novelAbuy Chapter 1904 1377: The Natives' Kingdom Is Right Before Our Eyes!
Chapter 1904 1377: The Natives' Kingdom Is Right Before Our Eyes!
"Pray to the Almighty! May the baptized, in the death and resurrection of the Lord, die purified of their sins and enjoy a beautiful resurrection after death!..."The prayer led by two noble captains echoed across the two Portuguese ships, as six bodies were cast into the endless sea.
This time, in the attack by the Caribs, the flagship had six men struck by arrows, resulting in four deaths. On the vice ship, four were poisoned, but only two died. Initially, the fleet of forty-four had now dwindled to thirty-eight, causing morale to plummet!
It now seems that the storm's misdirection was indeed an unfortunate fate. Columbus's direct voyage reached the Bahamas Islands, arriving at the territory of the kind and simple Taino Tribe, enjoying a spree of plunder and deceit. Bruno's voyage, however, stumbled into the extremely xenophobic domain of the Caribs, heading towards their stronghold!
It's important to know that among the various tribes of the Caribbean Islands, neither the ancient Ciboney people nor the numerous Arawak-Taino-Lokono people were as fierce and barbaric as the Caribs who rose to power centuries ago!
These fierce tribes occupying the Lesser Antilles used rudimentary canoes, stone spears, hunting bows, and blowguns to resist Western colonizers for over a hundred years!
Their two most formidable weapons include the infamous "Poison Arrow Curtain," which applies deadly jungle frog poison to both light arrows and blowguns, using "natural enchantments" to negate the colonizers' armor advantage, bringing unexpected "instant death casualties."
Their other even more powerful weapon is "poverty"! Profound poverty meant never offering any "spoils of war" besides food. Furthermore, they are fiercely aggressive, ready to bite upon sight, like crabs with hard shells and sharp claws, yet no meat...
"Lord! Why another great island full of fierce natives? So many barbarians rowing small boats, two or three hundred of them!..."
"Damned! They've spotted us and are charging towards us again! Turn! Turn! Avoid them, fire less, conserve gunpowder!..."
Less than a hundred miles northwest of Martinique Island is the future Dominica Island. This great island resisted Western colonizers the longest in the Caribbean Sea, conquered only in the eighteenth century. Like Martinique, it was a core concentration area for the Caribs!
Dominica is a mountain forest island with a rugged and steep coastline, lacking natural harbors for large ships. The island's most prominent feature is the over fourteen hundred meters high north-side Diablotin Volcano. This volcano makes the central basin highly fertile, supporting many Caribbean tribes. Before the Old Continent's plague arrived, the population here was estimated at five thousand to nine thousand, possibly more, with incredible density.
"Foda-se! Avoid these annoying horseflies! Circumvent this damned great island!"
Seeing the scale of the natives' small boats gave Bruno a headache. These dyed-haired, tattooed-faced barbarians either fought or fled upon contact, refusing any interaction, impervious to deceit, entirely "violent non-cooperation."
The Caribs used various arrows, some non-poisoned, some poisoned, and some highly toxic. Once sailors were hit, life hung in the balance. Worse yet, even with great effort, killing these natives yielded almost no benefits!
Even with expensive purple dye, they seemed never to have surplus reserves, using it as soon as available. This was evident from chieftains who dyed only half of their hair!
"Boom! Boom boom!..."
The Portuguese fleet's cannons again demonstrated their dispersive effect, killing seven or eight natives. As the Carib natives temporarily feared and scattered, the fleet changed direction, brushing past the fertile Dominica Island.
This core island of the Caribs indeed produced purple dye from conch shells, earning the "Purple Island" title. Extracting purple dye requires massive manual labor to capture, farm, and gather conch shells, a truly "labor-intensive industry." Without many docile slaves, the sparsely populated colonizers found extracting dye nearly impossible...
Future Dominica's flag featured a parrot with purple feathers. It was one of only two in history with purple in its flag. The other nation was Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea, embedding purple in its rainbow...
"Lord protect us! Stay vigilant! Upon seeing these small boats of natives with dyed hair exceeding a hundred, promptly keep clear!"
"Inform Sir Silvira! Tell him not to fire so intensely! If we keep up the bombardment, we'll exhaust gunpowder before encountering Columbus's fabled Native Kingdom!"
From Dominica Purple Island heading northwest a hundred miles is Guadeloupe, the second largest island in the Lesser Antilles, second only to Trinidad's Black Oil Island. Locally, it bears another beautiful name, "Karukera," meaning "Island of Beautiful Waters," simply "Water Island!"
"Holy Mother protect us! Captain, no troublesome natives sighted for now... Should we dock on this island to replenish food and water?"
"We have enough food, eat sparingly! As for water... lookouts stay vigilant! Quickly replenish fresh water then depart!"
The Guadeloupe Water Island brims with rivers and lush scenery. Bruno vaguely spotted cooking smoke in the distance but had lost interest in inspecting further.
The sailors on the ship no longer wished to raid native villages, mainly fearing the "Devil's Curse of Poison Arrows." This probabilistic, randomly fatal threat was psychologically more daunting than genuine battles!
"Hoist the sails, onward!"
As the sun set, the Portuguese exploration fleet embarked once more, bidding farewell to the last "great island" in the Lesser Antilles. From Trinidad to Guadeloupe, there are seven fertile volcanic islands nurturing tens of thousands of Caribbean tribe members!
These seven great islands are Trinidad's "Black Oil Island," Grenada's "Narrow Bay Island," Saint Vincent's "Rainbow Island," Saint Lucia's "Sulfur Spring Island," Martinique's "Flower Island," Dominica Island's "Purple Island," and Guadeloupe's "Water Island."
This encompasses the essence of the entire Lesser Antilles, which were fully colonized and developed into plantation islands only until the 17th-century Enlightenment era. A poem of unknown authorship captures the charm of the seven islands from south to north:
"Black bay, color springs, flower, purple water; seven islands are great places! Volcanos and rivers fertile land; sugarcane, cinnamon, and coffee. Cassava and bananas are plentiful; except the natives aren't easy to handle..."
Ahem! Beyond the seven islands, the remaining fragmented islands of the Lesser Antilles, such as Antigua-Barbuda-Montserrat, Saint Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, are mostly "scraps"! These barren islands with few rivers predominantly belong to small Caribbean tribes, some inhabited by cave-dwelling Ciboney people, thus aptly termed "Cave-Dwelling Archipelago."
The Cave-Dwelling Archipelago's arid, barren, narrow dimensions naturally imply rapidly shrinking tribe sizes and numbers. It was here that Bruno carefully selected a target, loosening the "dog leash" some more. Subsequently, the fleet slaughtered a small tribe of a hundred, capturing several Ciboney laborers, slightly boosting morale.
"Lord! According to the captured prisoners... from here north, there are no islands left, only large islands in the west! And those annoying Caribs are becoming increasingly sparse, rarely encountered! More commonly, it seems to be Guanahaní people? Apparently, they're from the same clan as the guide potato?"
"Holy Mother bless us! I have a strong premonition again! The true Native Kingdom is on the great island in the west, now very close!"