ebookland Chapter 464 Discovery of Gold Mine
Chapter 464 Discovery of Gold Mine
The natives exchanged some exquisite artifacts from Min Xi. Knowing that Min Xi had a lot of good things, they took out their best treasures and traded with them.
But the things they thought were precious were not worth the attention of Min Xi and his companions, such as the Tasmanian tiger and crocodile skulls and teeth they hunted. These things were very precious to the indigenous people and were symbols of courage and status, but they were worthless to Min Xi and his companions.
The natives tried to exchange the shells that they used as containers and knives at home for knives, but no one wanted them. Instead, beautiful stones that had no practical use were more popular, especially the round beads that were fished out of the sea. One bead could be exchanged for a knife or two bowls.
The natives ran back home, dug out the beads that they usually didn't value, and exchanged them for other things.
To the surprise of Min Xi and Yun Ji, they actually received seven or eight pearls of varying sizes. However, some were obviously not well preserved and had turned yellow, while others even had pits in them and they didn't know how they were caused.
Min Xi did not refuse the deal, but only asked for a discount. Pearls of poor quality could be sold to pharmacies as medicinal materials.
Because of exchanging things, they stayed in the tribe for some time, and by the time they left the tribe, it was almost noon.
Not long after they came out of the tribe, they heard someone shouting something loudly. Min Xi turned around and found that several natives were chasing them.
Everyone stopped, and the natives caught up with them, panting, and showed them a leather bag in their hands. The bag was made of emu skin.
Min Xi looked down and found a bag full of finger limes. There were quite a few of them, at least several kilograms. The man gestured and asked if he could trade finger limes for something with them.
Min Xi thought for a moment and took out a fire starter from his pocket. The other party looked at it and shook his head, as if he wanted something else. Min Xi took out a bowl and the other party still wanted to shake his head.
Yun Ji said, "They might want a knife."
Min Xi thought about it, then took out a small knife and gave it to him. The man was a little disappointed when he saw that it was a small knife and not the dagger he was expecting, but he still took it.
Min Xi took out the pearl and showed it to them, meaning that if they had it, they could come and exchange it for something else.
Those people were mumbling something, but Min Xi didn't understand. They just raised their hands and pointed at the river in the distance, and then pointed towards the sea, meaning that if they followed the river, they would be found by the river.
Back at the river, Min Xi took out the things they had exchanged from the indigenous tribe and counted them. Everyone looked at the huge pearls and asked in surprise, "This place also produces pearls?"
"Of course they were fished out of the sea. But they obviously don't go to the beach often, so the number is not large," Min Xi explained.
"What are these stones used for?" everyone said as they looked at the shiny stones.
"This is also a kind of gemstone, with beautiful patterns. If I take it back and polish it, I can make it into jewelry. The wives of the nobles will probably like it, and I can sell it for a good price."
"What are these little fruits?" Someone found the two bags of finger limes.
"This is also a kind of orange and can be eaten as a fruit. We are short of vegetables and fruits, so we can use this as a substitute. It has a similar effect to lemon. From now on, everyone can eat two a day, and they won't get scurvy. There are finger oranges growing nearby. From now on, in addition to looking for gold mines, we must also keep an eye out for finger oranges. Pick them when we see them and bring more back to the ship." Min Xi said.
When everyone heard him talk about lemons, they couldn't help but salivate. They had tasted the sourness of lemons, but for the sake of health, they endured the sourness and ate a lot. When they stopped at Jinshan, the lemons they brought from Southeast Asia were basically used up. Now there was something similar to lemons. It seemed that they really couldn't stand the sourness.
They boarded the boat and continued rowing upstream. The river gradually became shallower, the crocodile's traces disappeared, the mud at the bottom of the river became easier to dig, and more and more gold sand was found. They estimated that they were getting closer and closer to the gold mine.
But after a day's journey, they still could not find the source of the golden sand. The river became shallower, and in some places there were shoals and rapids, which had already affected the navigation of ships.
In the evening, they stopped at a long beach. The water here was fast-flowing and the riverbed had a large drop, which was more troublesome than the rapids they had encountered before. The boat could not row up. It was getting late, so they decided to spend the night here.
Min Xi discussed with everyone: "I think the location of the gold mine is close, why don't we walk upstream to take a look tomorrow instead of rowing."
Yun Ji said, "Let's go up there tomorrow to see if we can row a boat. If we can, we'll try to drag the boat up there. Rowing is faster than walking. If there are many dangerous rapids, we won't row the boat, we'll just walk."
After a discussion, everyone thought that this was the right thing to do, so they decided to do it. While cooking, Min Xi and Yun Ji took the craftsmen to the riverbed to scoop up sand and wash it. They found that there was more gold sand here. There was gold sand in every basin of sand, and the particles were larger than before.
Min Xi looked towards the shore and suggested, "Let's try the mud and sand on the river bank to see if there is any gold sand."
So they went to the river bank and dug some soil to wash, but they didn't find any gold sand. It seemed that the gold mine was not there.
The next morning, they got up early and set off, leaving a few people to guard the boat. After all, there were natives here, and if they didn't leave someone to guard it, the boat would probably be discovered and taken away by the natives.
After climbing up this dangerous rapid, there is another dangerous rapid not far above. It is no longer suitable for sailing and you can only walk.
They walked along the river for half a day. When they stopped to eat and rest at noon, someone found a large number of finger lime trees in the bushes. There were quite a few fruits, and they were quite large. This was an unexpected harvest. Everyone picked all the finger limes they could see, a total of about 10 to 20 kilograms, which was an unexpected harvest.
When Min Xi was washing his finger oranges by the river, he looked at the color of the mud on the riverbank and an idea occurred to him: "Seventh Brother, bring the basin over. Let's try the mud here to see if there is any gold sand."
Yun Ji heard this and brought the gold pan. Min Xi put the finger orange aside, dug some sand from the river bank, put it in the water and started to wash it. After all the sand was washed out, he saw something shiny in the basin and couldn't help but smile: "Seventh brother, look, it's gold!"
When the people who were busy making lunch heard his voice, they thought it was a little unusual and stopped to look at him. Although they had found a lot of gold in the past two days, they had never heard him so happy.
Yun Ji walked over and saw that he indeed saw broken gold from the bottom of the basin. The particles were larger than before: "It really is."
Min Xi laughed and announced loudly: "We found the gold mine, this is the gold mine!"
When everyone heard this, they were skeptical: "Really? This is the gold mine?" This was different from the gold mine they found in Jinshan. It cannot be said that there were no mountains here, but the mountains here were not high, and there were no obvious rocks, so it did not look like a gold mine.
Min Xi said: "It's true, there is golden sand in the mud on the shore, look!" He showed the golden sand in the basin to everyone.
After everyone looked at it, they wondered, "Why is this place different from the gold mine we saw last time?"
"Due to different geological conditions, the form of gold mines is also different. Some are in rocks, some are in mud, but this is definitely a gold mine," said Min Xi.
The craftsman said, "The gold content here is a little low."
The gold in the previous gold mine is all in the rocks, and the rocks need to be ground into powder before the gold can be refined. The process is a bit complicated, but the gold content is high. Here, you only need to wash to get the gold, but the gold content is too low.
Min Xi thought for a while and said, "Maybe if we dig a little deeper, we'll find more." He knew that Australia was rich in minerals, and the iron ore was so rich, it didn't make sense that the gold mine was so poor, so he still firmly believed that this was also a rich mine.
Yun Ji said, "Anyway, at least we have confirmed that there is a gold mine here. We need to mark it and then bring people from Daming to mine it."
"Then should we not go upstream?" someone asked.
Min Xi nodded: "Let's not leave. Let's explore around here and go to the other side of the river to see if there is gold sand there as well."
They expanded the scope of exploration, dug out mud and sand from the river bottom and washed it, and found that the gold sand content increased significantly. They also dug out mud and sand from the other side of the river and washed it, and found that there was more gold sand on the other side of the river than on this side.
Min Xi guessed that the main location of the gold mine was on the south side of the river, and the range of the gold mine should be quite a distance further up. After all, it was basically certain that the gold sand at the bottom of the river was washed down from upstream.
After dinner, they walked up a distance and washed the mud on both sides to test it. It still contained gold sand. This large area was the range of gold mines. Everyone was very happy. This trip finally paid off.
While it was still light, they left a lot of marks on the spot, and then hurried back to meet up with the people guarding the boat before dark.
The return journey was much faster than the outbound journey, after all, there was no need to stop to pan for gold. After rushing, they finally returned to the boat before dark. They spent another night here before sailing back.
When they passed by the indigenous tribe, they met the natives who were waiting for them on the shore. Seeing them, those people waved to them happily.
They pulled the boat over, and those people brought opals and finger limes and wanted to exchange them for things. Min Si did not refuse, and exchanged the items with them using clay pots, coarse cloth and sugar, and then left.
Because they were going downstream and didn't have to waste time panning for gold, they quickly returned to the bay and reunited with the main force.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief to see them return safely.
A captain came running over and said, "My lord, you are finally back. This place is too evil. There are crocodiles that can hurt people. We should not stay here any longer. Let's leave quickly."
"What's going on?" Min Xi and Yun Ji asked hurriedly after hearing this.
The captain sighed and said, "A crew member on the Xingyun went to cast a net in the bay and was spotted by a giant crocodile. He almost lost his life. We rescued him in time, but he still had one leg bitten off."