Chapter 1515: The South of the New World, No End

6 degrees south latitude, the mouth of the Potongi River in Brazil, the Portuguese colonial camp, Port Natal.

This is the northeast corner of the South American continent and the closest place to the African continent. In fact, the straight-line distance from the natural harbor of Natal in Brazil to Senar Leone in West Africa is only 3,000 kilometers. The voyage with full sails in a favorable wind only takes one month, or even shorter!

This route to the New World is much shorter than the Castilian people imagined, and it is also the absolute navigation secret of the Portuguese. In Bruno's estimation, Port Natal is estimated to be 6,000 kilometers away from the dangerous native kingdom and the great island of Sipangu in Cuba. There are no large native tribes around, and it is absolutely far away from all dangers! Therefore, this is an excellent colonial location and an inevitable transit point for the "New Atlantic Route".

According to the West African currents and monsoons that Portuguese navigators have mastered, the best time to travel from West Africa to South America should be to take the northeast trade wind and set off in autumn, which only takes one month to arrive. The return voyage from South America to West Africa should be carried out in the spring by the southeast trade wind, which takes about a month. Especially avoid the weak wind period from July to September, because the equatorial doldrums at that time will be the nightmare of all seafaring captains...

"God is witness! We will establish the first colony of the Kingdom of Portugal in the New World, the closest place to West Africa! There is no doubt that all ships from West Africa to the New World will stop at this transit colony. And I, Baron Bruno Con, as the governor of this colony, and even a noble of the fiefdom, will have unlimited future benefits for my family!..."

Four months ago, it was with such cognition and expectation that Fleet Commander Bruno arrived at the coast of Brazil with a five-ship colonial exploration fleet, full of food, crew members and immigrants. Afterwards, he only inspected for a few days, and without much hesitation, he chose this good port by the river and announced the establishment of the first colonial camp of the Kingdom of Portugal in Brazil, Natal "Christmas Port".

Then, under Bruno's order, more than 80 white immigrants disembarked and built simple fences and wooden houses with dozens of sailors who came ashore. As for Father Fayal, as the first colonial priest sent by the Lisbon Church, he took on the religious affairs of the port camp and became the actual civil person in charge of the port.

"Lord! What a desolate jungle coast, what a hard and fearless development! Father Fayal, the development of the port is left to you... I will lead two caravels to explore south along the coastline. The jungle coast in the west has long been clear, but the coastline in the south is still a mess..."

"Bless the Virgin Mary, I will go to the south to explore in person! Perhaps, we can find a safe new route, bypass those barbaric and aggressive Caribbean natives, bypass the evil and hostile Sipangu Kingdom, and go directly to Seres, the land of silk and porcelain!..."

After only one month in the development camp, Bruno left such an order, took two caravels and fifty sailors and soldiers, and launched the exploration of the southern route again. Of course, this was just an excuse he could verbally say. And some reasons that are hard to say are that the establishment of a new colony is really boring and tedious. Cutting wood and pioneering in a forest, apart from cutting wood and fishing, there is no romance at all, and there is no talk of getting rich.

So at present, there are only two carracks and a supply ship in Natal Port. As a functional ship of the Portuguese Navy, the supply ship has only two two-pound guns, which is better than nothing. And the two medium-sized carracks, the main ships of the Portuguese Navy, with six plus six six-pound guns, represent the real corner of the Portuguese naval power!

"Bang! Bang!..."

"Bang! Bang!..."

The sound of logging resounded day and night, and the camp of nearly two hundred people was full of noise. The immigrants sweated profusely and worked hard to build wooden houses. The sailors were bored and found ways to be lazy. The sporadic matchlocks were hunting by the navy soldiers, especially the one-eyed quartermaster Martim, who shot the most accurately. The meat of the long-headed American tapir is quite good, very plump. The wine-red parrot has extremely gorgeous feathers. As long as it can be brought back to Lisbon, it will definitely be exchanged for a lot of copper coins, or even silver coins...

"Woo! Woo!..."

The horn is the instrument that can be transmitted the farthest on the sea, sometimes even for several miles. When the low horn sound came from the sea, the lazy sailors were also shocked, looking at the southern coastline, and saw two sailing ships with Portuguese flags.

"Holy Mother! Two caravels... The commander is back!..."

"Quick! Send a team of soldiers to the port to greet! Others... Hurry up and work!..."

"Yes!..."

Soon, the caravels of the two exploration fleets docked in Natal Harbor again after more than three months of departure. Fleet commander Bruno stood on the bow deck, looking dusty and not looking good. It was not until he took a closer look at the colonial camp that he looked satisfied and nodded.

"Get off the boat! Land!..."

Bruno, along with the chef Ado (Harodo) and the translator and carpenter Shushu, got off the caravel and stepped onto the sun-warmed beach. The first words he said were...

"Bless you, we are finally back! Quick! Give me something to eat, preferably fresh fish soup! I am about to vomit from the natives' porridge..."

"Boss! You are finally back! How is it? Where is the end of the southern coast? Did you encounter any large native towns?..."

"Damn it! Matim, there is nothing in the south, except forests and birds, nothing at all!... This new continent of forests is incredibly large and terribly desolate, even more desolate than the southern continent of black Africa! We kept sailing south, and it is estimated that we sailed for 800 leagues (4445 kilometers) before we saw the forests gradually disappearing and saw large grasslands taller than people..."

Bruno drank fresh stream water, ate a few bites of the strange fruit handed to him by Matim, and looked at the fish soup that Haroldo had just cooked. The irritability on his face finally eased a little.

"God is my witness! We traveled back and forth for more than three months, sailed over 20 degrees of latitude, and reached 30 degrees south latitude, but we still didn't reach the end of the southern continent... I simply doubt that this extremely vast new continent has no end at all, and extends all the way to the poles! I'm afraid that the new route from the south to Seres does not exist at all! We still have to go west and face the hard bone of the Sipangu Aboriginal Kingdom!..."

"What's worse is that we sailed 800 leagues south along the coast, but we didn't even see a large aboriginal village! At most, there are some huts with dozens or hundreds of people, and they are very poor. There is nothing but food, not to mention gold and silver! We slaughtered two villages and got some cassava paste, and lost two sailors, and broke more than a dozen scimitars in vain... Damn it! The natives here are poorer than those in the southern continent!..."

Speaking of this, Bruno suddenly reacted and immediately lowered his voice. He looked at the cross in the camp, and then looked around among the sailors around, and then he breathed a sigh of relief and asked.

"Martim, Father Faria is not here? Where did he go?..."

"Boss, that annoying old guy should be in the church! Yes, that biggest wooden house! He has just converted to a native believer and is very happy. In recent days, he has been staying with the native, mumbling and saying something incomprehensible..."

"Captain Bruno, Boss Martim! Father Faria is not mumbling, but learning the language with the native. From what he said, it seems that he wants to find the native tribe and convert to the entire native tribe..."

"Convert to the native tribe? Haha! After staying here for more than four months, my brothers and I are almost moldy. If it weren't for this annoying old guy, we would have found the native village and had a good time!..."

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The one-eyed Matim had a fierce look in his eyes, holding the scimitar at his waist, and his whole body was full of murderous intent. Bruno frowned slightly, patted Matim's shoulder, and scolded him seriously.

"Hush! Matim, don't be disrespectful to Father Faria! He is a priest from the Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and he is different from those guys without background... He can have a say in the Lisbon Church!..."

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"In any case, don't offend the priest in the camp! You are absolutely not allowed to attack the natives and villages where the priest preaches!... If you want to have fun, next time I will take you out to sea and find those native villages to have fun far away... Did you hear me?!"

"Yes... I will listen to you, boss!..."

"Yeah!"

Hearing Matim's agreement, Bruno nodded. Then, he took the bowl of fish soup that Shushu carefully served, ate it in two or three bites, and signaled the other party to serve another bowl. Bruno did not eat the bowl of fish soup. He just held it in his hand with a smile and walked towards the wooden church of the Holy Cross.