At eight o'clock in the morning on January 7, 1658, the Nicole and the Pride let out a long whistle almost simultaneously, and the majestic whistle immediately woke up the whole city of Macau.

People pushed their windows to look in the direction of the docks, and many people ran to the city walls and East Fort Hill to look at the sea, and people built pergolas and watched the Nicole and Pride fade away from sight......

As the Pride was the last to slowly leave the dock and join the formation ahead, the mixed fleet of four sailing ships in the center and Pride behind the Pride formed a diamond-shaped formation on the Lingding Ocean outside the mouth of the West River, and the sound of whistles, trumpets and flags on the sea began to sail south.

Pimont stood excitedly on the foredeck of the Casa Princess, listening to Captain Phillips in a rough voice giving the captain's orders for the work, and he felt a lot of emotion in his heart, for this moment, he had endured a long time, since he was rescued in Xiangzhang Bay, it had been almost a year, during which time he had gone through many setbacks, and now he, the Governor of Pimont, has finally set out from Macao with this combined fleet that went south to fight against the Timorese rebels.

A strong northeast monsoon blows from the direction of the continent with moisture and rain, dispersing the fog on the sea surface and improving the visibility on the sea, but the northeast monsoon meets the northward current of the South Ocean, which also makes the sea choppy and choppy.

At this time, in the engine room of the Nicole, people were already busy in full swing, and the operation of the three-expansion steam engine required a large amount of coal, especially in the starting stage of the fire, so there were a few more laborers in the engine room today.

Today's wind and waves are a bit big, but the advantage is that there is a big tailwind, and at this moment, all the sailboats, including the Pride, have invariably spread all their sails, and the wind immediately causes the sails to bulge forward into arcs, and the thrust formed by this makes the bow of these sailboats rise and fall in the waves.

Only Nicole could stand still in this kind of wind and waves, the steam engine made a rhythmic roar, gray-black smoke spewed out from the chimney, and the thick smoke filled the front deck of the Nicole, Captain Gu ordered the Nicole to speed up the turn, so that the hull of the Nicole formed an angle with the wind direction, so as not to affect the line of sight ahead.

At this time, a bell made Captain Gu look back at the city of Macau in the distance, and on the Guia Mountain, the bell of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Snow rang, and immediately, the bronze bell of St. Paul's Cathedral also rang out, and the bell spread more than ten miles away, Gu Jin even felt that he could faintly hear the choir's singing from the bell.

It was the children of Notre-Dame who were doing peace mass for the departing people, the church bells made the early risers open the windows to look in the direction of the pier, the people who lived in the highlands stood under the hill of Fortress Hill and looked out at the ocean, some people climbed the city wall in groups of three or five, pointing at the fleet that was slowly setting sail on the sea, at this time on the city wall of Macao, people gathered more and more, the citizens looked at the flotilla that was gradually moving away for a long time and refused to disperse, some people in the crowd shouted to the distance, and many people in the crowd couldn't help but wave to the fleet.

The sea breeze blows by, and people look at the ocean and continue to sigh with emotion, which is the admiration of the huge Nicole, the huge hull reflects a shadow on the sea, so that the sailboat that follows closely behind is like a chicken nestled under the hen's body, people point to the sea, count the once familiar ships, which are the Princess Casa, the Archangel, the Dawn, the Red Bay, and, finally, the Pride......

Obviously, in addition to Nicole, another ship that attracted people's attention was the Pride of Her Highness, her metal hull reflected the morning sun, like a golden armor, and the blue sails seemed to be smeared with a layer of gold, and the sails were blown forward by the sea breeze.

Shadowy sailors are busy on the decks of every ship, all the masts are fluttering with colorful flags, and from time to time various flags and trumpets are transmitted from ship to ship.

After a few moments, the fleet began to pick up speed, the bells in the city of Macau became more agitated, and the children in the church were still singing the Mass of Peace under the leadership of the grandmothers, until the sails disappeared into the sea and sky......

"December 1657 was a memorable time for the people of Macau, and it is still strange when I look back on that exciting time.

However, at the time, we didn't realise that the arrival of Australians was not just a business for us, but an opening to a new world......"

The above excerpt from "Zhu Beiguo's Diary", this text is not from Zhu Beiguo, the owner of the diary, but from the memoirs of his friend - Governor Bugano......

The Macanese and Portuguese joint fleet headed south all the way, and the first stop was Ambon Port.

There, four of Dergus's galleons from Caravel would join it, and then the Nicole and Pride would be the main attacking force of the sea, with eight wooden armed galleons and more than 900 soldiers and more than 300 armed sailors, and would take aim at the ultimate target, the port of Dili.

18 January 1658, Ambon Harbour.

Ambon, a small Nanyang city now only 50 years old, sits in a harbour and is known to the natives of the Spice Islands as Ambona, enclosed by a ring of low masonry walls.

Even the most hostile to these foreign "barbarians" have to admit that the city is beautifully built, especially the clean and tidy tree-lined main road that runs through the city, and the small port square outside the city gate.

At this moment, a thick smoke of alarm suddenly rose from the lookout on the top of the Sahadu Mountain outside the city, and the soldiers of the fort at the headland were immediately awakened by the shouts of the officers.

Immediately afterward, the ringing of church bells over the town also woke ordinary citizens from their sleep, and with a small commotion in Ambona, a fleet of ships appeared on the sea.

A blue sail appeared in the distant sea, and the soldiers on the battery spotted her, followed by four sailboats.

Obviously, it was not a Dutch ship, nor a Spanish ship, and the soldiers tried to judge the origin of these ships from the flags, and then they finally saw clearly that it was a Portuguese ship.

It seemed that the other side was not a pirate, but an ordinary merchant fleet, which made the soldiers on the battery breathe a sigh of relief.

Garrisoned at Ambon were Dutch East India Company mercenaries, and although they rarely saw such a large Portuguese fleet here, the experienced soldiers had confirmed that the fleet was indeed Portuguese and not hostile, because the bow guns on the deck had not even been removed, the gun doors on one side of the ship were tightly closed, and the flag of peace was hoisted on the mast.

Strangely, however, the whole fleet came to a halt at a distance, and this stop was only a morning, and the soldiers on the battery talked about it, and they were especially curious about the great ship in the lead, because it was the shape of a ship they had never seen in their lives......