The mighty river surged toward the southwest. The second-greatest river under heaven, the longest river in the Alliance's south, was the Talsas River. The Talsas River wound from east to west for two thousand li, the only passage linking the tribes of east and west.
At the far western end of the great river, it flowed out to sea at Trout Village, merging into the vast East Pacific Ocean, with the newly risen Black Rock Mountain iron mine beside it. That was the southernmost border of the Lake Kingdom, and also the starting point and end point of the kingdom's first maritime exploration.
Three Crocodile God Galleys, laden with the gains of exploration, returned to the kingdom from here. After that, they went north against the current and reached the broad, lush Atoyac Lake, where a thousand boats wove back and forth, and stayed for several months at the southern Shipbuilding Department outside Purple Grass City.
The Purepecha shipwrights inspected them carefully, repairing damaged planks and patching scattered sails. And when the first double-hulled canoe, loaded with young and able-bodied Tlaxcalans, reached Atoyac Lake, a new royal command also came rolling in with the rain-season storm clouds.
When the Mexica Warrior came bearing His Highness's royal command and found Chiwako in the small village outside the Shipbuilding Department, he was lying on a pile of thatch, wearing a big straw hat, lazily basking. Fine—there was no sun in the sky, only dark clouds and mountain wind. The old militiaman basked in the wind instead, clutching a bag of sunflower seeds as he leisurely cracked them for amusement.
On this voyage, the fleet had traded cheaply for quite a bit of Goldstone and silver stone. After returning to the kingdom and refining them, everyone divided up the gold and silver ingots.