Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 82 Duck Lake ([-])

In the early morning of September 9, the two-ship formation of the "Eagle of the East Coast" and the "Galicia Flying Fish" approached the mouth of Duck Lake in the morning light.The sea surface is a bit rough, and the breakwaters and trestles of later generations have not been built here at this time, so the boats are a bit bumpy, but this can't stop everyone's determination to land.

There was a drizzle in the sky, and a petrel fluttered its wings in the wind and rain, flying steadily along the direction of the wind.Baishui took the lead in climbing down the rope ladder on the port side net of the "Eagle of the East Coast". On the yellow-green sea below the ship's side, two flat-bottomed boats numbered 331 and 332 were swaying with the waves.

After some fearful climbing, Bai Shui jumped onto the 331 boat, but the undulating waves made him stagger and almost fell down.Bai Shui hurriedly stabilized his figure, his face was a little pale, which was caused by mild seasickness.In fact, his condition is not bad. That landlubber Leonid, worthy of his self-proclaimed title of "mainlander", is currently lying on a hammock in the dark bilge of the "Eagle of the East Coast" due to severe seasickness Gasped and groaned.

He disembarked with him, as well as some sailors on board.After they got off their own traffic boat, they began to row towards the mouth of the sea, and then began to measure the water depth and mark the channel.

331 A few more people got off the boat, all soldiers from the army.They wrapped the flintlocks and ammunition packs in oiled paper to protect them from the drizzle, and began to receive the goods from the ship.Tents, packages, food, drinking water, weapons, tools, in addition to 15 horses and 4 hounds, all these things were hoisted to the flat-bottomed boat by the sailors on the "Eastern Eagle" with a pulley block.

The entire loading operation lasted for several hours. After the personnel and cargo were fully loaded, Baishui untied the tied cables, and the 331 ship was separated from the "Eagle of the East Coast" immediately. 331 The 15 crew members on board hoisted a soft sail, which immediately swelled up under the strong southeast wind, and floated towards the shore along the wind direction and current. At this time, the 15 crew also struggled to paddle, controlled the direction, and carefully paddled towards the sea.

The waves on the sea gradually increased, and the 331 ship was moving forward helplessly in the waves. The cold rainwater hit the cabin, the oilskin raincoats, and the faces of the crew members, blurring everyone's vision.It was gray between the sea and the sky, only the occasional calls of petrels reminded everyone to fight against the wind and waves.

Floating on the sea surface are some buoys fixed to the bottom of the sea with small iron anchors, which are the navigation lanes marked for large ships.The two big ships have a deep draft, so naturally they can't sail freely like small boats, otherwise it will be troublesome if they run aground or run aground. The 331 boat naturally ignored these floating buckets, and the flat-bottomed boats with a draft of less than 1 meter were naturally unimpeded in the offshore and inner lake areas.

Two hours later, with hard work, the 331 boat finally successfully crossed the sea channel and took the lead in entering the interior of the duck lake.The water surface here is much calmer, with only some slight undulations.Looking around, Baishui could only vaguely see the lush forests in front of him and on both sides of the bank in the confused rain and fog.

Bai Shui took out a fairly accurate hand-drawn map, and took out a compass for comparison, basically confirming the approximate location now.This is the waterway between the Rio Grande in Brazil and the long sand bar on the east side of the Duck Lake in later generations. The width of the waterway is about 2-3 kilometers, and the depth of some waterways is more than 5 meters according to rough measurements, which is completely suitable for large ships.

The 332 boat came up from behind. Xu Yu, wearing an oilskin raincoat, stood at the bow and shouted: "Bai Shui, prepare to land here."

"Understood!" Baishui responded loudly, and then rowed towards the left front bank with the crew.The boat ran aground when it was about to reach the shore, and all the crew members disembarked collectively, jumped into the waist-deep lake water, chanted and worked together to push the boat ashore.

There are endless giant reeds everywhere on the shore. Many of these reeds are more than 20 meters high, which is amazing.The reeds were extremely dense, and while Baishui was waiting for the rest of the ships to dock, he led his companions with machetes to clear an open space on the shore.The felled reeds are neatly placed on the ground. These tall but extremely light withered and yellow reeds are excellent materials for simple houses.This is what many Indians in South America did. They put a few branches on the ground, and then covered them with reeds and leaves, which became their houses.Of course, this kind of house is quite simple and ugly, so that the Portuguese colonists who came to Rio Grande do Sul ridiculed that the Indian house was "worse than a rabbit hole".

Ships 332, 333, and 334 landed ashore together with a naval transport boat.Xu Yu sat down on the wet mud floor, took off the cowhide military boots on his feet, poured out the water inside, and then put them on. "Don't be dazed, the first platoon of the infantry began to guard with guns; the second platoon set up tents and looked for water sources; the cavalry platoon gathered the horses together, and didn't let them eat grass casually; the rest, cut the reeds with me, Quickly, move quickly!"

Excluding those with seasickness and physical discomfort, the four flat-bottomed boats that have landed have a total of 49 expedition members, carrying 15 horses and 4 hounds.Soon, everyone started working separately.According to the plan, after the first batch of expeditions land, they will build a stable landing point on the shore as soon as possible.Next, the navy will send manpower and supplies from the "Galicia Flying Fish" loaded with construction materials, and go ashore to establish a formal stronghold.After all, prospecting for ore cannot be done overnight. Establishing a solid base at the mouth of Yazihu ​​Lake will bring great convenience for carrying out various tasks in the future.

After roughly observing the terrain and checking the geological conditions along the coast, the naval sailors who came ashore in a traffic boat took five boats and rowed to the open sea.

It's still raining.Near the shore of the lake, there are many large and small water pools dotted among the reeds with an area of ​​about tens of acres. These water pools are all fresh water, and some of them even have fish and shrimps living in them.Xu Yu took a look and felt that the water from these pools could be diverted to one place, and transformed into a personal artificial reservoir, which would be used as a water source supplement for the stronghold to be built.But these are things that others will do in the future, and have nothing to do with them.Their only task is to assist the navy to build a primary stronghold here, and then set off from this stronghold to sail north along the Duck Lake to the famous confluence area of ​​the five rivers—the later port of Alegre to look for ore.

Of course, these are things for later, and now everyone is still covering their heads and focusing on cutting reeds and clearing open spaces.In the afternoon, the warships "Eagle of the East Coast" and "Flying Fish of Galicia", which had been moored in the open sea, carefully drove into the Duck Lake along the channel marked by floating barrels on the water surface. They were about [-] meters offshore. Drop anchor.At this time, the expedition team members on the shore had already cleared a large open space and set up military tents.

The decks of the two big ships became noisy at this time. The sailors coming and going hoisted bags of supplies from the deck to the four flat-bottomed boats. Transporting supplies and personnel, the whole scene was extremely lively.

After the boat entered the Duck Lake, it was far away from the wind and waves on the open sea, and the hull became much more stable.Leonid Fyodorovich also felt much better at this time, and he was able to get up and walk slowly on the deck.As a member of the expedition team, after seeing that his teammates had already started working on the shore, Leonid, who felt that his body had recovered a little, also tried to go ashore.He had developed a certain degree of fear of the boat, and he couldn't wait to put his feet on solid ground.

As the flow of people slowly climbed down the rope ladder, Leonid's body was still a little weak. He felt that his hands holding the rope grid were so weak that he almost fell into the lake below several times.A gust of wind blew by, and the "East Coast Eagle" with only its tail anchor swayed. Leonid was caught off guard, and his weak hands suddenly couldn't grasp the grid.At this moment, a person next to him pulled hard, slightly stopping the tendency of Leonid's body to fall. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Leonid quickly grabbed the rope ladder again and stopped his figure.

Leonid turned his head to look, and was about to thank the other party for saving him from taking a cold shower, but suddenly froze.

The man who helped him wore a navy barrel cap and a short sword marking the rank of second lieutenant gleamed on his shoulder straps.His movements of climbing the rope ladder were quick and skillful, and he was already about two figures below Leonid, so he could be seen as an old sailor.

"Although you gave me a bad impression, I still want to... thank you for your help this time, Ensign John Stone." Leonid shouted down.

"Although you are an arrogant guy, we are comrades-in-arms. I am not the kind of person who would sit back and watch a comrade-in-arms get into trouble because of a personal grudge and do nothing. Second Lieutenant Leonid Fedorovich Cavalry, you don't have to talk about this matter. It’s too serious.” The other party didn’t stop, and was still climbing down quickly, and then jumped onto the No. 331 flat-bottomed boat lightly with one step.

Four flat-bottomed boats full of supplies and some traffic boats filled with Charuya laborers headed for the shore in the drizzling rain.Just a few hundred meters away on the shore, more laborers have started working under the command of the architect.Digging ditches, leveling the land, digging foundations, etc., this virgin land, which was rarely visited before today and full of barbaric atmosphere, finally ushered in the atmosphere of civilization through the efforts of hundreds of laborers from the Eastern China Republic.

(End of this chapter)