Half a month has passed in a flash.

During this period, four sailing ships from the mainland, a fleet of ships that transported migrants to the Southern Cone via the South Pacific route, docked at the port. They brought some cement, lime, farm tools, seeds, foodstuffs, machine parts and other materials from the mainland, and even a ship loaded with hundreds of tons of coal from the Black Mountain coal mine. These supplies will be stored in warehouses on the island of Zài to supply local construction and repair of ships. It can be seen that the mainland attaches more and more importance to Tahiti, an important intermediate node.

In addition to the supplies, about forty or fifty technicians from all walks of life arrived here. Among them are students from the Corps Fort, students from shipyards and mechanical engineering schools, and some experienced masters who are drawn directly from the workshop, these people will be combined with the last batch of technicians who arrived here, and then recruit some clever apprentices in the local area, which will form the local industrial base, and can almost run some extremely basic factories.

"With these technicians, plus two or three thousand immigrants, we can almost gain a foothold around Jinhua Port." Zhang Jinhua stood on a wooden guard tower outside the city, looking at the nearby grass and trees with high spirits.

Jinhua Port is the later Afa Ashiti, and the lagoon bay surrounded by coral reefs in front is also called Jinhua Lake or Jinhua Bay. It can be seen that this is named after him - which of course has been approved by the Executive Committee - and he himself is the commissioner of the South Pacific route appointed by the Executive Committee, responsible for the construction of various nodes on the South Pacific migration route, and is temporarily stationed on Tahiti Island.

The newly built port city is located on a coastal impingement plain. Nearby is a large area of primeval forest. There are lagoons on both the north and south sides. To the west are towering mountain peaks. The climate is warm and the sea breeze is blowing, except that it is too humid, the living environment is still quite good, at least not as hot as expected, perhaps because of the southeast wind that blows here all year round.

Formed by volcanic ash brought down from rivers to the west, the coastal impact plains are largely similar to the plains of northern Argentina and are very fertile farmland. Coupled with the unique excellent climate of this place, it is no wonder that it can breed such beautiful varieties as Tahitian sugar cane and Tahitian lemon. It's a good place.

In the past half a month, 400 new and old soldiers of the Tahitian garrison have taken turns to go into battle, and the coastal plain east of Jinhua Port has been roughly cleared, annihilating more than 10 Tahitian tribes, and killing and wounding more than 2,000 natives. Even if there are still some natives hiding in the dense forest in the mountains at this time, it is not a big problem.

As for the territory west of Jinhua Port, due to the undulating mountains and extremely complex terrain, Zhang Jinhua does not plan to set foot in it for the time being. What the people on the east coast currently control is basically the essence of the island. If you develop it well. It can feed 10,000 people. Wait until they have digested it, and then they will go west to search for the natives. Take advantage of the situation and occupy the entire island.

However, not occupying the western half does not mean that they will not conduct preliminary reconnaissance here. In the same half month, Zhang Jinhua ordered Navy Sergeant Liu Fubo to lead a heavily armed expedition west into the mountains to conduct a detailed survey of the local vegetation, terrain, climate, and native villages.

It is a conical mountain range with a very steep mountain mass of old volcanic rocks. The steep mountains are sometimes divided by deep gorges, and the land in the canyons is often very fertile, and there is no doubt that such canyons are generally inhabited, but not necessarily enemies, because the natives of the island do not come from a single or one heart. They used shells as currency and lived a very primitive life. The people on the East Coast, if they wished, might be able to bring in a shipload of shells, buy them all their goods, and create an impressive inflation for them by the way—just a joke, of course.

The valley plains at the bottom of the canyon are exceptionally fertile and well-watered, allowing rainwater to be retained. Unlike the slopes on both sides, it is difficult to get in touch with the damp rain outside the mountain, and it does not retain much precipitation, so it is more arid and barren, and ferns grow more, which is very different from the trees on the valley floor and the mountain.

According to the agricultural technicians who went with him, rice and corn can be grown in the valleys, and pastures can be planted on the hillsides, so if they are well developed, many people can live. In particular, the mountains here are vast and have great development potential, which is more than enough as a node for ocean transportation. And if the local officials have the heart, they can also grow a large number of tropical cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, and sugar cane on this island, and then vigorously artificially breed black pearls, which will definitely be a lot of wealth.

On October 11, 1650, after initially settling down on the island, Zhang Jinhua left the port of Jinhua, then sailed eastward against the warm current of the southern equator, and arrived in the waters of the Galapagos Islands on November 5. Before they left, two ships from Australia brought 700 Ming immigrants to Tahiti, along with some livestock. Among the livestock were four horses, six cows, ten pigs, and twenty goats, as well as four hump cattle specially brought from New China Island, two Indian bison, and seven or eight elephant birds endemic to New China Island.

After arriving at the Turtle Islands (as the people on the east coast call them, the Galapagos Islands, originally meaning the island of giant turtles), the all-steam-powered ship "Tahiti" slowly docked off the coast of San Cristobal, a large island in the archipelago, and sent people to land. Except for a few bays, most of the island's seaside cliffs are dominated by black basalt, and the island is full of sun-scorched weeds and trees, and the air is rich in moisture, but it does not rain during the dry season. Of course, this is not a big problem for plants, but it is a problem for East Coast sailors who go ashore to get water. They found the stream that used to fetch water from the camp, but found that it had dried up and had no choice but to return to the boat.

"The water vapor in the air is so great that it looks like a steamer under the sun's transpiration, and the clouds are so low, so why doesn't it rain? What a strange island this is! Animals probably only eat plants or dew to quench their thirst! Zhang Jinhua depressedly put down the binoculars on his chest, poured some beer from the kettle on his waist and drank it, then smashed his mouth and said: "Change places and try your luck on the biggest island." ”

On October 12, the Tahiti anchored in the waters off Banker Bay on the northwest side of Isabela Island, and then continued to send sailors ashore in small boats to fetch water. The island – at least its northern half – is much harsher than San Cristobal, with arid, hot, sparse vegetation and large expanses of black volcanic rock exposed.

The island is full of large and small cone-shaped craters, and Liu Fubo, who led the team, felt that if these volcanoes had not erupted for many years, then a lake would naturally form in the crater for people on the east coast to draw water. His construction was recognized by everyone, and a group of people went straight to the largest crater.

The bare rocks at the foot of the mountain are littered with lizards of various colors, and when they see people coming, they hide in their burrows. The people of the east coast had no intention of caring for these animals, and they made their way up the hillside to the top. The further you go, the more greenery you have, and the more water you can see. At first, there are low shrubs, weeds, then cacti, acacia trees, and finally even large trees, which make you wonder at the wonder of nature. From time to time, some panicked wild boars or wild goats appeared in the woods, but the people on the east coast did not realize it, and they were bent on heading towards the top of the mountain.

There's a lake at the bottom of the crater! After Liu Fubo and others climbed to the top of the mountain, they immediately discovered this fact. There is also a small island at the bottom of the lake, which seems to be the real crater. Regardless of the crowd, they began to descend the ash-strewn slope to the bottom of the crater, but to their disappointment, the water here turned out to be salty!

The dejected group descended to the foot of the hill to set off, where the two sailors who had stayed behind had just killed a tortoise weighing more than 90 kilograms and were processing the turtle's meat. After eating a tasteless roasted turtle meat here, they continued to set off in the afternoon, and after searching several craters in a row, they finally found a freshwater lake, and then sent someone back to report if they had found a treasure.

After the problem of fresh water was resolved, the people on the east coast did not evacuate immediately. Instead, it took them a week or so to roughly explore the nearby islands, where they discovered an abundance of sulphur ore – a scarce resource on the east coast. It's a pity that this place is still nominally the territory of the Kingdom of Spain, and the geographical location is very sensitive.

With such a good geographical location (on the migration route), the absence of tropical diseases such as malaria, and the abundance of minerals and unique flora and fauna, it is valuable as a transit point for migrants, a fishing port (backed by Peruvian fishing grounds), and for mineral exploitation. It's just that it's confined to the shape and can't be occupied in a hurry, so it can only be slowly drawn in the future.

After leaving the Taodao Islands, the "Tahiti" returned to the port of Araukan, and the technicians of the Zhenhai Shipyard, who had been waiting for a month, came to check the condition of the ship, understand the problems that had arisen during the voyage, and prepared to go back to continue to optimize the ship and strive for the final production of the ship as soon as possible.

And Zhang Jinhua also took a carriage to Xingnan Port, preparing to return to the mainland on the east coast. In addition to reporting to the Executive Committee, he also planned to take his family with him, and then continue to take the "Tahiti" to Jinhua Port, where he would take up his post. (To be continued......)