Count of Aranda revealed a relaxed expression. "Your Majesty, if New Granada were hit by a surprise attack, it would indeed be extremely dangerous.
"But since we have made arrangements in advance, the situation is completely different."
His finger swept across the green triangle representing the rainforest on the map. "Setting out from Manaus, the Portuguese would need to follow the Rio Negro westward. Along the way, only the small town of San Carlos could provide a limited amount of supplies.
"After that, they would enter the Orinoco River through the Casiquiare Canal, then head north..."
He lowered his head to make a calculation, then continued, "They would have to travel more than 350 kilometers before reaching New Granada territory."
Spain had only begun fully adopting the metric system—the French standard system of measurement—two years earlier, so they were still somewhat unfamiliar with the actual distance represented by a "kilometer."
Carlos IV looked at him. "So?"
Count of Aranda took a deep breath. "This means the Portuguese supply line would stretch for 1,100 kilometers, with nearly all of it running through dense jungle.
"They would have to establish a large number of supply stations along the route to ensure the frontline received provisions. That would require dispersing a great many troops to garrison and maintain those stations.
"At the same time, the ships transporting their supplies along the rivers would be extremely vulnerable to attack—we need only deploy a few Cannons along the banks in advance to easily intercept their transport vessels.
"Under such circumstances, of the 60,000 Portuguese troops, no more than 10,000 could actually enter New Granada to fight.
"We would not even need to confront those 10,000 men head-on. We would only need to keep striking their supply lines, and within three or four months at most,