Black and gray palm crows fly in the deep blue sky, while golden, red, blue and purple stone mountains shine on the emerald green fields. Against the background of green mountains and forests in the distance, this colorful exposed hill seems to hide the divinity of the earth, which is so eye-catching.
"Is this the stone mountain where divinity exists in local legend?"
Priest Thomas walked to the edge of the colorful stone mountain and his expression became serious. He knelt down, picked up a heavy rock, and turned it over in his hands to examine it carefully. After a while, he finally came to a serious conclusion.
"Witness the Lord God! These brightly colored stones must be some kind of ore..."
Hearing this obvious conclusion, the old militiaman Chihuaco smiled and shook his head. He first looked at Ti Carlo with a questioning look on his face.
"Tikallo, in your fleet records?..."
"The records of the royal fleet do not say what kind of mountain this is..."
"Lao Pu, what do you think?"
"Huh? Well...my back hurts and I can't see clearly."
"Pooh!"
The old militiaman spat and turned to look at the divine priest, the only one among the crowd who could distinguish the ore.
"Priest Mecat, please take a look..."
"good!"
Mercat nodded and stepped forward. After searching for a while, he also took a piece of gold-plated ore, weighed the weight of the ore, and tested the hardness. Then, he stared at the slightly green color on the surface of the ore and pondered silently. After a while, he took out the small bronze hammer he carried with him, knocked some blue-green powder from the surface of the ore, and tasted it in his mouth.
"...Bitter and unpleasant. With a distinct odor...this is patina! This big mine must be a large copper mine, and the quality is not low!"
"Huh? Is it a copper mine? It's dark red with yellow, blue, purple, black and gray in color. It doesn't seem very similar to the copper mines in the southern part of the Alliance..."
When he heard that this was a large open-pit copper mine, Priest Thomas raised his eyebrows. He and the old militiaman looked at each other, both of them a little disappointed. There are large copper mines in the two southern counties of the Lake Kingdom. Higher quality red copper can also be easily obtained on the trade routes of the northern continent.
"These red, blue and purple markings... are very special. I always feel that there is more than just copper in this copper mine!"
The old militiaman thought for a while, scratched his head, and made a decision.
"Praise the Lord God! You are here, just inspect it carefully for a day, and then dig some ore back!"
Soon, the large group of warriors accompanying the team spread out and got busy. As it approached dusk, the setting sun cast its glow, and the prospecting that lasted all day came to an end.
As the Mecat priests judged, the entire mine, including several miles of surface, is a large copper ore belt. A rough judgment shows that the tonnage of this large copper mine is at least millions of tons of reserves!
Everyone's faces showed a little frustration. A remote, high-quality copper mine was nothing compared to the open-pit iron mine that the kingdom desperately desired. After all, there is never a shortage of "copper" in the vast and fertile American continent.
Little did they know that the Copper Mountain discovered by the expedition at this time was the largest copper mine on the island of Cuba, the Coba Copper Mine (Great Ining)! This amazingly large copper mine was once one of the largest mining mines in the world at the end of the 19th century, and the copper ore it contains is tens of millions of tons of high-quality rich ore!
In later generations, this large copper mine was excavated to more than 400 meters underground and still produced ore. In this era, if this large copper mine could be developed by the Ming Empire, the monetary benefits brought by this large mine would be enough to solve the financial problems that had begun to appear in the entire empire during the Chenghua period!
"Witness the Lord God! It's really a big copper mine, bigger than any copper mine in the kingdom!...Hey! What a pity!"
Priest Tomat looked around, looking at the traces of mineral belts for miles around, and sighed. Puap rubbed his waist, looked down for a long time, and then picked up a dense and heavy hard stone with black stripes from the ground and took it with him.
In this world, no one knows the true identity of this hard stone. No one could have imagined that there is another precious mineral right next to this copper ore belt, which is a gift from the Paleocene Era, high-quality nickel-manganese ore.
Yes, the Coba copper belt and the Bayamomanganese belt are geographically closely connected and even partially intertwined. According to later surveying and mapping data, the manganese reserves of the Bayamo manganese ore belt are 7 million tons.
"God bless you! Write down the location of this large copper mine in your logbook. The kingdom is expanding rapidly, and even the copper mines on the island of Cuba will soon have the opportunity to mine. The fleet can discover this uncontrolled place The large copper mine is a great achievement!"
Priest Thomas lowered his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was already excited and happy. He encouraged everyone in the fleet and looked towards the east.
"Praise the Lord God! The next target of the fleet is Guatabu, two hundred miles away in the east. We will stay there for two days, preach the glory of the Lord God, and leave the Lord God's atlas and scriptures! Then, we will go three days ahead After a hundred miles, we arrived at Cuba’s Snake Island, the easternmost part of the long snake’s pointed head!..."
"From there, the fleet will turn northwest and embark on its way home from the other side of Snake Island in Cuba! And according to the records of the Mayapan royal family, the large open-pit iron mine is just north of Snake Head in Cuba. The Mayari tribe on the side! The Lord God bless us, discover the iron ore, and embark on the return journey!"
"The Lord God bless us! Discover the iron ore and embark on our return journey!"
After hearing this, everyone became energetic and began to pray devoutly. The old militiaman Chihuaco and the Mayan businessman Tikalo looked at each other, with a flash of thought in their eyes. After a while, Chihuaco looked at Puap who was shouting happily and shouting to go home. He lowered his eyes and felt a trace of unbearability in his heart.
"Old Pu! I will not harm you after being an old friend for so many years... It's just that you always have to suffer a little more for the mistakes you make before you can expose them in front of His Highness..."
As dusk fell, bonfires were lit in the wilderness, bringing rare vitality to the mines that had been dormant for tens of millions of years. And this vitality of the human population faded away after the rising sun, and finally boarded seven dilapidated and repaired longships, heading to the easternmost part of the fertile land of Cuba.
The sea and sky are vast, and the lone sail is heading east. A few days later, the kingdom's expedition fleet passed by the powerful Guata tribe and stayed there for two days, telling the Lord God's teachings, spreading the white man's prophecies, and replenishing enough water. Guatabu is located inside the bay of a seaside lagoon. It also has abundant water resources, flat terrain, and is fed by rivers. It is a natural deep-water port.
In later generations, the location of Guantanamo had another "majestic and terrifying" name, called "Guantanamo".
Half a month later, the rains of late July continued, and the first hurricane of August was already brewing. The kingdom’s exploration fleet finally arrived at the easternmost corner of Cuba’s Snake Island. Looking towards the sea to the east from here, you can occasionally see sturdy long canoes, carrying brave Taíno fishermen, heading towards the opposite coast with cassava cubes that can last for several days.
Just across the coast, within less than two hundred miles of sea route, is a large island with a dense population and prosperous tribes. This large island is home to hundreds of thousands of Taíno people and has the legendary common ancestral land of all Taíno tribes, the Land of Waters. The name of this large island, in the mouth of the local Taíno people, is called "the land of high mountains", also known as "Haiti".
