I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 668 New Guinea Australia
Going east from Bali are the Larantuka Islands (East Nusa Tenga) and Timor Island.

The former was a Portuguese colony, while most of the latter was under colonial control by the Dutch.

Further east is the second largest island in the world, Papua New Guinea, also called Irian Island.

This island is really big, not even much smaller than Australia. Australia is a continent, not a big island.

The Portuguese discovered the existence of the Papuans more than a hundred years ago. Because the Papuans were too dark, the Portuguese mistakenly believed that they were related to black Africans, so they named the island New Guinea.

But in fact, Papuans are not black people, or even Africans. From a genetic point of view, they should be Asians who immigrated from Southeast Asia.

The reason why they evolved into similar appearances is simply that the sun in the area where Papuans live is too poisonous and the climate is too hot, so they have adapted over time.

Kang Zifei knew about the existence of the Papuans because he had visited the Portuguese and Dutch governors in advance and found the Papuan islands from the map.

After some field trips to the island, Kang Zifei said: "No wonder the Netherlands and Portugal discovered this island early, but were unwilling to develop and colonize it. This island is covered with hot and humid rainforest, which produces neither food nor spices. It is not suitable for The climate on the island means that if you stay here for a long time, you will easily get acclimatized and get sick.”

To sum it up, just one word, poor!

They are poor and the environment is bad.

To the Portuguese, the only thing of value on this broken island was probably the black slaves on the island.

Kang Zifei did not choose to establish a colonial stronghold on the island. He just recorded the coordinates of the island and asked His Majesty what to do with it when he returned home.

Kang Zifei also had contact with the Papuans on the island. It can only be said that they are much more barbaric than the previous natives of the Sandalwood Islands.

The natives of the Sandalwood Islands at least have a complete social system, but these Papuans still retain the custom of headhunting to this day.

Whenever the strong men of the Papua tribe go to war and kill enemies of the opposing tribe, they will cut off the opponent's head. He brought it back to the tribe, then took out the brains of the heads and ate them, and then made the hollow heads into dried and shrunk corpses.

Anyway, Kang Zifei couldn't understand this kind of behavior, and what he couldn't understand was that these Papuans did this not only to their enemies, but also to their parents and relatives. They would also turn their deceased relatives into desiccated corpses.

Once an important guest visits the village, the villagers will take out the heads of their ancestors, place them on wooden pillars at the entrance of the village, and decorate them with leaves in the shape of the sun to show hospitality.

Don't ask Kang Zifei how he knew it, because the Papuans regarded him as a Portuguese, who made everyone white (relative to the Papuans).

Then he was invited as a guest by the warm and hospitable Papuan people. The "Sun Father" circled around the door almost made him sick and vomited.

Leaving the Papuan islands in a hurry, the fleet continued south.

The next voyage became much more boring. I didn't see any land for a month, it was all about the vast sea. The crew and sailors were almost bored.

A group of sailors had nowhere to release their exuberant energy, so they simply lay on the deck and bask in the sun every day.

Some also became fishermen, and whoever caught a fish would receive cheers from other sailors and crew members.

It got so boring in the end that a group of soldiers even started a wrestling match on the deck.

The activity of deck competition quickly became popular on several ships, and even the chief captain Kang Zifei was alarmed.

However, he did not stop him, but with a wave of his hand, he took out two hundred taels of silver as a prize for the competition.

Two hundred taels of silver, in today's Ming Dynasty, still has sufficient purchasing power, and it is considered a huge sum of money.

After sailing like this for more than a month, the watchman was bored and yawned while looking at the empty sea. Suddenly, he seemed to see a dark shadow in the distance. He rubbed his eyes and found that the shadow was still there, and quickly picked up the telescope.

"Island, yes island, so big... such a big island!"

The fleet immediately caused a sensation, and Kang Zifei's flagship also received the news. All idle sailors went up to the deck to take a look.

"Quick, move over at full speed, log in and take a look!" Kang Zifei ordered excitedly.

It was more like a piece of land than an island.

Because it is so big, what you can see through a telescope cannot be described as vast.

At a glance, there is no boundary at all. At least it is much larger than the Honolulu Island (Hawaii) I saw at first.

The fleet quickly arrived at the New World. Under the protection of his own soldiers, Kang Zifei set foot on the new land: "Your Majesty is right. There is indeed an undiscovered new continent in the waters south of the Nanyang Islands. Here, The continent should be Xinmingzhou.”

In fact, Kang Zifei was still wrong, and Zhu Yijiong didn't know it. As early as more than a hundred years ago, the Dutch had discovered the existence of the Australian continent and gave it the name New Netherlands.

However, the Dutch were unlucky. They ran directly south from Java Island and saw the desert area of ​​northern Australia.

This place is completely desert. It is really barren. There is not even anything edible. Even in future generations, it will not be suitable for human survival at all.

The Dutch businessmen therefore believed that Australia was a barren land with no economic value and no indigenous survival, so they left again.

Kang Zifei's luck is much better than that of the Dutch, and it can be regarded as a lucky hit.

He sailed south from "Kunlun Island". The middle route did not follow the rules, but shifted slightly to the west.

If he kept heading south, he might find New Zealand, or he might find nothing.

By the way, the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand are closely related to the indigenous people of the Sandalwood Islands. They even belong to the same language family, and their ancestors are probably headhunters from the Taiwan Mountains.

It would be interesting if Kang Zifei found a New Zealander first.

The area where the Ming fleet landed in Australia happened to have an indigenous tribe.

The natives quickly discovered Kang Zifei and his party, but they did not launch a direct attack. Instead, they looked at these outsiders who were completely different from them with vigilance.

Kang Zifei was also very interested in observing these Australian aborigines. Judging from their appearance alone, the Australian aborigines were very similar to the Papuans on Conlun Island.

However, they are not as dark as Papuans, their skin color is more brownish-red, and their hair is also curly.

Kang Zifei brought his own soldiers forward to deal with the natives, but he still used the same old method. If the natives did not resort to force, then he would not resort to force either.

At least that's the case on the surface. Anyway, the natives don't understand how powerful the fire sticks in the hands of the soldiers are.

Seeing that Kang Zifei was not carrying a "weapon", there was a guy among the indigenous people who seemed to be a chief. He hesitated for a moment, and then came forward with two indigenous guards.

The indigenous chief was painted in various colors and was not fully clothed. He looked quite similar to the Indians, but he was obviously shabbier.

Kang Zifei first took out a piece of colorful cotton and made signs on his body: "Clothes...wear...gifts..."

The indigenous chief quickly understood the meaning, accepted the greeting gift, and reached out to touch him.

After a moment, a smile appeared on his face. Even though it was just mass-produced cotton cloth with a little dye added, it was still a good thing that the natives had never seen before.

With nice clothes as a meeting gift, the originally tense atmosphere quickly eased.

Kang Zifei, who had gained experience, smiled slightly and did not immediately make a request. Instead, he took out a cigar again, lit it and took two puffs, then handed another one over: "Cigarette...smoked...gift... …”

The indigenous chief hesitated for a moment, and because he was really curious, he took the cigar.

But he didn't ask Kang Zifei to light a fire. Instead, he used local materials and quickly lit the cigar himself. He imitated Kang Zifei and began to smoke tentatively.

Kang Zifei's eyes flashed, and he secretly noted in his heart: If you know how to learn, you can make your own fire, and you are not just a raw person who drinks hair and blood, you can further communicate.

The indigenous chief learned very quickly, and even learned it by himself without a teacher. The way he smoked and smoked, he looked like an old smoker.

It has to be said that tobacco is indeed a good thing. Even indigenous people who have never touched cigarettes can quickly get started and become addicted to it.

There were "gorgeous and expensive" clothes in front of me, and cigars that can make people feel relaxed and happy.

The indigenous chief believed that these people in front of him were not bad people, and warmly invited Kang Zifei and others to visit the tribe.

The initial contact with the local indigenous people was successful, and the next step was to find a habitable base suitable for colonization.

Learn the language and writing of the indigenous tribes, and understand and collect the living habits of the indigenous people, including whether there are any specialty crops, livestock, saplings, etc. in the New World.

Conservative estimates suggest that Kang Zifei and the others will have to live in the New World for a few months.

　Overtime

　　
　
(End of this chapter)