August 15, 1648, Port of Gold Hill, Australia.

Loaded with supplies, the Discovery sailed slowly out of the harbor and then, driven by steam, crossed the Bass Strait, turned south-east, and sailed eastward along the edge of the westerly wind belt between 38 and 42 degrees south latitude. They have been in Jinshan Harbor for four or five days, the ship has been repaired and maintained, and the personnel have been well rested, and now it is time to embark on a new journey.

On the way back to Jinshan Port from Tahiti, the ship made a short stop in the Cairns area of northeastern Australia, and then the leader Zhang Jinhua ordered a part of the lemon and sugar cane collected from Tahiti to be transplanted here, and also left 16 expedition members to guard the place. As a result, there were only 40 people left on the voyage from the port of Jinshan to the coast of Chile in South America.

Exploring and opening up a route from the port of Jinshan in Australia to the port of Araucan (Port of Natales) was an extremely important task of the expedition led by Zhang Jinhua. After all, this is related to the implementation of the national strategy, and this is a matter of great significance to the country and the people, both in the short term and in the medium and long term.

When the "Discovery" set out, more than 15 families and 60 people, including men, women and children, were randomly selected from among the migrants waiting to be transported in the port of Jinshan, and they will follow the "Discovery" ship along the northward route of the westerly wind belt of the South Pacific across the ocean, and then sail to the Chilean coast of South America, where they will become the first Far Eastern migrants in the free city of Araucan.

However, from a practical point of view, this so-called South Pacific route was in the first few ideas. It is destined to be unable to compete with the routes of the South Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. Because the latter route has the New China area, which is extremely important to the East Coast Republic of China, the passing of migrant ships can continue to replenish the declining population of many settlements on the east coast of New China Island, so that the development of this island can continue to be carried out in depth.

As for the former, all the way from Australia to the east is a vast ocean except New Zealand, and there is nothing. Their destination, southern Chile, was also a less fertile region, with only a vast expanse of broken mountain islands and inhospitable grasslands left in addition to the year-round winds, and the development of cereal cultivation was almost impossible except for animal husbandry, which was apparently less capable of carrying a population than cereal farming.

Therefore, within the East Coast Republic of China, there are not a few people who have doubts or even oppose the migration routes of the South Pacific. Because this route is not cost-effective from an economic point of view. From a technical point of view, there are also many practical difficulties. There are many supply and repair points along the way. In particular, the lack of an indispensable port near Peru makes the route much more difficult to navigate.

But no matter how hard it is, you have to keep exploring. Within the Executive Committee, especially at a time when the Crossing Masses were still in power or able to exert sufficient influence, it was arguably a non-negotiable "political correctness" to transport more Ming people to the East Coast, and the slogan "Migration from the Far East" put forward by some Emperor Han elements, although a little too radical, still represented a certain tendency of the majority of the Travelers. No matter what happens in the future. At least as long as they themselves or the next generation that can exert direct influence are in power. They were to unswervingly move a large number of Ming people from the Far East to the East Coast proper. This amount. The more the merrier!

After a few days of sailing, the expedition ship swayed to the mouth of the Auretti River in the South Island of New Zealand. Zhang Jinhua asked the crew and migrants to go ashore in batches to recuperate, while replenishing fresh fresh water. At the riverside, they met some Maori. The New Zealand Aborigines seemed to be friendly, at least they didn't show their weapons to the East Coasters who came ashore to resupply. Zhang Jinhua asked the sailors to trade with them with some goods from the east coast, and bought some dried fruits and cured meats they had stockpiled, and besides, there was no other intersection between the two sides.

These Maori had entered an agrarian society and at least knew how to farm, leaving the primitive gathering and hunting life. However, their technical level and social organization are quite primitive, and the tools they use are either stone or wood. This is not a bad thing for the East Coasters, as it means that the cost of colonizing here in the future is low.

A place like New Zealand, with a suitable climate, abundant precipitation, mature farmland and irrigation systems left by the Maori people, and fertile soil, agricultural conditions are unknown how many times stronger than Australia. In the future, if you are interested in developing Oceania, New Zealand is definitely the first choice, agriculture, animal husbandry, mining, fishing, under the current conditions, it is not a problem to feed a million people.

The landed expedition members paid the Maori for merchandise (glass balls, magnifying glasses, metal knives, cloth, spirits, etc.) and set sail on the morning of 21 August, leaving the southern tip of New Zealand and continuing eastward. And after they left, there was a massive outbreak of influenza among the Maori who had been in contact with the East Coasters, who of course did not know about it, or would not care if they did.

From New Zealand to the east, the Explorer has remained steady in the sea between 40 and 42 degrees south latitude. Due to the lack of land barriers, the sea is rough and windy, which makes the crew extremely nervous for the first time sailing here. At this time, even Zhang Jinhua, who had been staying in his room before, ran to the deck, and while carefully feeling the angle of the 1,250-ton ship with a standard displacement of up and down and tilting left and right on the sea surface with constantly churning huge waves, he ordered the expedition members accompanying the ship to carefully record this information.

These numbers are invaluable information that can be used as a reference for ships on the East Coast that may sail on this route in the future. After all, even in later generations, this route is not a popular route, and a lot of information is not complete, so it must be explored by the people of the East Coast themselves.

"Maintain the speed of the voyage, do not adjust the course for the time being in bad sea conditions, and at the same time grasp as much detail as possible about the sea along the way - mainly weather information." Zhang Jinhua stood on the deck, trying his best to stabilize his body, and said to Captain Jiwen who was following him: "The weather rules in this sea area are extremely important to us, especially these unusual weather conditions, we need to figure out the reasons and background of these weather occurrences. Some weather does not occur by a single meteorological guide, but rather by the interaction of many weather systems. ”

"I understand, I've arranged for someone to measure the wind speed, air pressure, and temperature, well, the humidity can't be accurately measured for the time being, so it can only be estimated." Captain Givens echoed, "After collecting the numbers, we will bring them back and organize experts to analyze and study them, and maybe after we arrive, we can predict future weather changes, which are very important for ships to avoid bad weather and improve the safety of ocean navigation." ”

Zhang Jinhua nodded, and then continued to observe the changes in the wind and waves at sea. There is no doubt that the north-eastbound expedition ship "Exploration" is slowly sailing in the sea area at about 40.5 degrees south latitude at this time, and a section of cold air blowing from the southwest is shrouding the nearby seas, and the front of the cold front is moving in a north-easterly direction, so the impact on the navigation of the ship is not very large.

In the shipping lanes of the westerly belt, whether in the Pacific, Indian or Atlantic Oceans, there are often cyclones blowing from the Southern Ocean (the ocean surrounding Antarctica), causing severe weather and high winds and waves in the relevant seas. In such sea conditions, a purely sail-powered vessel is quite dangerous, because it is difficult to say what will happen in such a stormy area if the cyclone is running in the opposite direction of the ship's course. The Dutch ships to Batavia often traveled through the westerly wind belt (passing the coast of Western Australia and then heading north with a cold current), and there were many ships that were unlucky enough to hit icebergs and encounter bad weather. Since the people on the east coast started the Far East migration route, there have been three ships sunk in the sea area at about 40 degrees south latitude over the years, and this is still when the survivability of the ships on the east coast is much stronger than that of the Dutch ships, otherwise the shipwreck rate will only be higher.

The cold front lasted for a whole day, only weakened slightly after nightfall, and gradually subsided at four or five o'clock in the morning. At this time, the wind and waves on the sea surface also decreased significantly, which indicates that the expedition ship "Exploration" has once again successfully crossed a dangerous sea.

As if bad luck had run out in the waters east of the Chatham Islands (in the area of the cold front), the expedition ship Discovery had been largely smooth for the rest of the voyage, except for a major storm in the early morning of 10 September, which caused two transport boats and several guns to be blown into the sea and a mast to be broken, and the ship was able to see the towering mountains in the distance in the early morning of 13 September in a sea with variable winds.

Maybe it's off the coast of Chile! The thought popped up involuntarily for everyone. Zhang Jinhua and Ji Wen met with the captain of the "Expedition" to make calculations, and then compared them with a classified map, and found that the ship was likely to be in the complex waters between the islands of the Jonos Islands.

After coming to this conclusion, Zhang Jinhua decisively ordered a change of course, and then the "Exploration" slowly sailed south at a low speed of 2.5-3 knots against the sea breeze and currents, and dragged its scarred body to the side of the dock of Araukan Port on the evening of September 22, leaving the people on the shore stunned. By this time, only 85 of the 107 people (including immigrants) who set off from Australia were left, including 32 crew members and 53 immigrants.

After several days of emergency repairs at the port of Araucan, the Discovery set sail again on 26 September towards the Strait of Magellan. They will follow the westerly wind across the strait and then head north to return to their home port of the Vostochny to complete the feat of circumnavigating the globe. (To be continued......)