Chapter 1374 Climb Aboard Their Boat! Fierce Caribbean People

"Lord! The islands we passed along the way all had many rivers, and this island is no exception! This tropical archipelago must have a lot of rainfall, perhaps twice as much as the Portuguese coast!..."

"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, and there are many wetlands with lush water and grass. There should be great development potential, which is very suitable for growing valuable tropical crops!"

"Uh... Scholar Martin, which are valuable tropical crops? Please tell me in detail! I can write a navigation report for His Majesty Joao..."

On the deck of the flagship, Bruno was full of smiles, and he asked the noble scholar Martin humbly with a shameless face.

In this era, useful books and knowledge are even rarer than the wealth in the market, and are only in the hands of a small number of noble elites and senior priests. With Bruno's "poor family" background, he could not access much knowledge. Without this knowledge, he would not be able to discover other wealth on these islands besides gold, silver and cloth, let alone write a report to King Joao...

"Oh! The most typical tropical crop is the sugar cane that you Portuguese have already grown 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... Oh, right! I seem to have drunk a wonderful drink from the southern continent, the Ottoman coffee (kahve), which is very, very expensive and rare!..."

"Ah! Sugar-producing sugar cane! Cinnamon and pepper!... Uh, coffee? What is that? I have never heard of it, scholar, can you Really... really well-informed! …”

“Hahaha! Bruno, it’s not your fault! Coffee is really scarce. A small bag costs one gold coin. It’s gone after one or two drinks. Only the courts of the Sultan can afford it! …And when my father was still alive, he was elected as a senator of the Republic of Venice and had dealings with the Ottomans... Ahem! 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 are the most suitable teak for shipbuilding! …”

The Portuguese exploration fleet went north along the Lesser Antilles, rediscovering and “naming” all the islands. After the “Black Oil Island” of Trinidad, there is the narrow and long Grenada Island in the bay. Then there is St. Vincent Island, where the killing just broke out, which is the “Rainbow Island” in the Caribbean people’s mouth.

Further north, the first to appear is the later “Saint Lucia Island”, 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 effects of the sulfur spring, there is a legend of "poison spring" here, which affects farming and hunting. There have never been many Caribbean tribes gathered on this island.

"Lord! This temperature? Hmm? It seems to be... the 'safflower' in alchemy, the sulfur used to make gunpowder?"

The ship docked to replenish the scarce water. Scholar Martin smelled the smell in the air and his expression changed significantly.

In the view of the secretly popular "alchemy" at this time, sulfur represents the "essence of fire" and is the "soul of gold". It is also often called "safflower" and "red king". Since it is the "soul of gold", the place where it exists is likely to have gold deposits, and even the legendary immortal "philosopher's stone"! …

"Captain Bruno! Are you sure it's safe here? If it's safe, I would like to ask you to send some people to protect me to go ashore and take a look at the spring water here!..."

"Ah! Of course! Your request is my honor! Haroldo, please bring more people to protect Scholar Martin!..."

This was the first time that Scholar Martin went ashore. Under the protection of the boatswain Haroldo, he climbed the hill at the mouth of the sulfur spring. When the bright green, yellow and blue hot springs appeared in the sailors' field of vision, everyone stood still for a long time, and once again felt the unspeakable "evil"! The pungent volcanic smell in the air was the undoubted proof of evil!

The Portuguese fleet anchored at the "Sulfur Spring Island" for two days. Scholar Martin found nothing, neither gold nor any trace of the Philosopher's Stone. The sailors were full of complaints and wanted to leave this "evil" poisonous island as soon as possible. Only Bruno was overjoyed. He recorded this sulfur-rich island in the logbook, and then set up a cross again to occupy the territory of the Kingdom of Portugal.

"May the Virgin Mary bless you, and continue to go north! The lookout saw the natives' boats going north. There must be islands in the north, and maybe there will be gold!..."

The possibility that the natives had gold once again inspired the morale of the fleet. And from St. Lucia's Iwo Jima to the north, it only took a day's sailing to reach the Martinique Island in the future!

The sun was bright and the view was very wide. When the beautiful island in the north approached, dozens of canoes and a large village of thatched huts on the seashore suddenly appeared in front of the Portuguese fleet. And at least two or three hundred Caribbean warriors, like wasps startled in a beehive, rushed out of the villages on the island and boarded the tribe's boats!

"Damn it! Why are there so many natives here? There are at least 300 men! Judging from the size of this village, there must be thousands or even more natives?... Lord! Could this beautiful island be the nest of the natives?!..."

Bruno looked surprised as he looked at the southern coast of Martinique where nearly a hundred canoes gradually gathered together. The native warriors on the ship raised their hunting bows, throwing spears and blowguns, and shouted at the two large ships that suddenly appeared. They didn't know what they were shouting.

At this moment, Bruno didn't know that he had indeed stabbed the Caribbean tribe's lair. Martinique, also known as the "Island of Flowers" by the Caribbean people at this time, is the third largest but most fertile island in the Lesser Antilles! 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. At this time, before diseases from the Old World were introduced, the entire island probably had a population of 5,000 to 10,000 Caribbean people!

This is also the center of the Lesser Antilles, and Caribbeans from various islands have the tradition of coming here regularly to intermarry! In January now, it is an important festival for Caribbean people to exchange young men and women and intermarry among different tribes!

In the original history, the Spanish's first colonization of this area was also repelled by the fierce and xenophobic Caribbean tribes. The Caribbean people survived terrible plagues and diseases, stubbornly rejected the colonists, and fought to the death 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 the story of 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 big ship for a long time, the leaders of the various Caribbean ministries did not hesitate, shouting loudly and blowing the battle conches. Some of them wear shell headdresses, some wear grass headbands, and more have purple or red hair and faces. Then, all kinds of headdresses and hair were mixed together, excited shouts were accompanied by conch horns, and the low canoes gathered into a torrent, rushing directly towards the two large ships bravely!

"Lord! Foda-se! This is really the home 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 gun on the flagship and four two-pounder guns on another ship were firing simultaneously. The ferocious artillery fire was like thunder, but on the undulating sea, this amount of artillery fire was more intimidating, and it was difficult to hit accurately.

"Ah! What happened?!..."

"Spirits! Sea sprites that can make thunder!..."

The Caribbean people's canoes were like wasps that rushed towards them. They were struck by the terrible thunder and fire and fled to various places around them. But the actual number of casualties 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 the most terrifying thunder that had ever been seen could not disperse them.

"Damn it! Why are these lingering native boats always shouting around and can't even drive away the artillery?!...This is definitely not an ordinary native tribe!...Could this be the barbaric native kingdom that Columbus mentioned? …”

Bruno frowned, watching more and more native boats. These small boats gathered around, shooting out raindrops of thin arrows and hurled stones, crackling and hitting the side of the big ship. Even though most of the attacks were in vain, there were still a few light arrows that hit the sailors on the ship!

At this time, the total number of tribal warriors on the boat may have exceeded four hundred! In a situation like this, if the natives were surrounded by small boats and allowed to climb aboard two caravel sailing ships... 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. Let these troublesome natives go "temporarily" first, and then "send them to the sky" one by one when the kingdom's naval fleet arrives. And now...

"Quick! Don't get entangled with the natives! Turn the bow of the ship and cross the sail... Let's bypass this evil island! Avoid it and go northwest!..."