eyes.

"8.5 degrees north latitude, a quarter degree deviation..."

This is the answer of scholar Martin, which is the result of the arc meter.

"8.5 degrees north latitude?... Hmm... This location is at about the same latitude as the Lioness Mountains in the southern continent, that is, the Sierra Leone area? Doesn't that mean that we can sail directly from the west side of the southern continent to this continent? That would be much easier..."

"Holy Mother, let me recall! We originally set out from the Azores at 38 degrees north latitude, followed the northeast wind, and sailed southwest for two months, sailing about 10,000 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 turn south and flee at full speed and full sail... After sailing randomly for a week, we suddenly found the offshore, which was so weird, just like Odysseus's hallucination! And when we first arrived at the southern coast, the latitude we measured was 6 degrees north latitude! It really scared everyone. How could we get lost so far?..."

Bruno frowned and reviewed the voyage of nearly three months. In the first two months, he should have kept the southwest sailing direction according to the records in Columbus's logbook.

But since Columbus set out from the Canary Islands further south, and he set out from the Azores Islands further north, the sailing direction he set was intentionally more biased towards the south than the west and south!

When the fleet sailed to about 25 degrees north latitude, when he was about to adjust the course to the west to find the Bahamas Islands, which were also located at this latitude... a sudden storm forced the entire fleet to turn south, and finally even completely lost its direction, and didn't know how far it had sailed!

That terrible storm that made them lost their way scared everyone, and the fleet even swept away four or five sailors! It was not until the storm dissipated and the dark clouds went away that the fleet was able to re-measure the latitude, only to find that they had gone south for more than a dozen latitudes in one breath, and had long deviated from the original route. And the food and water supplies on the ship only lasted about a week, and they would definitely not be able to reach the "Bahamas"!

Just as everyone was sharpening their knives and looking at the poor native guide "Shushu" and the Castilian navigator Pedro who was asked for him... scholar Martin was shocked to find that the color of the sea water had obviously become lighter, and there were some green floating objects. This was a sign that the seabed was becoming shallower and the continent was right in front of them!

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 land is so big that it seems that it is not an island at all, but a truly vast tropical rain forest, a green continent that has no records and is not what everyone expected!

"Merciful Holy Mother! What Columbus mentioned in his voyage diary is the Sargasso Sea, the low-speed windless zone, and the native islands of all sizes... Our fleet has not encountered any of them! Even those who have arrived on land have not encountered them. The sailing distance 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 at least 40% shorter than Columbus..."

Bruno was silent, puzzled. In fact, Columbus's first voyage was extremely ironic! He sailed straight west for more than 14,000 miles from the Canary Islands in North Africa at 28 degrees north latitude, and finally arrived at the Bahamas Islands in North America at 24-26 degrees north latitude. There was no storm and no wandering in the middle, and it did not involve stretching thousands of miles from east to west. The coast of South America…

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, is it fate’s preference for Columbus, or is it a curse of fate? But there is no doubt that it is a gift from fate that belongs to Columbus alone!

As for ordinary captains like Bruno, they naturally do 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 gives him the bottom line is the long coast of South America, a continent of thousands of miles that cannot be avoided or intersected no matter what...

"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 it doesn’t look like such a wild forest!”

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 had sources within the kingdom and knew that India was on the east side of the southern continent, estimated to be between 0 and 30 degrees north latitude. Seris, on the other hand, is further east in India and slightly north. 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 the land. He carefully detected it 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 forests and seas? How far is it from the rich east that is the target of the new 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? Scholar Martin, 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 scholar Martin sincerely. Then, he smiled slightly, pointed at the shining stars in the boundless night, and the vast shadows of the forest sea in the south, and sighed from the bottom of his heart.

"O Lord! What a dazzling tropical galaxy! What a vast boundless forest sea! This is like the immortal journey of the Greek hero Odysseus. During the magnificent wandering, he saw unprecedented and unheard of magnificent scenery! ... You Say, isn’t such a great and magnificent voyage worth boarding a ship to experience and experience? …”

Sincere thanks to the leader of "Book Friends 20170510215138321" for the reward! I will work hard to code, this is the first chapter to be updated!