Several captains and their entourage walked leisurely and slowly on the grass near the camp, and while the atmosphere was happily talking about the affairs of the occupied territory, a large primeval forest to the west of the camp sounded one after another. Bang... The sound of arquebus gunfire .......

After the deafening gunfire, thick clouds of smoke filled with the smell of black powder rose from the heart of the forest. Cows and pigs, which once lived as domestic animals in the western part of the Spanish island, have now become wild animals and have fallen under gunfire with painful wails.

Perhaps the man who shot the bison and the boar did not know the meaning of hunting animals with an arquebus. However, this hunt, which took place in 1543 in the western part of the Spanish island, inadvertently shows the rudiments of modern hunting.

"Gah... Ga... Ga ......" From the sky overhead, there was a sharp scream of birds frightened by the huge gunfire, and I saw more than a dozen wild birds flying away and fleeing one after another, flapping their wings above the heads of Isabel and others.

Isabel Walton, the captain of the "Nemesis", looked up at the birds fleeing the forest in panic, and slowly retracted her jaw and turned her head to look at the group walking on the left, and asked casually, "Captain Hawkins, you want more people to know... Our camp? ”

Captain Hawkins took the cigarette holder of his palm-leaf pipe from his mouth, looked at her with a smile and nodded, "Miss, why don't we talk about this again at dinner." Right now... You have more things to do that you love. ”

After the captain finished speaking, he pointed with his pipe in the direction where the gunshot sounded, and Isabel nodded a little embarrassedly, "Captain, you are right. Perhaps, I'm missing some of my old hunts. ”

"Miss, hunting is an activity that belongs to you with noble status and titles. You can hunt your prey whenever you want. ”

"Captain, you can too." Isabel kindly offered Captain Hawkins an invitation to join the hunt.

"I'm grateful for your invitation, I think I'm still familiar with maritime affairs." Captain Hawkins politely declined the invitation. After all, he always remembered that he was just an overseas trader who had not yet become a gentleman.

Soon, Isabel returned to the camp to fetch a longbow and a leather quiver full of arrows, and asked Baldwin, the adjutant of the maritime affairs, to leave the camp again with a heavy Spanish arquebus and supporting equipment, and to walk briskly in the direction of the gunfire towards the western hinterland of the forest.

When the two of them arrived in the hinterland to the west of the forest with their weapons and equipment, they found that there were five or six abandoned plots of cultivated land covering a large area. The captain of the 1st Musketeer, Fast, and a dozen or so musketeers were staying in the deserted farmland, tying up a few slain wild boars to a few thick branches, ready to bring them back to the camp.

"Fast, we're coming." With a bow in her left hand and a leather quiver behind her, Isabel strode excitedly towards the musketeers in front of her.

Fast, who was tying the two hind legs of a wild boar to a tree branch, looked up when he heard the cry, and hurriedly stretched out his right arm into the air and waved. When Isabel and the two approached the musketeers, Fast grinned, "Captain, I thought you didn't want to come to the hunt. ”

Isabel squatted down to inspect the boar that was about to be sieved by the projectiles of the arquebus, and then raised her chin and pouted at the other party, "Fast, you see, this was originally a whole piece of pork, but now it has become gunpowder-flavored pork inlaid with projectiles. ”

"Hahaha... Captain, the musketeers all started firing as soon as they saw their target. ”

"You're the captain, didn't you give orders to your musketeers?"

"Captain, order... What command? ”

"A projectile fired from an arquebus can kill a prey."

Isabel stood up after saying this, and glanced in the direction of the sides of the cultivated land, "Fast, what about the others?" ”

Fast quickly tied the boar's hind legs, stood up and looked at her, "Captain, I divided the rest of the men into two teams, and went to the north and west. ”

"Leave the prey here, and a few of you will follow me to the south. Remember, shoot at the target after hearing my command. ”

Isabel headed south from the heart of the forest with a dozen musketeers in search of prey. Perhaps the sound of the arquebus was so loud that it frightened all the bison and boars in the forest. The arquebus searched to the southern edge, but there was still no sign of the prey.

Fast and his musketeers stood at the southern edge of the forest with some disappointment, staring at a tributary of the ocean that flowed inland. However, Isabel did not give up on tracking the target, focusing on the forests and meadows on the other side of the river.

At this time, Baldwin, the adjutant of maritime affairs, pointed to a small patch of forest on the west side of the opposite bank. "Captain, look there, there are a few bisons. ”

"Bah... The two musketeers standing on the shore pulled their arquebuses again, and the smoke of gunpowder immediately drifted out from around them.

"Very well, cross the river and carry the prey back." Satisfied with the prey she had hit, Isabel nodded and prepared to cross the river with the musketeers to pick up the prey. At this moment, she suddenly saw a white man on horseback and several white men on foot appear on the east side of the river.

The white man on horseback saw her and the musketeers at the same time, and galloped to the nearest bank of the river with his whip raised, and shouted, "Who are you?" Why are you shooting here? ”

Holding a fork in his left hand and an arquebus in his right, Baldwin looked alarmingly at the white man with a mouth full of Spanish, and looked at Isabel on the left, "Captain, this man is... Plantation owners? ”

"It's the plantation owner here. You see, a couple of white men who came behind were also wearing leather whips. Isabel stared intently at the few people on the other side of the river and said calmly.

"Captain, what now?" Fast, who had already fired a shot just now, was in a hurry, because the arquebus in his hand was now like a piece of scrap metal, with no primer, no propellant, and no projectile to shoot.

Seeing that the other party was only staying on the other side of the river, Isabel hurriedly gave an order to the musketeers beside her, who had not yet fired, "Those who have not fired are ready for battle and line up in two rows." ”

When the white man standing on horseback on the other side of the river was about to ask again, he found that a dozen or so men armed with Spanish arquebuses were actually lined up in battle formation. Hurriedly turned his head and shouted at several white men behind him, "Get out of here, these people are pirates!"