Half a month passed in a flash. ※%

During this period, four local sailboats were by port, which was a fleet of ships carrying immigrants on the South Pacific route to the South Cone area. They brought some cement, lime, farm tools, seeds, food, machine parts and other materials from the local area, and a ship was loaded with hundreds of tons of coal produced in Montenegro coal mines. These materials will be stored in warehouses on the island to supply local construction and repairs of ships. It can be seen that the local area attaches more and more importance to Tahiti, an important intermediate node.

In addition to supplies, about forty or fifty technicians from all walks of life arrived here. Among them were students from Corps Fort, students from shipyards and machinery factory technical schools, and some experienced masters directly selected from the workshop. These people will join the previous group of technicians who arrived here, and then recruit some smart apprentices locally, which will form the local industrial foundation and can almost operate some extremely basic factories.

"With these technicians, plus two or three thousand immigrants, they can almost gain a foothold around Jinhua Port." Zhang Jinhua stood on a wooden whistle tower outside the city, looking at the grass and trees nearby with great enthusiasm.

Jinhua Port is the later Afa Ahiti. The lagoon bay surrounded by coral reefs on the front is also called Jinhua Lake or Jinhua Bay. It can be seen that this is named after him - of course, this was also approved by the Executive Committee - and he himself is the South Pacific route commissioner appointed by the Executive Committee, responsible for the construction of various nodes on the South Pacific immigration route. He is temporarily stationed on Tahiti Island.

This newly built port city is located on a coastal impact plain. Nearby is a large area of ​​primeval forest. There are lagoons on both sides of the north and south. The west is a towering mountain peak. The climate is warm and the sea breeze is buzzing. In addition to being too humid, the living environment is still quite good, at least not as hot as imagined. Perhaps it is because of the southeast wind blowing here all year round.

The coastal impact plain is formed by volcanic ash brought down from the river in the west. It is roughly similar to the plain in northern Argentina. It is a very fertile farmland. In addition, the unique excellent climate here is no wonder that it can produce beautiful varieties such as Tahiti sugarcane and Tahiti lemon. The land is a good place.

In the past half month, 400 new and old soldiers from the Tahitian garrison have taken turns to fight, roughly clearing the coastal plains east of Jinhua Port, annihilated more than ten Tahiti tribes, and killed and wounded more than 2,000 natives, which has basically controlled this area. Even if there are still some natives hiding in the dense forests in the mountains at this time, it is not a big deal.

As for the territory west of Jinhua Port, due to the undulating mountains and extremely complex terrain, Zhang Jinhua does not intend to get involved for the time being. What the people on the east coast currently control are basically the essence of the island. If they develop well, they can feed tens of thousands of people. When they have finished digesting the place, they will search for the locals westward and occupy the entire island.

However, not occupying the western half does not mean that they will not conduct preliminary investigations here. Also within this half month, Zhang Jinhua ordered Navy Sergeant Liu Fubo to lead a fully armed expedition team to the west into the mountainous areas, conducting detailed investigations of the local vegetation, terrain, climate and native villages.

This is a conical mountain range, very steep, and the mountain is composed of old volcanic rocks. The steep mountain is often separated by deep canyons. The land in the canyon is often very fertile. There is no doubt that this kind of canyon is usually inhabited, but it may not be an enemy, because the natives on the island do not come from a single one or not a heart. They use shells as currency and live a very primitive life. If the people of the East Coast want to, they may be able to bring a ship of shells over, buy all the goods in their hands, and create an impressive inflation for them by the way - of course this is just a joke.

The valley plain at the bottom of the canyon is extremely fertile and has sufficient moisture, so the rainfall can be fully preserved. Unlike the hillsides on both sides, it is difficult to get in contact with the wet rain outside the mountain and cannot save a lot of precipitation. Therefore, it is drought and barren, with more ferns growing, which is very different from the trees at the bottom of the valley and on the mountain.

According to the agricultural technician who went there, rice and corn can be planted in the valley, and grass can be planted on the hillside. If it is well developed, it will indeed be able to survive many people. Especially the mountains here are vast and have great development potential, and it is more than enough as a node for ocean transportation. Moreover, if local officials are willing, they can also grow a large number of tropical economic crops such as coffee, cocoa, sugarcane on this island. If it is vigorously cultivated black pearls, it will definitely be a considerable asset if it is well developed.

On October 11, 1650, after initially settling down on the island, Zhang Jinhua left Jinhua Port, then sailed eastward against the warm current of the southern equator, and arrived in the waters of the Galapagos Island on November 5. Before they left, two ships from Australia brought 700 Ming immigrants to Tahiti Island again, as well as some livestock. Among the livestock were four horses, six cows, ten pigs and twenty goats, and four hump cows specially caught from New China Island, two Indian bisons and seven or eight New China Island endemic elephant birds - these were animals that the local government had worked hard to get. I really don’t know if it was the last few on the island.

After arriving at the Turtle Islands (the name of the East Coast people, the Galapagos Island, originally the Giant Turtle Island), the "Tahiti" all-steam-powered ship slowly docked on the coast of San Cristobal, a large island in the archipelago, and sent people to land. Except for a few harbors, most of the island is seaside cliffs dominated by black basalt. The island is full of weeds and trees scorching sun. The water vapor in the air is obviously very rich, but it does not rain during the dry season. Of course, this is not a big problem for plants, but it is a trouble for the East Coast sailors who come to fetch water. They found the stream that used to fetch water when camping, but they had no choice but to find that it had dried up there, so they could only return to the ship.

"The water vapor in the air is obviously very large. It looks like a steamer under the steaming sun. The clouds are so low, but why doesn't rain? This island is really strange! Animals can only eat plants or dew to quench their thirst!" Zhang Jinhua put down the telescope on his chest in depressed manner, poured out some beer from the kettle around his waist and drank it. Then he smashed his mouth and said, "Change a place and go to the largest island to try your luck."

On October 12, the Tahiti was anchored in the waters near Bank Bay on the northwest of Isabella Island, and then continued to send sailors to roam ashore to get water. The island — at least the northern half of its area — is much more severe than San Cristobal Island, with drought, hot, sparse vegetation, and large areas of black volcanic rock exposed outside.

The island is full of conical craters of all sizes. Liu Fubo, who led the team, felt that if these volcanoes had not erupted for many years, a lake would naturally form in the crater for people on the east coast to get water. His suggestions were recognized by everyone, so a group of people headed straight to the largest crater.

There are lizards of various colors everywhere next to the exposed rocks at the foot of the mountain. When they see people coming, they hide in their caves. People on the east coast do not care about these animals, so they move along the hillside toward the top of the mountain. The more they go up, the more green plants, and it can be seen that the moisture is more abundant. At first, there were low shrubs, weeds, cactus, acacia, and finally, large trees appear, which makes people wonder the magic of nature. From time to time, some panicked wild boars or wild goats appear in the woods, but people on the east coast do not know how to do it and go to the top of the mountain.

There was indeed a lake at the bottom of the crater! After Liu Fubo and others climbed to the top of the mountain, they immediately discovered this fact. There was a small island at the bottom of the lake, which seemed to be the real crater. No matter how hard it was, everyone began to go down the hillside with ashes everywhere to the bottom of the crater, but disappointingly, the water here turned out to be salt water!

The dejected people went down to the place where they set out at the foot of the mountain. At this time, the two sailors who stayed here had just killed a turtle weighing more than 90 kilograms and were dealing with the turtle meat. After eating a delicious roasted turtle meat here, they continued to set off in the afternoon. After searching for several craters in succession, they finally discovered a freshwater lake, and then sent someone back to report as if they were caught.

After the Danshui problem was solved, the people on the east coast did not evacuate immediately. On the contrary, they spent about more than a week to explore several nearby large islands and discovered an extremely abundant amount of sulfur mines here - this is an extremely scarce resource on the east coast. Unfortunately, this place is nominally the territory of the Kingdom of Spain and its geographical location is very sensitive. People on the east coast cannot make trouble for a short period of time, so they can only find a way later.

The geographical location here is so good (on an immigration route), there are no tropical diseases such as malaria, and there are rich minerals and unique animal and plant resources. Whether it is an immigration transfer station, a fishing port (backed by Peruvian fishing grounds), or mineral development, it has considerable value. However, due to the situation and urgently, it cannot be occupied, so I can only do it slowly in the future.

After leaving the Turtle Islands, the Tahiti returned to the Port of Araucan. The technicians from Zhenhai Shipyard, who had been waiting for a month, came to check the ship's condition, learned about the problems that occurred during the sailing, and prepared to go back and continue to optimize this type of ship, and strive to finalize and mass production as soon as possible.
Chapter completed!