The sky in March is clear, like the waters near the sea, showing a distant light blue and endless depth. The bright skylight fell, and the wilderness was vast and vast, intertwined with gray and dark brown. The narrow land between the sea suddenly opened up here and extended to the east, west and north, turning into an endless desert. And some green mountains undulate in the north, extending into the depths of the desert, turning into brown at the end of the sky!
Chihuaco stood on the sand dunes along the coast, staring blankly at the vast world he had never seen before. He had never imagined that the north of the world could be so vast! The fleet has been at sea for several months, and finally reached the end of the ocean, this northern continent with no end!
"Priest Mecat, where are we now?"
"Captain, we are between 31 and 32 degrees of the North Star, 18 degrees from the mouth of the North Star of the Tulsas River, and have traveled 13 or 14 degrees!"
Mecat opened his eyes wide and looked towards the wasteland to the north and the mountains at the end of the sky. He couldn't help but marvel.
"O Lord God! We have been heading northwest all the way. In the past four months, we have traveled nearly five thousand miles! And according to the songs of the Sri people, this vast northern continent is probably still five thousand miles away!"
"Blessed by the Lord God! Such a vast land! If we can explore it, it will be a great achievement!"
Puap looked excited. He held the sun amulet around his neck tightly and prayed in a trembling voice.
"O Lord God, O Ancestor!...The tribes in the North are so barbaric, but they occupy such an endless continent! If the kingdom goes north...maybe, I, Huitu Puap, can also have the opportunity to live in this far north , be the king of a country!”
"Five thousand miles of coast, five thousand miles of land... How could there be thousands of miles in the north of the world?!"
Chihuaco muttered. It was hard for him to imagine how vast a distance ten thousand miles was. I'm afraid rowing alone will take seven or eight months, right? ... According to Pikam, where will this endless northern continent extend? What kind of scene will there be at the end of the mountains and the sea? And what kind of tribes are there in this boundless land? ...
He thought for a long time, with a hint of hidden yearning, a bit of curiosity to explore, and an inexplicable fear that exceeded his cognition. After a while, he let out a long sigh and cursed in a low voice.
"Hey! Blind God, how could you create such a large landmass with your eyes closed?... If your blind Majesty knew... I might not be able to live well for the rest of my life!"
Puap raised his head, squinted his eyes, and looked at the strong sunlight above his head. It was already mid-March, and more than ten days had passed since the battle on Shantiao Island.
That night, Old Man Qi and the captured chief, Lobster Pickham, swore a blood oath and made a promise to each other. Afterwards, Pikam told everything he knew about the situation in the North.
The Sri people occupy the coastal Sonoran Desert, and their footprints span the north, south, east and west. In the mountains directly east of them are the Opatans who established a city-state and occupied the Copper Mountain. To the northeast of them, in the distant basins and plains, was the hunting and brave Apache Alliance.
As for the north of the various tribes of Sri, there are the desert people, Tohono-Odum, who are more barbaric and cannot speak the same language. The Desert People are entrenched in the northern desert. They are similar to the Sri People, except that they cannot fish, the population is sparse, and their temperament is more aggressive. From time to time, they would go south to fight with the Sri tribe in the north of the bay and plunder food and women.
Pickam said that the desert people were even poorer than the Sri people, and they didn't even have feathered hats! The location where the fleet landed at this time was approximately the junction between the Desert People and the Sri People.
The northwest of the Sri people is the place of origin in their songs. Legend has it that there are bays, fertile soil, rivers and mountains. The northwest boundary that Sri's various ministries actually visited was a huge salt lake about five hundred miles northwest of here.
"The ancestors said that the lake water there is salty! However, there are two large rivers flowing from the north, but the river water is not salty. Farming can be done along the river, and a lot of food is harvested every year. Crops cannot be grown around the salt lake, but there are many wetlands, grass and trees With prey, it can feed many tribesmen! I remember, there is an owl song, which tells the legend of the northwest! The owl wakes up at night, hungry. He flies down from the top of the low tree and pounces on the hare and lake fish. Enjoy a hearty meal..."
When it comes to the salt lake, Pickham's eyes sparkle. All the tribes in Sri Lanka know the wealth there. However, such a prosperous place is naturally occupied by powerful tribes.
"The people who occupy the Salt Lake and the northwest mountains are the Kumeyaay! They use the Salt Lake as their ancestral home. They have the legend of the spirit at the bottom of the lake and prohibit all tribes from migrating to the lake. They are numerous, good at archery, and good at running. They are a powerful northern tribe living in houses built of branches and stone and mud! They also fish, ride reed rafts, and occasionally come to the bay. By the way, they also have extremely sharp stone weapons, and yours The dagger looks very similar!... And further to the northwest, there are the Chumash people who speak the Hokan language!..."
"Rich salt lakes, obsidian weapons? The Kumeya people to the northwest, the Chumash people further northwest?"
Thinking of these strange tribal names, Puap felt dizzy. As the fleet explored, news from countless tribes flashed out one after another like stars in the sky from the endless continent.
"Hmph! They are just small tribes with tens of thousands of people! As long as your majesty gives me a legion, I can crush them one by one and conquer them all!"
Puap looked at the northern sky, his eyes full of desire, greed and confidence.
However, he never seemed to have thought that if a war was launched, how could the kingdom support the supply of food and fodder for a legion in the desolate northern land thousands of miles away? And if these tribes fled into the rolling mountains and hid in the vast desert, how to deal with them?
Chihuaco, the old militiaman, didn't think so much. There is no greed in his heart, only awe of the vast world and persistence in his own responsibilities. He thought of his experiences in the past ten days, and before letting Pikam go, he had asked him.
"Lobster, my friend! Are these gray-white stones on the island made of guano? Can they fertilize the fields?"
"Uh, friend, what is a fertile field?"
“It’s about letting plants thrive.”
"Haha! Friends, look at this big island. It is full of gray stones, but there is almost no green. Although they are made of bird excrement, how can it be possible for plants to grow vigorously? The tribe once tried, in Plant some things on the island. However, the plants planted cannot grow at all! The priests said that there is the power of the spirit whale here, and it will kill the creatures that do not belong on the island!"
"...What about the other islands to the west?"
"It's all the same! There is no precipitation on the islands where the birds live, only the desolate gray and white, or the brown and yellow of the soil!"
Chihuaco nodded solemnly, full of thoughts. Then, as agreed, he sent Chief Pickam to the seaside of the Eastern Continent and gave him another bag of corn cakes. Because the Sri soldiers on Shantiao Island are on guard day and night, and there are small boats watching, if the fleet lands, it will definitely trigger a battle and cause unnecessary casualties.
"Friend, I will follow my oath and return you to the tribe! We are leaving soon and will no longer land in your ancestral land! The tribe in the lake, the Konkakesli people, are friends!"
"Okay! I will follow my oath and tell the chiefs of each tribe everything that happened! As long as you leave your ancestral land, you will be my friend of the lobster tribe! As for the other tribes, I will try my best to persuade them!"
Pickham held his cut right hand and made a solemn promise. The two of them were full of thoughts and touched their foreheads again. Then, Pikam carried his bag and headed south alone, heading to Shantiao Island where the tribes gathered.
Chihuaco led the fleet and continued northward to the end of the bay. Huitu Puap wanted to land in the north so that he could go back and tell his Majesty his achievements. As for the old militiamen themselves...
"I've been out at sea for so long, so let's go to the end of the sea and take a look!...I'm afraid I won't have the chance to do it again in this life after such a long journey..."
So, the fleet left the vicinity of Shanniao Island, spent two days, found the large island of northwest birds, and dug out some gray and yellow guano stones. This island is slightly long and narrow, close to the long and narrow peninsula to the west. The island is lower mountainous and drier, with no trace of green and no river in sight. The area of the island is similar to Shantiao Island.
Chihuaco looked at the seabirds that were also covering the sky on the island. After thinking about it, he gave it a new name.
"Snake Bird Island!"
Because when the fleet landed, they encountered several pythons on the edge of the island. There are birds in the sky and snakes swimming on the ground. Together they are called "Snake and Bird Island". (Isla Ángel de la Guarda, present-day Baja California, Mexico)
Subsequently, the fleet set off from Snake Island, sailed all the way north, and once again approached the Eastern Continent. They traveled north for eight or nine days, a distance of nearly seven hundred miles, until the north and south coasts turned east and west, and finally reached the end of the bay!
At the end of the bay, everyone happened to encounter a fight between a deserter and a Sri Lankan team. There were no more than seven or eight people on both sides. They stabbed each other with short stone spears and shot short arrows with wolf fangs. They fought to the death on the edge of the river, and blood flowed! The targets of their desperate fight were just two wild deer that had been hit by arrows and fell to the ground, bleeding out.
Seeing the huge galley approaching, both the desert people and the Sri people were shocked and looked towards the seaside in surprise. They were in awe and panic at the huge ship they had never seen before!
Puap stood on the bow of the boat, dozens of steps away, raised his hand and shot the leader of the desert people to death with an arrow. The desert people are almost naked, with strange lines painted all over their bodies. Only the leader has a wolf-skin headband on his head, which can be distinguished at a glance.
After looking at the number of people on the boat, the desert people dispersed and fled to the sand sea in the north. The Sri people did not chase, but looked at the big ship warily. The feathered leader whispered a few words, and then one man lowered his weapon, held the big deer that had been shot dead by an arrow, and placed it in front of the kingdom's fleet. The Sri people themselves kept a young deer that they had hunted.
Chihuaco led the warriors ashore to the sand dunes. Instead of taking the prey of the Seri people, he asked the mountain bird to translate and asked about the location.
Although Chief Sri was wary, he did not hide it. Nearly seven hundred miles away, what happened in the ancestral land in the south has not reached here at all. He replied affirmatively.
"Foreigners, this is the end of the bay, the edge of the northern desert! Going further north is the desolate northern continent!"
Hearing this, everyone in the fleet cheered. The captain had already promised that the fleet would turn back after reaching the end of the sea.
"Praise the Lord God! We have reached the end of the sea! We have reached the border of the northern continent! And this is the northernmost point of our voyage!..."
