When the fleet departed from Singapore, there were a total of 568 crew members, including Zhu Hai.
When they arrived in America, only 473 people were left, and most of them were in a state of illness. Of the nearly 100 people who died, two fell into the sea during the storm, and the rest all died of illness.
Why do you get sick?
Drinking unhygienic water!
There were several Portuguese people on the ship, so they adopted the European water storage method. That is to use wooden barrels to fill the water, and then pour a layer of oil into it. The oil floats on the water and blocks the air, which can slow down the deterioration process of fresh water. However, it rains on the way.
or islands, fresh water must be replaced in time.
However, during the more than four-month voyage, the stored fresh water deteriorated several times.
One of these times, the water was turbid and turned black, so I had to boil it and drink it. There were so many people with stomach problems that doctors were at a loss as to what to do. Although there were medicinal materials on board, there was no water to cook them and they had to drink them.
Let the sick crew members chew the medicine directly.
Unfortunately, one of the three Onmyojis died of illness, and even the captain died of illness.
Zhu Hai equipped himself with a waist knife and picked up a fire gun. He was also sick, exhausted, and wanted to have diarrhea but couldn't. He supported the cabin and ordered: "Explore the deep water first."
Dozens of crew members hung down ropes and drove more than a dozen small boats to detect the water depth along the coast.
Not long after, they discovered a strait. Walking through the strait, they turned out to be an extremely wide bay. The water in the bay was extremely deep and sheltered from wind and waves, making it an excellent natural harbor.
If expressed in later place names, the strait is called the Golden Gate Strait, and the bay is called the San Francisco Bay. In science fiction works, whether they are aliens or earth monsters, they all like to come here to fight, and they especially like to blow up the Golden Gate across the strait.
Bridge.
Of course there was no bridge at this time, only countless giant trees.
The fleet crossed the strait and docked in the bay. A part of the crew stayed behind to guard the ships and patients. Zhu Hai personally led the team ashore to explore and collect water.
There are some turtles lying on the beach. They don't run away when people come. Instead, they just stare blankly.
A short distance ahead, we reached mountains with dense vegetation, and everyone carried axes and cut through the thorns along the way.
"Oh, this tree is so big!" Li Guangcheng, the deputy captain, exclaimed in surprise.
Onmyoji Hu Yuan looked at it and said: "This is... a cedar tree? I have never seen one so thick!"
How thick?
The trunk diameter is probably close to two meters!
Everyone struggled to climb the mountain, and soon they reached the top of the mountain. The mountain was probably only a few tens of meters high, not much higher than the huge redwood tree. Because there were big trees everywhere on the mountain, it looked like nothing from a distance.
Become taller.
"Is this a cat or a leopard?"
"This pheasant is really big. I wonder if I can catch it and feed it."
"Hey, there's another deer, and the horns look different from those of Ming Dynasty."
"Wolf!"
"Bang bang bang..."
The four wild wolves were shot to death randomly and could be carried back to the ship for a meal.
There was not even a stream on this hill, so everyone had to climb down the mountain and find a small natural pond in the depression at the foot of the mountain. Some animals were drinking water by the pond, which meant that the water here was drinkable. Li Hai immediately ordered
Get the water back first.
"Ah, I was bitten by a snake!"
"It's a krait!"
On the way back, an unlucky guy was bitten by a snake. He was so frightened that he immediately cut off his big toe with a knife.
In fact, the snake is not venomous at all, it just looks like a bungara snake.
After leading people to fetch water several times, hundreds of people finally had clean water to drink. They rested for half a day and one night, and continued to explore the next day, while returning from hunting to replenish food.
The animals here are quite stupid and don't know how to run away when they see people, so they gained a lot in the first few days. However, the animals quickly became smarter and ran faster when they encountered people, and they could no longer catch prey easily.
Half a month later, most of the patients had recovered, but one person did not survive and died of illness while lying in the cabin.
Zhu Hai has already explored two hills. The most threatening animal is the wild wolf. They haven't seen any tigers yet. It wasn't until they climbed the third hill that they saw a large lake (actually not very big). The lake was far from the coast.
It was very close. If they landed on the west coast, they would be able to find the lake quickly. If they ran into the bay to land, they would take a long way around.
There are fish in the lake. Go back to the boat and get a fishing net. Once you cast the net, it will be full of good fish. There are also various animals drinking water by the lake, which is very suitable for hunting. At least you don't have to worry about running out of meat.
Zhu Hai decided to use this place as a temporary settlement and named the lake "Mazu Lake", which was a blessed place given to them by the Empress Mazu.
In the next two months, they searched all over the San Francisco Peninsula, but not even a single native was found.
Moreover, the climate here is very good. Even though it is summer, it does not seem too hot.
The two surviving onmyojis, one named Hu Yuan and the other Chen Degui, went to Zhu Hai together and said, "Captain Zhu, we have to leave here at least in the autumn."
"Why?" Zhu Hai asked.
Chen Degui said: "It is summer at this time. We used a thermometer to measure it for many days, and it was only more than ten degrees for half a day. It is like this in summer, so how can it be better in winter? It is probably much colder than Beijing, and the snow must at least accumulate
Three or four feet thick!”
Zhu Hai was surprised and said: "Thank you two gentlemen for reminding us. We will set sail and go south in the autumn."
It's a pity that these two onmyojis of the Ming Dynasty didn't know what the Mediterranean climate was. The Portuguese on the ship knew that the Mediterranean was warm in winter and cool in summer, but the onmyoji didn't discuss it with them.
So Zhu Hai stepped up his exploration and sailed across the bay to land.
The shore here is densely covered with oak trees, and the terrain is very flat. So Zhu Hai named the San Francisco Peninsula "Fushan" and named Auckland across the bay "Oak Bay".
After passing the broad and flat oak forest, we came to the mountainous area.
Zhu Hai did not lead people over the mountains, but walked around the foot of the mountains, marking marks along the way for positioning. After walking around the southeast for several days, he suddenly discovered a canyon. After passing through the canyon, it suddenly became clear.
Although it is occasionally rugged, at first glance it looks more like a great plain.
"That's...a cow?"
The exploration team was all shocked. Bison could be seen everywhere on the plains, which looked very similar to the Ming Dynasty's cattle.
If this thing is captured and raised for a few years, it will probably be able to cultivate fields.
One of Li Changzhu's crew members even shed tears of excitement and cried: "If I had so many cows at home, I would never need to go to sea!"
The companion laughed and said: "If you didn't go to sea, how could you see so many cows?"
Everyone walked towards the bison with their guns in hand. Before they got close, the bison were startled and ran away.
Zhu Hai suddenly became alarmed: "No, these cows are afraid of people. They must have seen people before!"
Everyone moved forward cautiously, setting up tents and sleeping in the open air along the way, and continued their journey the next day, marking every few hundred steps with logs or stones.
Suddenly, a herd of buffaloes was seen running wildly, and a group of strangely dressed natives appeared.
Zhu Hai suppressed his excitement, raised his telescope and observed: "The clothes are not covering the body, the weapons are simple, only javelins and flying stones. Well, there are a few leaders with daggers hanging on their waists. Let's go and take a look.