On September 9, 1831, at about 6 o'clock in the morning, the captain left the cabin and boarded the stern ship floor. The east is about to dawn. To be precise, the disc-like sun is slowly poking out, but it has not yet broken out of the horizon.The long beams of light caressingly slapped the surface of the sea, and under the blowing of the morning wind, there were round and round ripples on the sea. After a quiet night, the ushering day will be a great sunny day, which is a rare weather in September after the end of the month. The captain calibrated the interstitial telescope with his right eye, turned around and looked around, the water and the sky were all in one color.

He put down the binoculars and walked over to a bearded helmsman, an old man with blinking eyes. "When was your watch?" asked the captain. "Four o'clock, Captain." The two were talking in a language that neither of them could understand.This language will be inexplicable to Europeans, British, French, Germans and people from other countries, unless he often goes to various commercial ports on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This may be a language between Turkish and Syriac. mixed language between. "Is there anything new?" "No, Captain."

"Have you not seen the ship since early in the morning?" "Only one, a big three-masted ship. It came close to us when the wind was strong, and I quickly got rid of it with the help of the wind." "Very good! Well done, how are you doing now?..." The captain looked around intently.Then he yelled: "Get ready to steer!" The crew all started to move, the rope under the front sail was tensed with the rudder stick being pressed down, and at the same time the mizzen sail was pulled up, and they began to sail northwest with the wind. This cruise ship transformed from a merchant ship has a tonnage of about 400 tons, a double mast, a captain, a bosun and 15 sailors: strong and strong, much like the costumes of the Eastern European navy.They wore short shirts, hats with round brims, fat trousers, and boots.

The sailboat is neither named nor ensigned either on the outside of the forward fender or on the stern outer deck.In order to avoid saluting or answering salutes with other ships, it has to turn its rudder and divert as long as it is hoped that the post will send out a message of "there is a boat". Could this be a pirate ship?At that time, pirate ships could still be encountered in the waters of this area.It is afraid of being hunted!No, there were no weapons and equipment on board, and it would be impossible for such a few sailors to be on a ship that took risks and robbed. It may be a smuggling ship, and vigilant customs inspectors come to check and search through boxes and boxes, but they will never find a single smuggled goods.To be honest, the ship didn't carry any cargo.The cargo hold stores enough food for several years of food; and beverages such as liquor and wine.Under the poop cabin, there are 3 wooden barrels with iron hoops... It can be seen that these can be used for the jade cabin, which is an excellent metal ballast, which can make the ship move forward with full sail.

Maybe people will wonder whether those 3 wooden barrels were filled with gunpowder or other explosives! Nor would they have taken any precautions when they went into the barreling bay. For the destination of the ship, the reason why it has advanced and retreated in the past 15 months, and the reason for the diversion of the ship is that during this period of time, this sea area sometimes sails forward, sometimes sails slowly, sometimes crosses the inland sea, and sometimes sails the boundless ocean. Every sailor has nothing to say about the situation.During this unexplainable voyage, he also found a few pieces of land. The captain avoided them as soon as possible. He also saw a few islands. He also hurriedly turned the rudder and left. If you check the captain's logbook, you will find it even more bizarre. eccentric.For this cannot be accounted for either by the direction of the wind, or by changes in the weather.It was a secret between a 46-year-old, bristly-haired captain and a haughty-looking man.At this moment, that haughty man appeared on the gazebo.

"Anything new?" he asked. "No, sir! . . . " replied the captain. He shrugged and dismissively ended the three or four-word conversation.Then the man whom the captain honored just now returned to the room along the escalator of the observation deck.He lay on the sofa, motionless.Appears to be sound asleep, but not asleep.Perhaps, he was perplexed by a problem. The man was about 50 years old, tall, with thick mottled hair on his strong head.A full beard stretches from mouth to chest, and black eyes are shining brightly.He was haughty, but his face was obviously sad, it could be said: depressed and disappointed.His dignified manner suggested a high birth, which was not evident in his dress.He wore a brown arabesque coat with lace sleeves and colorful tassels, and a green cap with a black rubber ball top.

Two hours passed, and a young waiter brought the lunch, which was placed on a small table fixed to the floor covered with a thick rug embroidered with colorful patterns. He disapproved of the elaborate cooking, except for the hot, fragrant coffee in two finely carved silver cups, and then, between his lips and his white teeth, he took the amber The cigarette holder, the hookah placed in front of him emitted wisps of smoke, and in the fragrance of Syrian tobacco, he entered his dream again. The morning passed, and the two-masted sailing ship continued its unpredictable voyage on the sea, gently swinging the rudder in the waves.

At almost 4:00, Your Excellency stood up, took a few steps, and stopped in front of the windward half-open window, watching the end of the sea.Then, stop at a carpeted raised floor that opens at either corner to reveal an opening to the bilge below. In the hold, where the three aforementioned barrels stood side by side, the man bent over the raised floor, and paused for a moment, as if the sight of the barrels had revived his reverie.He straightened up and said in a low voice: "No! I can't hesitate any longer. I can't find a nameless island and bury them quietly. I'd rather throw them into the sea."

He closed the floor again, laid the carpet, and took the ladder up to the quarter floor. It's five o'clock in the afternoon, and the weather doesn't seem to have changed at all.A few reddish clouds are fluttering with the wind, the upper part of the left sail is slightly tilted, and a white skirt is trailing behind the boat, like a gauze scarf, which blends with the naughty and willful waves. Your Excellency slowly scanned the sea level with his eyes, and the blue sea set off the arc-shaped horizon.Standing there, he could see a low-rise piece of land more than ten nautical miles away, but he couldn't see other outlines protruding from the intersection of water and sky.

At this time, the captain walked towards him, and the two of them repeated the two old sayings: "Is there anything new?" "No, sir." He was silent for a few minutes, then sat down on a long bench in the stern of the boat.The captain was pacing up and down in the wind, his hand holding the binoculars still trembling. "Captain, ..." he surveyed the nearby waters again, and then said to the captain. "Sir, what do you need?" "I want to know exactly where we are." The captain fetched the chart and spread it out on a wooden table in the side of the ship.

"Here," he replied, pointing with a pencil at the intersection of a warp and a weft. "How far is it from this island in the east?..." "22 nautical miles." "How far from this land?" "about 26 nautical miles" "No one on board knows where we are now?" "Nobody knows but you and me, sir!" "Even what sea we're sailing on?" "Even the best sailors can't tell, for we've lost all kinds of ships long ago." "Ah! We are so unlucky, why should I not come across an island that the navigators cannot find, even a small rock known only to me? I will bury my treasure in the island Come on. When the time is right, a few days' sailing will take it out... I hope that day will come!" After he finished speaking, he remained silent again, and walked to the front of the ship and leaned over to look out.The deep sea water is crystal clear, and you can see through more than 80 at a glance.Watching, he turned suddenly and shouted: "Okay! I will give my treasure to this abyss." "It will never be returned to you, Your Excellency!" "Hmph! I'd rather sink them than fall into the hands of the enemy and mediocrity." "Then please go ahead!" "Okay! Before dark, if we can't find such a small island, we will sink all the barrels immediately!" "Of order!" The captain replied while directing the steering. Your Excellency returned to the aft cabin, hugged his elbows against the wall and fell into the habitual hazy dream again. The sun was about to set, and on September 9th, half a month before the autumnal equinox, the sun's disk would disappear a few degrees to the west, exactly at the position that caught the captain's attention just now.So is there no strait connecting the mainland and islands?Within this radius of 15 to 20 nautical miles, which is familiar to navigators and frequented by merchant ships, the map does not show any land, so this assumption seems impossible.Maybe there is a lonely rock, a reef only a few meters above the sea level, which can also bury treasure for that lord, and it is difficult for him to find it now... If there is a small island, it must be surrounded by sandy beaches, without the surf and waves on the opposite shore, it will never be missed from the eyes of the sailors on the boat.However, no one can see any small islands and reefs on the chart.Despite this, the captain still did not let go of the surrounding sea. The binoculars couldn't be more accurate, but there was still no shadow.He thought: "This is nothing but fantasy!" Indeed, there is not even the faintest outline of anything within the scope of the telescope. At about 6 o'clock at this moment, the sun began to fall into the horizon. According to the Iberian people, when it touched the sea, it made a whistle sound.The sunset is the same as the sunrise. When it falls below the horizon, people can still see it due to the reflection. The beams of light scattered obliquely on the sea surface extend from west to east, like a long diameter reflecting the sparkling light. The sparkling sea water, like a grid of lights, trembles in the autumn wind.When the upper edge of the sun's disk was tangent to the water's surface, the red light died away suddenly, giving off a green haze.The hull was in darkness, and the soaring white sail was dyed purple by the last afterglow. As night fell, suddenly someone shouted in front. "Hey!……" "What?" asked the captain. "There's land ahead!" "Land! Could it be the vague outline that the captain saw in that direction a few minutes ago?...So he was not mistaken." Hearing the call of the lookout post, all the sailors on duty rushed to the front deck and looked west.The captain was wearing a binoculars, grasped the cables of the big mast, nimbly climbed up the mast, rode on the crosspiece of the lower corner of the top mast, raised the binoculars, and searched for the direction it pointed. The lookout post was right.Sure enough, six or seven nautical miles away, there was a small island showing its black silhouette under the colorful sky.It is also like a reef, very close to the sea level, shrouded in sulfurous water vapor. Fifty years later, sailors might think that it was a huge ship crossing the ocean, but in 1831, people could not have imagined that there was such a huge ship. Besides, before the captain could think about it, the island was immediately submerged in night fog.That didn't matter, anyway, there was no doubt that he had actually seen the island. The captain immediately went into the cabin, and the lord, awakened from his dream, asked the captain to come closer, and asked the same old question: "How about it!" "Yes, sir." "See land?" "At least it's a small island." "how far?" "About 6 nautical miles to the west." "Aren't there any marks on the chart?" "No!" "Surely so?" "Absolutely!" "Is this an unnamed island?" "I think so." "is it possible?" "Yes. Your Excellency, perhaps it has just been formed." "Just formed?" "I surmise that it appears to be enveloped in volcanic vapors. This area is volcanically active, and small islands are often exposed." "I hope you are right, Captain! How much I need this rising land! It will belong to no one..." "Or at least it belongs only to the first occupant, sir." "that's me!" "Yes...it's you." "Go straight to the island!" "Go straight! Be careful!" replied the captain. "If some of the reefs stretch too far, our ship will be crushed. I think we should wait until daylight to see the position before landing." "We wait... and approach it at the same time..." "Obey!" This is the opinion of an excellent sailor. The ship must not sail rashly, especially when approaching a new land, it must advance while digging deep and shallow, and it is more cautious when sailing at night. Your Excellency is back in his cabin, and even if he falls asleep, the midshipman need not wake him at dawn: he will be on the stern deck just before sunrise. The captain himself did not leave the deck, nor did he keep the boatswain on watch till daybreak.As night fell, the light around the horizon gradually shrank, and it was impossible to see clearly.The afterglow of the sun is only faintly visible at high altitude, and it will be extinguished in a short while.During this hour, the breeze swept across the sea lightly, and only a few sails were needed to maintain the course. Dots of stars illuminate the sky, and the weak North Star is like an eye, gazing motionlessly at the sea in the north.Under the crooked handle of Ursa Major, the star Necropius twinkled, as did the twin V-shaped constellation Cassiopeia, whose remote counterpart Polaris was.Below it, there is another place where it rose exactly last night; tomorrow night, she will rise at the original position 4 minutes earlier to start its sidereal day.The sleeping sea is at a loss, and it is even more unpredictable as night falls. The captain leaned against the bow, motionless, like the upright of a windlass.He concentrated on the direction he saw in the twilight.At this moment, he had doubts, the darker the doubts, the more difficult to solve.Could it be that he was tricked by hallucinations?Did a new island really emerge from that place?yes!Absolutely.He knows this sea area well, and has passed through it hundreds of times.The location is about one nautical mile away from him, and the nearest land is about... If he is not mistaken, if this is really a small island rising from the sea, is it possible that it already has an owner?Has any navigator planted a flag on the island? ...The British, those British who specialize in picking up junk in the ocean, will quickly pick up a small island on the sea road and throw it into their own baskets! ...and will the lights indicating occupation be lit soon? ... Maybe this rocky pile has been around for weeks, months, how could it escape the sailor's sight, how could it escape the navigator? ... The captain was distraught, anxiously looking forward to the dawn.It was pitch black now, and there was nothing to point the way to the island—not even the reflection of the steam that enveloped it, to tell which was the atmosphere and which was the sea. Fortunately, the time does not stop, and the Polaris group depicts the appearance on the central axis of the sky.It's almost 4 o'clock, the east and the northeast are gradually turning white, this is the earliest morning light.The faint light allowed people to see a few thin clouds hanging in the sky, and the sun still needed to rise several degrees before it was level with the horizon.As long as the island exists, sailors can rediscover it even without much light. At this time, Your Excellency walked from the cabin to the side of the captain. "What about this island?..." he asked. "There, sir," replied the captain, pointing to a reef not more than two nautical miles away. "Lean over..." "As ordered."