On July 25, 1657, the Nicole and Pride set sail from the southwest coast of Papua, and soon after sailing, the fleet turned southwest and crossed the Arafura Sea at an average speed of eight knots, and finally reached the northwest corner of Carpentaria Bay, the northern coast of mainland Australia, three days later, on July 28.

At six o'clock in the morning, after four hours of night sailing, the fleet noticed a strait ahead.

After surveying, the navigator on duty reported to Captain Gu that the fleet had arrived on the northern coast of mainland Australia.

Nicole's lookout finally saw through the telescope the familiar northern continent of Australia, with distant coastlines full of mangroves and sandy beaches, as well as vast savannahs looming through the mangroves.

At the same time, the trainee navigator in the cockpit of the Nicole, using the chart data at hand, quickly and accurately deduced the latitude and longitude, and it was obvious that the coastline on the right side of the strait exuding rich greenery was the famous Groot Island.

Next, the fleet sailed north along the western coastline of the island, finally discovering the mouth of a large river in the distance, where in the Old World there was a deep-water dock that was the main export point of manganese ore from Groot Island.

Soon, Pride was surveying the approach along a small stretch of gentle coastline in the western part of the island, near the waters of the estuary, and more than a dozen kilometers deep into the estuary where the manganese iron ore and open-pit coal were produced.

Although this work is more time-consuming and laborious, the crew has long been familiar with this kind of task, and before they know it, the day has passed like this.

By the next day, the task was to survey the terrain on both sides of the estuary where the docks had been built in the Old World.

After careful discussion and preparation, Gu Jin decided that Zhu Beiguo would take ten people, including Ren Ke, Wei Hong, Ai Lushi, Wei Dong, Yue Yue, and Zhou Rui, to land on this island in the cool morning.

The specific landing site is on the north side of an alluvial fan at the estuary, where there is bare sand, relatively dry and well-viewed, and is the standard landing site for the rainforest coastline.

Although the island is only separated from the mainland by a not very wide strait, but because of the effect of ocean currents and sea transpiration, Groot Island is obviously much hotter and humid than the Australian mainland not far away, and the coast of the island is basically blocked by dense mangrove forests.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the lookout on the Nicole soon found traces of the natives' activities, it was a jungle of fireworks, and when the fleet approached the estuary, the watchman on the Nicole lookout also noticed through the binoculars that there was movement near the estuary, and when he got closer, the lookout saw a large number of indigenous tribes in the waters of the estuary.

By this time the telescope could clearly see in the vicinity of the mouth of the river about a hundred indigenous men with blue, red, and white paint, naked and busy on the shore, and there were also figures on the sea, like canoe-like boats disappearing in the undulating waves.

On the beach, there were about the same number of women and children, doing something by the water's edge, maybe picking up seafood, it seems, this is a medium-sized tribe.

The crew members who had been informed by the lookout immediately ran to the deck to watch, and the people pointed at the distance, and many of them looked at the shirtless women in the binoculars, and joked with each other about meat and vegetarian food.

Of course, this observation usually goes both ways, and when the Nicole appeared in the sea and sky, some sharp-eyed natives stopped what they were doing and looked at the huge hull of the Nicole in the distance.

The sea in the distance was steaming due to the sunlight, making the hull of the Nicole constantly twist and shake in the hot steam, looking like a mirage on the horizon......

However, a whistle came from afar, which immediately caused a commotion on the riverbank, and the people looked at this roaring so-called mirage with astonishment, and finally stopped what they were doing altogether, staring blankly into the distance, completely oblivious to their work.

Soon, several naked men with feathers of various colors appeared on the beach, and they stopped in front of a pile of rocks on the beach, muttering words and dancing to the rhythm of the wooden drums.

When the people of the tribe saw things that they had never seen in their lives, the dancers were the first to appear—they were the sorcerers of the tribe and the wise men of the tribe, and it was clear that the tribesmen hoped that the sorcerers would be the first to explain the unknown in the distance in line with their worldview......

So the tribesmen danced along with the men, singing strange tunes in unison.

The people on the deck of the Nicole are not curious about this scene, they all know that this is the standard reaction of the natives when they encounter the unknown, anyway, in the eyes of the natives, the Nicole may be a fairy or a demon, in short, it must have caused a lot of commotion.

So everyone used an attitude of appreciating the Dharma to observe the various tosses of the natives, after all, the other party regarded themselves and the ship as unusual anomalies, and the crew found this very interesting, and even felt that they were very attractive.

As the distance between the two sides gets closer and closer, both sides see each other's situation clearly, and that "mirage" is moving! It's breaking the waves! As a result, the dances became more frantic and the singing voices became more high-pitched, but at this time only the men were left singing and dancing beside the stones, and the women and children disappeared behind the men......

Obviously, no one in the crowd watching the excitement on the deck of the Nicole at this moment can appreciate the art of these natives, but the dance of sacrifice and prayer to the gods is the source of art, this is common knowledge of everyone, after all, there are various courses on the ship, especially before the crossing.

Therefore, it is a pity that Xiao Pingguo, a recognized great musician, was not present, otherwise, Xiao Da musician would inevitably feel something about the bursts of wooden drums and the chanting of the natives, and what original music would he make.

When everyone came back from the mouth of the Panlong River, Xiao Pingguo only relied on the incomplete retelling of the brother who had been to the scene, and most of them actually restored the drum rhythm and chanting of that tribe, in short, Xiao Pingguo's musical talent was certified by everyone.

At this time, the people on the deck of the Nicole were probably infected by the sound of wooden drums from afar, and many people immediately said with emotion, I don't know why, from the time I went to sea to the present, I suddenly heard these wooden drums, and I could actually feel a kind of spiritual stirring......

The people on board the Nicole are bustling with the art of the natives, but at this moment on the beach, there is a different atmosphere---- people are seriously and seriously dealing with the wonders of the distant sea in their own way.

At this moment, a firework suddenly rose from the pile of stones on the beach, and one of the men, covered in various paints, held a struggling lizard in his hand, and in the midst of the words of the crowd, the poor lizard was disemboweled by a sharp black stone knife, and the blood was dripped into a stone plate with intricate lines.

When the lizard's blood and the man's own blood on the wrist finally mixed together in the grooves of the stone plate, the blood miraculously turned blue!

The men's dance became even more frenzied, and the men who stood behind the dancers began to sing in a louder chorus, following the rhythm of the dancers, raising their hands to the sky and singing in a high-pitched chorus.

The women and children, on the other hand, hid farther behind, holding the baby in their arms, and the child in their arms stopped crying, and they watched silently as the behemoth on the sea approached.

In the distance, the behemoth suddenly stopped moving forward, and just stood silently in the waves, not moving, silently confronting the fireworks and dancers on the beach.