This fleet, not long after coming out of the place where the night anchored, encountered a storm, and fought in the storm for 5 hours, it was just after noon, and when it arrived near this large island, it was almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon, according to the current season, the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, before dark, there are still about 5 hours, if you count the time when the night has just entered, the visibility is still relatively high, there may be 6 to 7 hours.

At this point in time, it is enough, that is, they have at least 3 hours, divided into two sides to explore.

The speed of the clipper boat is slow at 20 knots, even if it is discounted, the speed of 15 knots, more than 3 hours, is almost 100 kilometers, if more than 100 kilometers, it does not go to the margin, it means that this island is very huge.

If it is a square with a side length of 100 kilometers, it is close to 10,000 square kilometers, in fact, the current appearance of this island is not a square, it is a trapezoid, which means that the overall area will be larger under the premise of the same side length.

This is simply the distance traveled by the ship, you know, the navy, there are telescopes, and there are means of lookout, when exploring the margin, it is sure that the sky will not be completely dark, if nothing else, when they come back tonight, they will have a general understanding of this place.

Even if it is calculated according to 100 kilometers, 10,000 square kilometers of islands, in the ocean, is really not small, it is a very large island, there will definitely be fresh water, and at the same time, there is a huge area, which can accommodate an advance base, this, their considerable amount of rewards, will definitely not be less.

After the flag gave the order, the two ships, without stopping much near the island, went to both sides, where they separated, there were still about 10 kilometers from the island, just in the deeper sea, there should be less danger, and after they left, which ship was left behind, sailed towards the island.

The two boats, surveying the surrounding situation, went in two directions, and under the blowing of the sea breeze, they were extremely fast, and they rowed across the sea beautifully, and soon disappeared into the position of the horizon.

At this point in time, none of the ships left behind, did not stop, and in the surroundings, they surveyed, found a suitable harbor to dock, and landed slightly, and surveyed the surroundings.

The main purpose of this investigation is to see if there is anyone around.

The trajectory of human activity, this can be seen from a distance, with a telescope, or it can be landed in a small way.

It's just that this landing is in a relatively safe place.

Although it is said that these expedition fleets, they will all carry weapons, and there are even at least 5 professional combatants, who are professionally sent from soldiers.

Thermal weapons, with some coordination, should be able to deal with dozens or hundreds of people, but in the case of a really large number of people, it will not work.

They will look for a relatively open place, send people up to investigate, and lay a foundation for the future camp.

After finding these places, they returned to the same place, after all, they left here before, and these two ships, when they come back, will also return to this point.

After gathering enough of everyone, I wanted to go to that place.

For the sake of safety, I will choose a harbor location, in a safe distance, the distance from the sea, not too close, if it is an ordinary canoe or something, it may take an hour or two to reach.

In such a situation, even a small number of lookouts can be safe.

Although he had not encountered any human beings on any of the islands he had explored in the past, the closer he got to the Americas, the more he had to pay attention to this. Because according to Zhao Xin, in the Americas, there are people, and there is a very large empire.

According to what the captain knew, this island, if not a peninsula on the American continent, would be a huge island, and in the same way, he should be very close to the Americas.

If there is a place like Ryukyu and Japan, then there must be a population, and an island of more than 10,000 square kilometers may form a country, and such a country, even if they are in a primitive society or a slave society, it is not something that they can resist with such a ship.

They found the island, keep the fruits of victory, keep their own safety, is the first priority, the future exploration of the island, find interests in this island, that is what the follow-up fleet to do, they only need to conduct a preliminary survey of the island, and then pass the azimuth coordinates of the island back, it is considered to have completed the task.

As for whether this island is an island or a continent, there are naturally follow-up people to determine that it is an island that can accommodate a large advance base, and it will be rewarded according to this, if it is the American continent, the standard of reward is the latter.

Along this coastline, I turned around, and soon, in a suitable harbor, I found a suitable anchorage position, which happened to be a bay, and it was relatively huge, with a length of more than 15 kilometers on both sides, which just shrouded the sea area of good fighting, because of the shelter of the mountains on both sides, even if there was a storm, it was difficult to affect them anchored in the middle, this is a suitable harbor.

In the scope of this search, no trace of human activity was found, but the captain was very careful, and searched along the coastline, and found a very open meadow, at least 1 km away from the forest, so he sent people ashore.

5 heavily armed soldiers, 2 sailors, and a botanical expert, which was stationed in the late stage of exploration, and on some islands, it was necessary to select the plants, some to make specimens, and some to transplant properly, and there was always one useful.

The boat landed quickly, because they found this suitable place, in which vicinity, there were many plants, and the whole vision was very open, they stayed on the shore for about 1 hour, and then left.

A large number of plants were collected, some soil samples were obtained, and at the same time, some water sources were found.

Although I know that there must be a water source on this island, and even such a large island, perhaps, there will be one or two rivers, and on the Pacific Ocean, such similar islands, are some volcanic islands, these volcanic islands, towering in the center, and then once there is rain, the top of the mountain will gradually converge down, forming a stream, and in particular, it can even merge into a river.

Such an island, which looks at least 3,000 square kilometers, must have a river, but I don't know where, as long as you find a river, you can have the foundation of a port, and most of the large bases are basically built along both sides of the suitable river to expand the port.

If you don't find a river, you have already found a water source, which proves that this island is relatively rich in water resources, and it is only a matter of time before you find a river.

After a little exploration on the shore, after almost two hours, it was almost dark, and before it was dark, the captain ordered the ship to return to its former position, anchored, and lit a special lamp on the mast.

If there are no batteries and electricity, on the old sailboats, if you want to communicate with the lights, either torches or lanterns, kerosene lamps are not available, these lights, in the face of the sea breeze, appear relatively fragile, the slightest strong wind, blow them out.

It is a very troublesome thing to put torches on the ship, and it is also very troublesome to indicate the direction at night.

For the Dinghai Navy, there is no such problem, even if there are no batteries and electric lights, as long as there is kerosene, specially made kerosene lamps can also illuminate the road ahead and give bright guidance.

Perhaps, in the dark night, such a light is very obvious, but the danger comes from the direction of the mainland, such a piece, his surroundings are very open, as long as there is a spotlight, turn back and forth, just cast the light into the ocean.

In fact, the captain does this, the light can be concentrated through the reflection of the glass mirror, not only so that the light can be stronger, but also can block certain directions, at a certain angle, you may be able to see some of the reflected light, but you can hide the boat.

When it was dark, the two ships came back separately, and they kept moving along the coastline, for more than 3 hours, because of the relationship between the wind and the current, at least they traveled more than 110 kilometers, but it was useless, they did not see the end, as far as the telescope saw, there was still a vast coastline ahead, stretching past.

That is to say, this land is even larger than they expected, 110 kilometers, plus the coastline seen by the telescope, at least 130 kilometers, even if it is the simplest equilateral triangle, his area is more than 4000 square kilometers, but in fact, this cannot be an equilateral triangle, it is very likely to be a diamond, or even a body shape, then the maximum may be 8000 square kilometers, or even 16000 square kilometers.

If we look at an island alone, on the way from Hokkaido to this side, we have not encountered such a huge island, and the discovery of this island can be said to have solved many problems unceremoniously, and the vision of the Dinghai Navy has continued to move forward with this island as a base.

In terms of time, they can't endlessly explore, and they move along the coastline, even if they increase their speed to the maximum, even if they drag the time a little longer, this time, can be a little longer, in that case, it will be too dangerous to return to the point where they separated in the middle of the night.

They had gone as far as they could, but the danger of sailing in unfamiliar waters late at night still made them more cautious, and they had already found such an island with such a hard work, and they had reached the last pass, and fell at the door, and there was danger, which no one wanted to see.

Instead of continuing the exploration, he pressed the time, and after six hours, almost when it was almost dark, he arrived at the predetermined sea area.

The searchlight of the pilot ship allows them to see that the two sides will be with each other without any twists and turns, and then they will rest together, of course, the pilot ship will continue to pilot.

At this time, the captain and the others were waiting here, although it was already very dark when the two ships arrived, but with the help of special lights, plus a compass and a sextant, they still came together.

After gathering together, it was time to dock, and the pilot, led by the pilot, stopped that evening in a more suitable bay on the island.

It's a nice haven, and it's quite open, even if the ship is parked 8 kilometers away, there is not much problem, although it is too close to the open sea, and there will be a certain danger in the event of a large-scale wind and waves.

But compared to this danger, the danger of being closer to the land is greater, because the land, where there is a possibility of man-made disasters, is still very close to the Americas.

At the same time, once a storm has formed, there will be signs, with the help of this sign, a quick response, anchoring close to the shore, or landing on the shore, can avoid the storm.

When the three ships, in the shape of a zigzag, anchored in the depths of the bay, after preparing the lookouts, the captain gathered the key personnel together to discuss what to do next.

First of all, of course, I know the state of this island, the captain asked a lot of questions, and they were also very detailed, and the two captains who knew the key to the captain's questions also answered the questions in detail one by one.

There are three main aspects, rivers, such a large island, there should be rivers, according to the usual situation, more than 200 kilometers in length, there may be three or four, or even more rivers.

To the captain's disappointment, however, there weren't too many rivers, at least not in the range they were observing, which was rare, probably because it would form a large river that would hold most of the island's rivers together.

However, if it is a volcanic island, it is impossible, because the center of the volcanic island is high and the surrounding area is low, and the water resources of the entire island will be divided in four directions, and it is impossible to gather together, at least three or four.

So what about the volcanic island, as soon as this idea appeared, it was like a cat's claw in everyone's hearts, and the discovery of a large base island and the discovery of the Americas were two completely different treatments, not to mention historical merit and honor, the simple interests were increased dozens of times, which is something that everyone is unwilling to ignore.

Another problem, compounded by this view, is that the islands, at least, do not see the high-altitude mountains in the range of their observations.

Volcanic islands, or islands in the ocean, except for a few coral islands, all have a height, like flooded peaks, with only the summit remaining above the water.

There are many coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, but there can't be such a big one, they are all small, if you veto this, then this island does not meet the volcanic island, it is likely to be a super large island, or even land, which further strengthens the previous judgment, the possibility of land has greatly increased, and in such a close place from the Americas, land was found, what is this land, it goes without saying.