Chapter 1377 Haiti Island, the Five Wonders of Taino!

"Ancestors! There really is a white-skinned tribe that appears in a big boat! This is the same as what the tribes in the west preached. They even have scary beards!..."

"Ah! Evil! What a white-skinned evil!..."

"O God of Cassava! Will they be extremely greedy and ruthless, spreading terrible death like the tribes in the west said?..."

"Leave! Leave quickly! Don't come close!..."

After sailing northwest, briefly passing by the northern part of the Northern Virgin Islands, and passing by the famous "Loli Island" in later generations, the Portuguese Kingdom's exploration fleet encountered an unexpected storm. Because the route was too far north, while sailing to avoid storms, they also avoided the long and narrow "Island of Valor", which later became known as Puerto Rico.

Finally, under the warm wind of February, they followed the traces of Taino fishing boats and when they approached the western coast, what suddenly appeared in front of them was the island of mountains that the Taino people called the "Big Island of Haiti" ( Haiti)! And once you get here, you are really only one step away from the hot land of Cuba in the west!

"O Lord! Such a big island must have an amazing number of natives, more than all the islands we have passed before!"

"That's right! Captain! The 'Native Kingdom' that Columbus encountered might be here! And even if it's not here, it's probably connected to the natives here!..."

"Yes! Boss, look at their village. It is obviously bigger than all the villages we have encountered before! Look at their big huts, big wooden houses, and a large area of ​​connected fields! I estimate that this is at least a thousand A village of people!…”

On the flagship Caravel sailboat, Bruno squinted his eyes and looked at the villages on the west coast. His expression was full of vigilance, wary of the swarm of "wasps" like Caribbean boats attacking again. The entire fleet is ready to speed up and sail to the deep sea at any time.

It can be said with certainty that the "Big Island of Haiti" is the largest island the Portuguese have encountered since their westward journey. This island is more than 600 kilometers from east to west and more than 200 kilometers from north to south. It covers an area of ​​76,000 square kilometers, which is three-quarters of the Kingdom of Portugal.

Such a vast island area naturally supports a large tribal population. At present, the Taino tribe growing cassava on the island has at least more than 100,000 people, and perhaps more than 200,000, or even 300,000 people. For the past hundred years, this area, like Puerto Rico, has been the front line for the Taíno tribes against the invasion of Carib boats. However, the scale of the invasion by the Caribs, with at most hundreds of warriors, brought war pressure, which was not enough to unite the Taino tribes on the entire island to form an extraordinarily powerful tribal alliance...

In fact, as long as the combined size of the Taino tribes reaches about 20,000 people and can gather thousands of strong men, it is enough to resist the largest Caribbean invasion!

Therefore, under this long, low-intensity tribal war that lasted for one or two hundred years, the 200,000 Taino tribes on the island gradually formed five chief tribal alliances (cacicazgo) with a scale of tens of thousands. To exaggerate, they are called "cacicazgo" "Emirate", but based on its own organizational level, it should be called "Union".

Yes, five Tainos, five! When the Portuguese arrived now, on the island of Haiti, there was such a divided balance of power of "five absolutes coexisting". Of course, the location of the five emirates is not "southeast, northwest, center", but "southeast, northeast, southwest, northwest, and center"!

Like the "Five Jue", these five Taino tribes have both intermarriage and alliances, as well as hostile conflicts. Each alliance has a large tribe as its core, and each large tribe has a family of "big chiefs" who are loved by the gods. Yes, this is the upper and lower divisions of the tribe, and it is the prototype of the tribe's divine descendants!

The beliefs of various tribes and alliances also changed from "natural Zemi" to a similar but different "powerful mother goddess" in the frequent struggles and conflicts to strengthen the legitimacy of the rule of the "chiefs" of each tribe.

"Lord! It's so strange! When the fishermen in these villages saw our big boat, they first approached with a smile...but after seeing the boat clearly, they all turned into panic? Then, they started shouting and quickly Rowing away is like seeing a ghost... This weird behavior seems completely different from the barbaric tribes I encountered before..."

Bruno frowned and carefully observed the escaping fishermen. A dozen fishing canoes were carrying twenty or thirty natives, escaping to the villages on the shore. None of these fishermen seemed to have dyed hair, and no weapons such as bows, arrows or short spears were seen. Some of them were wearing loincloths and some were wearing grass skirts. They were not as naked as the dyed-haired tribesmen they encountered before.

"Get closer! Take a closer look at the villages on the shore! I have a hunch that the natives here are not the same tribe as the fierce guys before!..."

The Portuguese fleet maintained a fighting posture and cautiously approached the eastern coast of the large Haitian island, approaching the core territory of the "Iguibu League". By this time, the canoe they had encountered had already fled back to the tribe's village. And with a burst of excited shouting, the whole village became panicked. Hundreds of tribal people were running around in the village. Many people rushed to the beach. After seeing the "white man" on the big boat, they fled back to the village in fright. And increasingly frightened shouts gradually gathered in the village, and one sentence appeared repeatedly.

"The Stone Mother Goddess! It's an evil demon! It's the evil demon in the prophecy!..."

"Fleet alert! Load cannons! Get ready for battle!..."

The reaction of the native village was obviously wrong. No matter how you look at it, it was not friendly. With the experience of the Caribbean tribe attack, Bruno immediately moved away from the seashore where the boat was anchored, kept a distance of two miles, and continued to observe the reaction on the shore.

In the Taino village on the shore, a chief wearing feathers hurriedly emerged from the wooden house. While sending an envoy to ask for help from the "Great Chief of Igui", he stood beside the tribe's "Zemi Totem" and organized the tribe's young men with all his might.

Soon, two or three hundred Taino men, organized by a dozen tribal warriors, held stone spears, slings, and hunting bows and gathered together nervously. Their equipment was very similar to that of the Caribbean people. This was a mutual learning after years of fighting.

It's just that they didn't master the unique poison arrow technology of the Caribbean people, because daily farming and fishing did not use this short-term frog poison at all. As the defending party, the time and place of the battle could not be decided by themselves. On the mild island of Haiti, like the island of Cuba to the west, there is relatively more land reclamation, and the poisonous frogs in the jungle are relatively more difficult to find.

"The Stone Mother Goddess protects us! The Sun Chief will bring support! The evil demons leave quickly! Leave our territory!..."

Taino Dingzhuang defended the border of the tribal village and shouted loudly to the big ship on the sea. They did not have the bravery of the Caribbean people, but gathered together like hedgehogs to defend, without any active attack.

".?"

Bruno waited patiently for two quarters of an hour, but the expected native attack did not occur. Even if the natives gathered two or three hundred people, they still just guarded the village. He tried to let the fleet continue to approach, but except that the natives shouted louder and more urgently, and the stone spears were swung harder, there was still no sign of attacking the fleet.

"Hmm... God is my witness! This is indeed a new tribe, and it is definitely not the same as those annoying 'purple-headed wasps' before! If those annoying wasps had this many, they would have rushed over to die..."

Bruno was thoughtful, and his eyes stayed on the gathered natives for a long time. Except for a very few people, most of the natives had no clothes, but a loincloth. They had no metal weapons, let alone armor. It seemed that they were vulnerable except for their large numbers.

In the middle of the native team, there was a striking man wearing feathers and grass clothes. He was obviously their commander or the chief of the tribe. At the moment, the man was pressing on a large stone with a sun painted on it, muttering something in his mouth, as if praying to the evil god.

"The sun painted on the stone? Hmm... It seems not to be the worship of the devil, but pure idolatry?... Anyway, it's all evil paganism..."

Bruno pondered in silence. In the Caribbean villages he had encountered before, he had never seen a similar "evil god totem". What he didn't know was that this totem of the "Stone Sun" was the worship of the "Stone Mother Goddess" and the "Sun Father God" worshipped by the "Higüey Tribe".

Yes, the Portuguese exploration fleet arrived at the territory of the "Higüey Tribe" in the southeast of the island of Haiti. And "Higüey" means "the place where the sun rises" in the local tribal language! So, this can also be called the "Eastern Sun Tribe".

On the other side, in the northeast, is the "Muggle Tribe" (Maguá). Yes, the meaning of "Muggle" here is undoubtedly "stone". Because it is located on the east side, it is called the "Eastern Stone Tribe". As for the symmetrical northwest, it is the "Marién Tribe", which is also a name related to "stone" and can be called the "Western Stone Tribe".

In the southwest of the island is the "Jaragua Emirate", which can be called the "Western Sun Tribe" because of its westernmost location and their self-proclaimed "title of the Great Chief of the Sun". As for the "Maguana" in the middle, it is the final upgraded name of "Stone", "unique sun stone", which can be called "Zhongshentong"... no, "Zhongri Stone Alliance".

So far, the "Dongri" in the southeast, the "Xiri" in the southwest, the "Dongshi" in the northeast, the "Xishi" in the northwest, and the "Zhongshi" in the middle are collectively called the "Five Taino Wonders of Haiti Big Island", and together they rule the entire Haiti!

Among the five tribes, the "Dongri" and "Dongshi" on the east side are at the forefront of resisting the Caribbeans. They are facing the pressure of the Caribbeans and are roughly neutral on the island. So far, there has been no major conflict with other tribes.

As for the three tribes on the west side, they are in a hostile state of "two against one". The "Zhongri Stone" in the middle and the "Xiri" in the southwest are allied to host the "Xishi" in the northwest.

The conflict between the two sides is intensifying, and there has almost been a group battle of more than a thousand people. Of course, the group fights between the Taino tribes were completely different from the brutal fighting on the plateau. At best, they were "unarmored village stick fights". After a fight, at most, there were only a few dozen casualties...

It is worth mentioning that the wife of the "Zhongrishi" chief was the sister of the "Xiri" chief, the great poet and female chief, "Golden Flower" (Anacaona), who was respected and commemorated by the Caribbean countries in later generations!

"God bless you! Captain, these natives gathered together in a mass, which is the best artillery target! At this distance, as long as the eight-pound cannon is loaded with gravel shotgun shells, a round of firing can kill dozens of them!..."

"Yes! Open fire! Captain! Defeat these natives, and then go ashore... Such a big village, not to mention those plump women... There must be valuables, maybe gold!..."

Bruno turned around and saw a group of sailors and officers who were eager to try and looked cruel. He raised his eyebrows, obviously unhappy. After a moment of silence, he looked at the kind-faced, round-faced and slightly fat boatswain Haroldo among a group of adjutants.

"Haroldo, what do you think? Should we attack these defending natives?..."

"Ah? Boss, I think... we should not open fire, but send some gifts to express goodwill to the natives on the shore! After all, these natives did not take the initiative to attack us, and we know nothing about the situation here. In the case of insufficient intelligence, caution is the best choice. If you are not sure of your move, you should keep smiling..."

"Very good! God is my witness, Haroldo is right! This is a qualified Royal Navy officer!..."

Hearing the satisfactory answer, Bruno smiled and nodded, and looked sharply at the people who bowed their heads. Then, he stretched out his hand, just like Captain Diogo in the past, and patted Haroldo on the shoulder affectionately.

"Haroldo, you make arrangements, send a sailor down, and give the natives a friendly gift!..."

"Yes! Boss!..."

Haroldo respectfully responded, and was about to turn around to make arrangements... a deafening roar of cannons suddenly sounded on the coast!

"Boom boom boom!..."

Note: The Easter egg chapter is a map of the various alliances in Haiti.