Compared with the speed of the previous desperate rush in the North Atlantic, the Golden River that entered the Bahamas was like a turtle crawling, a straight line distance of less than 500 kilometers, and it took three days. In order to ensure the safety of navigation, two-thirds of the sails during the day and the suspension of sailing at night were Hong Tao's death orders, and he did not want to crash the boat on the coral reef because he was two days earlier and two days late. Although it is not enough to die, I am afraid that I will have to be the owner of these islands in this life, and according to the level of shipbuilding here, it is probably not possible to rebuild a sea ship that can safely cross the Atlantic in a few years.

When a large area of land appeared in front of him, and after a whole day of sailing, Hong Tao was finally relieved that the Bahamas had passed, and the continent in front of him was likely to be the island of Cuba in the future. Drive west along its north shore and cross the Florida Strait to enter the Gulf of Mexico. There are no dense islands on this route, and the Golden River can finally sail at full sail.

"Come out and see! What kind of fish is that? Karl has been in a state of high spirits for the past few days, either climbing the mast to act as a lookout, or standing on the stern tower holding a telescope for a long time, and he has to ask for clarification when he encounters anything, and he can't do anything to harass the flood, and even the charts have to wait for the lights to be lit at night and stay up late to make up for them.

"That's a basking shark, it's also a kind of Jiao shark, it's the same as baleen whales, it has no teeth......" Hong Tao was pulled out of the cabin by Carl again, looking at the big fish with big mouths dozens of meters away, and popularized animal knowledge to Carl. This animal is a Caribbean specialty, and it is said that it was quite rare in later generations, but I did not expect that the number of them would be so large in the thirteenth century, and when it came out, it was a group of more than a ten.

"Dangdangdang...... Dangdangdang......" Before Hong Tao finished speaking. The alarm bells rang.

"There are two small boats on the sea. There is also smoke on the shore...... Four nautical miles away! We've run into the kind of Indians you're talking about, right? Karl quickly translated the flag language. There was no worry on his face, it was all surprise and eagerness.

"Probably, I haven't been here either, lean over and take a look......" Hong Tao couldn't see the situation ahead from the telescope, it was estimated that the other party's boat was too small, otherwise the lookouts would not have approached the four seas before they found the abnormality.

The place where the smoke comes from is not directly ahead, but on the port side. The Golden River was still a nautical mile offshore, and no small boats were found. According to the lookout, both boats were out of sight in the woods on the shore, and they must have spotted the Golden River.

"Swan, you stay on the ship, and you must be careful of what is going on around you. Lao Ka, put the dinghy, take your soldiers, let's go over and see...... "If you can run, the monk can't run the temple, and Hong Tao doesn't know what ethnic group is living on Cuba Island at this time, since it's an adventure." You can't stay on the ship all the time, you can't go ashore.

"Are you hot?" Wait for Karl to gather thirty slave soldiers. Lowering the three dinghys and waiting for a while, Hong Tao appeared on the side of the boat, and when he climbed down the rope net, his outfit was almost unrecognizable to Carl.

Whale skin shoulders, leg guards, gloves, this is standard for the Marine Corps. People wear leather armor inside their clothes, Hong Tao directly put it on the outside of his clothes, looking the same as the protective gear of amateur boxers, and the most interesting thing is that he also wears a Mamluk barrel helmet, which is really armed to the teeth. The problem is that the temperature here is a bit high, and it is still a little hot just wearing the summer clothes of the Imperial Navy, and with so much leather armor and helmets, you can imagine the taste.

"No matter how hot it is, it's better than dead, rowing! Remember, don't attack without my orders! "Hong Tao doesn't care if it's hot or not, the first time he came into contact with the local natives, who knows if they will come up with a shuttle dart, poisoned arrows or something, cowardice and live for a long time.

Three dinghys hoisted their spinnakers, spread out three pairs of boatmen, and glided briskly on the water like oil-sellers, and soon reached the shore. At this time, Hong Tao found that this is not a coast at all, but a river estuary like the mouth of the Jinhe River, but because the plants are too luxuriant, many of them grow directly in the seawater, and the estuary is filed, which is no different from other coasts from a distance.

"Keep your eyes open to the maximum, look carefully at the front, back, left and right, especially behind the trees and on the trees, if you find someone who wants to attack us, shoot him immediately!" Hong Tao hesitated for a while, but his curiosity still overcame his fear of death, and he decided to go into the river to see what was going on, but the alert level had changed from not being able to hurt people casually to active defense.

Don't look at the estuary of this river The plants are very lush, and after drilling into it, there is no cave. The trees on both sides of the river bank have been cut down, there are no vines on the top of the head, and the channel is much wider. It is 100% inhabited here, and they deliberately left the trees at the mouth of the sea untouched, just to hide from people's eyes and ears, for fear that outsiders would find out where they lived. It seemed that the people here were very vigilant, so Hong Tao shrank his body behind the soldier again, revealing only the head with the barrel helmet, and looked out through a thin slit on the barrel helmet.

"Their boat is in front, on the right! There are also grass houses on the bank...... "After driving about a kilometer in the river, there was a new situation in front of me, and a glade appeared on the right, not only the trees were cut down, but there were also traces of burning on the ground. Karl, who was in the lead, also spotted the ship docked on the shore, he was a fool and bold, and he still stood up on the boat, stretched his neck to look around, and told Hong Tao what he saw in his throat.

"Shh......h Don't shout! Sit down, sit down! Stop the ship...... Paddle over, paddle over! Carl's performance made Hong Tao break out in a cold sweat, not necessarily a cold sweat, he has now entered the state of taking a sauna. This Nima is really a tropical rainforest, wet and stuffy, just sitting and doing nothing, sweating out.

"You two boats stop here and don't move, I'll take someone up to take a look, if there is any accident, don't hesitate to shoot directly." Let your soldiers recognize me, and don't greet me! The commander's own boat was close to Carl, and Hong Tao began to arrange plans for landing.

"You are the emperor, you are on the ship, I will bring people up!" Carl is quite righteous.

"Don't, you better cover for me, I'll rest assured with you behind me!" Hong Tao patted Carl on the shoulder and said more righteously. Actually, he didn't think so in his heart, Carl was a straight-tempered person, and without Martini's skills, he couldn't let him do such a thing as diplomacy, and if it wasn't a war, he would have to make it a war for you.

"Hello...... I am a messenger of peace...... Folks, come out, the imperial army doesn't rob food and don't kill people......" Hong Tao took ten slave soldiers ashore, he pouted a branch with leaves in his left hand and shook as he walked, and held a jar of rum in his right hand, indicating that he did not have a weapon, and moved to the small grass hut a hundred and ten meters away. As he walked, his mouth was not idle, not that the Indians would understand, but that he himself was nervous, and that he could speak better so that his hands and feet would not cramp.

This small village is small, with only a dozen conical huts made of leaves, surrounded by a circle of gravel and a fire pit made of gravel in the middle. The smoke was a fire pit, and there were many branches piled up in it, probably because of the dampness, so the smoke was very large. At this moment, there was not a single figure in the village silently, only the crackling of the burning fire. Hong Tao didn't dare to go inside, the people in the village must have hidden, maybe there were several bows and arrows aimed at him at this time, even if he had armor, he was afraid of those poisonous things. In order to allow the people of the village to come out on their own, Hong Tao opened the jar of rum, poured a few sips into his mouth, patted his stomach, then placed the jar on the trunk of a tree next to a small grass hut, and returned to the river the same way, sitting on the boat and waiting.

"Smack! Damn it...... Lots of mosquitoes! Karl was in a hurry, and when he was not quiet when he sat in the boat, he either stood up and looked into the village, or fought against the mosquitoes, beating and scolding. There are indeed a lot of mosquitoes in the rainforest, not only mosquitoes, but also unknown small flying insects that hit their faces together. Hong Tao also took off his helmet at this time, not because he didn't want to bring it, but because a small insect got into it, it was biting his face, and he had to be killed!

"Hey, it's coming...... Someone came, they were unclothed, about the same as blacks! Karl's boat was closer to the center of the river, and he could see farther than Hongtao, and after about half an hour, a low cry came from his side, warning Hongtao to pay attention to the shore.

"Don't move, they don't mean it!" First the heads of the two spears were exposed, then the barrels, and then the ...... Two fancy and brown-red faces also caught Hong Tao's eyes. If you haven't seen someone in this kind of costume, you must have the urge to shoot a crossbow arrow at the first sight, how do you look like a good person! But Hong Tao has met Indians, not only in movies and television, but also in the United States and Canada. This kind of costume is all warriors in their clan, and whoever is colorful and rich will be awesome, and it has nothing to do with malice and goodwill.

"Prepare your crossbow arrows, but don't let them see it's a weapon. I'll go over and talk about it first...... Don't rush at me, you're going to die! The two Indian warriors walked more than twenty meters from the shore and stopped, staring at the three ships on the river that were too large for them. It was a few minutes before one of them awoke from his contemplation and glared at the nearest boat. It's a pity that Hong Tao can't understand what he's talking about, but he understands what they're doing, whenever they meet strangers, the Indians will show their strength first, so as to make the other party submit, but they don't really want to fight. Since Martini could deal with the indigenous people of South Africa, Hong Tao felt that he should be able to, so he got off the boat and came over.

(To be continued.) )