Chapter 437 Northern Exploration Team
Chapter 437 – Northern Exploration Team
Goose feather snow flew in the sky, filling the area between the sky and the earth with a white blanket.
Stanford looked up into the sky and didn’t see much, only seemingly light filtering through the gaps in the snowflakes.
It made it impossible for him to tell north from south from east.
It was cold as hell in this hellhole! I really don’t know how those hairy barbarians survived.
He shivered for a moment, then hastily fastened his pants and turned around to take two steps to a mound of earth bulging out of the ground.
He lifted a thick animal skin to reveal a hole that glowed yellow, and the warmth that erupted from within made him eager to dive inside.
Alas! Had he made the right decision? He sighed.
Stanford, the commander of the Northern Exploration Fleet, had been tasked by Count Paul Greiman, the lord of Arda, to lead three ships from Port Fulan on the northwest coast of the Kingdom of Aldo from June of last year, and to launch an exploration of the northern waters along the continent’s coastline.
During their journey to the north, they still had a smooth time. There were a total of three fleets that set out at that time, and Stanford and the others were separated from the other two fleets at the edge of the bay, sailing all the way north and mapping along the way.
Then they discovered that what formed the northern edge of the northwestern bay was a huge peninsula sticking out into the ocean.
Stanford found a place to land and look at it himself with his men, the peninsula was dotted with hills and mountains, and then they found signs of orc tribes, and out of a consistent bad image of orcs, they did not want to risk making contact, and returned to the ship. In fact, for the existence of orcs on the opposite side of the sea, the people living in the Northwest Bay had known about it for a long time, and in the old days when pirates were rampant, there were some tall and hairy fellows in those infamous gangs, often known for their brutality and bloodlust.
The fleet continued to sail north along the coast for a month, and through observation they realized that the continental margin line did not run straight north, but extended diagonally to the northwest.
Along the way the exploratory team also surveyed and recorded geographical information along the coast, especially those places suitable for harbor construction. According to Lord Greiman’s far-reaching ambitions, in the future there would be fleet after fleet from the Northwest Gulf, which would be filled with artisans and food, as well as militia, and then build docks, warehouses, and shipyards that would serve as supply stations for voyages further afield.
The three-masted schooner they were traveling on had a self-sustainability at sea of a little over two months, and after a month of sailing the ship was nearly halfway through its supplies; fresh water could be replenished ashore occasionally (if one was lucky enough to come across rivers and lakes), but food was a big problem.
According to the original plan, they should have returned at this point. But during one of their explorations, they were pleasantly surprised to find traces of human natives, which the members of the exploring party had previously thought were only orcs north of the Rockies.
But the first contact between the two groups of strangers was not a warm one, and the canoeing natives were intimidated by the “giant ship” in which the explorers were traveling, and confronted each other from a great distance.
After half a day of confrontation, the explorers took the first step by setting down a small sampan, approaching the natives and making a gesture of friendship by throwing a bottle of honey and a packet of salt from a distance. The idea was to send some cookies, but unfortunately the cookies on the boat were stale and maggot-ridden, and sending them would have angered the natives.
When the natives opened the two gifts, the sweetness of the honey and the flavor of the salt immediately overwhelmed their noses and tongues, and they waved their hands at the strangers from afar.
“They are supposed to be friendly, and I think it would be a good idea to have a more in-depth conversation with them.”
The captain of the flagship suggested so.
Stanford thought for a moment before agreeing.
So the first mate of the flagship took the men ashore.
The first mate pulled out a silver coin with King Rodney’s head on it and gave it to one of the leader-looking men, but when the other man squeezed the coin in his hand and surveyed it, he looked as if he were just looking at a novelty, not money.
When the first mate pulled out a dagger made of steel and presented it to the other man, the big man jumped for joy and then unclipped a jewel he wore and presented it back to the first mate.
With a slightly mortified expression, the somewhat shy man squeaked and danced around as if explaining that the most valuable thing he had on him was this stone. “It looks like their society is still stuck at the level of bartering.”
The first mate said to the man beside him.
“Mate, we’ve got a lot of broken, shiny glass in the ship, wouldn’t it be a good idea to trade it for food – if they have any.”
A crew member came up with what he thought was a brilliant idea.
“That’s too unethical, isn’t broken glass just some trash? Is it good for you to take trash and trade it for supplies?”
“What’s the point, it makes no difference to them anyway.”
The first mate stopped the crew from arguing with a wave of his hand, “Alright! I’ll leave it to Commander Stanford to make the decision.”
……
“If we are to gain their support in exploring a wider area, we cannot engage in such fraudulent behavior! They are bound to find out the end as the exchange develops.”
Stanford vetoed that ridiculous proposal.
“Before we set out, Lord Graiman had emphasized to me that if we encountered natives – human or not – with whom we could communicate, we were to display a friendly demeanor.”
After making sure that the other party had no hostile intentions, Stamford personally led the group to the place where this group of natives lived.
Most of the buildings in this settlement or village were low-slung wooden huts or mud-peeled thatched huts, and the living conditions were a great deal worse than those in the countryside of Arda a few years ago; there was a particularly conspicuous tall wooden hut right in the middle of the village, which was supposed to be the place where the chief lived. The layout of the entire village had no obvious plan, and if you looked at it from a high place you would definitely feel it was very messy, but in front of the door of the chief’s longhouse there was an open clearing.
Through the number and density of the buildings, Stanford judged that there were like four or five hundred people in this village.
Considering the possibility of dealing with the natives of a foreign land, there existed scholars in the exploration team who were proficient in language research, and during some even-guessing exchanges and observations, Stenvall was surprised to find that a certain scale of cultivation existed here, but it should still be fishing and hunting, and animal heads and bone ornaments adorning the walls could be seen everywhere.
The people here seemed to be using wooden and bone tools, and the clothes on their bodies were also made of animal skins.
So the exploration team took out a lot of metal tools, like hammers, axes, shovels, nails, iron needles and so on, as well as three cotton cloths and several coils used for mending clothes, expressing the intention of wanting to exchange part of the food.
An elder who appeared to be of high authority – presumably the chief of the place – saw what the strangers produced, and his eyelids, which had been lowered, opened at once. He picked them up and looked at them as if he had seen some treasure, gently caressing them with his hands.
As expected, the explorers exchanged thirty sacks of grain and five sacks of dried meat hardened in the sun. In fact, there was something even more desirable for the team – furs, which would make them rich if they took them back and sold them, but for the moment it was the food that mattered.
After returning to the ship with the traded goods, Stanford summoned the heads of the three ships to discuss their next move.
Now that the food was a little more plentiful, shouldn’t the voyage be set “a little” farther.
Moreover, if they met a tribe of human natives that they could trade with, they could easily get supplies to support their voyage in other places, too.
Sorry guys, been busy lately.
(End of chapter)