Chapter 14: A difficult start for the American colony

In July, after more than two months of difficult sailing, several ships heading to the colonies of Cape Breton Island and the North American Twin Islands all arrived at their destinations. Only the ship to Grenada, because the road is farther, still sailing on the sea.

After arriving in the colony, everyone realized that the colony was not as beautiful as expected. At least, at the beginning, it was not so beautiful.

Fortunately, they were colonies that arrived in the summer. If you switch to winter, let alone say that the one on Cape Breton Island must be frozen into a dog. Because, Cape Breton Island can also be cold to minus ten degrees in winter. Even for two islands in North America, several degrees below zero is not a problem. If immigrants come over in winter, they will definitely freeze to death because there is no house.

But even in summer, it is a lot of trouble. First, immigrants have no houses. Therefore, the first thing people who arrive at Cape Breton Island and the two islands in North America are to collectively log after disembarking. Then, people who know carpentry and masons work among the immigrants organize the construction of houses.

It was just that Marin had expected these circumstances, and specially dispatched several craftsmen from Texel Island to direct everyone to build adobe houses.

The adobe house is simple to build and save costs. Moreover, time is fast. More importantly, Marin "designed" the adobe house, which also contains clay kang. It's summer now and I can't see it yet. When winter comes, the advantages of such adobe houses will be obvious.

It's just that even if you want to build an adobe house, you have to cut down the trees first. Because, whether it is Cape Breton Island or North America ’s twin islands, there are tens of meters high towering trees everywhere, and the virgin forest is downright. If you want to build a house on the island, do you always have to make a lot of space?

Therefore, immigrants who have just arrived in Cape Breton Island and Amerigo Island (Nantucket Island) among the two islands in North America must first cut down the big trees that hinder them ...

And cutting down a big tree is a very heavy physical exercise. In fact, the process of cutting down big trees is not a hassle. The real trouble is to move the felled tree to the designated location, and after cutting down the tree, dig out the roots ...

Among them, the most painful thing is to dig the roots of trees. This is not a small tree a few meters high, but a towering tree a few tens of meters high. Their roots are intertwined and can occupy an area of ​​tens of square meters. Digging out such a tree root and digging it out is simply a big project.

This year, there was no excavator, let alone Lanxiang technician. Therefore, when people dig the roots, they can only use a shovel and pickaxe to dig manually ...

However, digging out dozens of square meters of tree roots from the deep buried ground is almost exhausting. Fortunately, these immigrants are young people, otherwise, they really can't figure it out.

Just like this, the 200 immigrants from Cape Breton Island and Amerigo Island each wasted time digging the tree roots a few days after arriving on the island.

Their ships were all parked in the Tamsui River. They did not follow Marin's assumptions. They were parked near the port of Nantucket and the Sydney mining area of ​​North Sydney on the north side of Sydney Bay.

This is so, only for one reason-ship maggot ...

The boat maggot is a very hateful animal, and their existence is simply the enemy of the great voyage. Because these maggots will attach to the bottom of the sailing boat, like termites, eat wood and eat away the hull. When the ship's maggots erode to a certain extent, the bottom of the ship will be wormed. Then, water will enter the bottom of the ship, causing the ship to sink.

The famous British and Spanish naval battle, the Spanish Invincible Fleet, in fact, did not lose much under the blow of the British army, but because the maggots caused silence on the Atlantic Ocean, there are many. The dozen or so silent ships are mostly because of The maggots eroded the hull. In the naval battle, the double effects of the British artillery and the wind and waves on the sea caused the leakage and silence, not the artillery on the British ship. The British artillery attack actually killed many sailors on the deck of the Spanish battleship, but directly sunk many Spanish battleships. After all, the Spanish battleship is also a professional battleship that uses a lot of wood to thicken the side flank, and it is not so easy to be penetrated by the side flank. But the decay of maggots on the seabed is very difficult to control.

Built in ancient Greece, people noticed the danger of maggots. At that time, people used asphalt and tar to coat the bottom of the ship, which was indeed effective in a short time. But bitumen and tar are soaked in seawater, and the toxicity will slowly dilute. When the toxicity is gone, the maggots will attach again and continue to nibble the bottom of the ship ...

This problem was actually solved by the Royal Navy in the 18th century. That is-wrapped a layer of copper on the bottom of the ship. The maggots of the copper kayak are not gnawed, and the copper sheet is corrosion-resistant and difficult to be soaked in the water. If it is covered with iron, it will soon rust.

It's just that this idea, during this period of 1501, don't even think about it. Because the price of copper is too expensive. The silver to copper exchange ratio is 1 to 15. Wrapping the bottom of the ship with copper skin can only be done if the fighter plane of the local tyrants-the Middle Eastern tyrants came with money exchanged for gold and silver ...

Of course, the boat maggot has another weakness, that is-can not survive in fresh water. Because maggots are marine organisms and cannot survive in fresh water. Therefore, in the era of ancient wooden ships, the port generally chose to be at the mouth of the river. This position is good for going out to sea, and because the boat stops at the mouth of the Tamsui River, the maggots will automatically escape.

Therefore, the immigrants sent by Marin to Cape Breton Island and Amerigo Island chose to stop the ship at the mouth of the Danshui River instead of the port expected by Marin.

Because ships of later generations are all steel or aluminum alloy hulls, naturally they are not afraid of maggots. Therefore, the ports of later generations go directly into the sea. But the ports of this era are often at the mouth of the Dahe River. London, for example, is on the banks of the Thames. Ocean-going ships, coming to London, must first enter the Thames and then dock on the Thames.

Emden, the largest port of East Frisian Lambert occupied by Marin, is also on the Ames. Only freshwater estuaries or ports in Hanoi, the ships can dock for a long time. Otherwise, the ship can't help the ship maggots decay for a long time.

Right now, the ships that arrived on Cape Breton Island and Amerigo Island all entered the Danshui River to catch the maggots. The immigrants also chose the estuary of the Danshui River to establish settlements.

It's just that because of the fertile deltas, the estuaries of the Danshui River all grow tens of meters of towering trees, which is extremely difficult to cut down.

But in any case, Marin is right about one thing-this is an undeveloped virgin land with fertile soil ...

Therefore, despite the difficulty of moving the felled trees and digging the roots, the immigrants chose to persist. Because, as long as the difficulties in the early stage survived, a better life will be ushered in later.

While the immigrants were chopping large trees and digging roots, the fishermen who came with the fleet drove small fishing boats and began to go fishing.

Because he had just arrived in a new place, the fishermen were very unfamiliar with the local geographical environment and did not know the distribution of underwater reefs. So, at the beginning, the fishermen who came to the new place were very careful and the boat was slow. Therefore, the fish caught is also limited. What's more, they caught many American fish species not seen in Europe. Encountered this new breed, they dare not eat randomly, afraid of poison. Therefore, these fish should be put aside first, not for everyone to eat. After catching live prey in the future, feed the prey to test, the non-toxic, before eating ...

Therefore, at first, these fishermen could not fully provide food supplies for the colonial immigrants. Fortunately, Marin's immigration boat also brought a lot of food, but he was not afraid of starving to death. After a while ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ The fishermen are familiar with their surroundings, they can fish in large quantities to meet the food needs of immigrants ...

Because it is summer, so I have missed the time of spring cultivation. Therefore, even if cultivated land is reclaimed, only a small amount of crops suitable for sowing in autumn can be planted.

However, before reclaiming the wasteland, it is also necessary to cut down the towering big trees that "dominate" the fertile soil and dig out the roots. This work is much more arduous than building settlements.

Because the area of ​​the settlement is limited, the area required for arable land is very wide. This also means that there are far more trees to be felled, and the number of roots that need to be dug is also amazing, even scary ...

Governor Garland, who led the colonization of Cape Breton Island, and Governor Tara, who was responsible for the colonization of the two islands in North America (both were Marin ’s knightly servants, but they were not talented enough, so they were arranged by Marin to become the governor of the colony ) Are deeply aware that-in the second half of this year, they don't want to plant land. For the rest of the year, they will probably spend their time cutting trees and digging roots. Only in the spring of next year, they can plant the seeds of the crops in the spring, and then wait for the autumn harvest ...

However, they remembered that Marin wanted them to colonize the Americas, and they must pay attention to obtaining enough timber for shipbuilding. For example, the cut oak must be air-dried and preserved for future shipbuilding. As for the immigrants who build houses and cook fire, they use wood that is not oak. Anyway, that's a lot. Therefore, Garland and Tara ordered the felled oak to be lifted to the shelter from the rain and waited for the air to dry. As for other pine, birch and other woods, because they are not needed for shipbuilding or not much needed, they are directly ordered to be divided into several sections. In this way, the wood divided into several sections is also easy to carry away. Otherwise, tens of meters of logs are too difficult to carry ...