The blue sky was washed clean, white clouds drifting past in clusters. The sea was like a mirror, wavelets glittering in specks. The fleet set out from Big Shrimp Lake, following the lengthening coast northeast. After traveling two hundred and fifty li, they reached the mouth of another great river.
The great river rolled on, its waters abundant. Chiwako stood at the bow and made a rough estimate, immediately knowing the river had to be two li wide, while its length stretched all the way to the end of his sight. And judging by this surging volume of water, the region the river's upper reaches flowed through was probably extremely vast.
"Tikalo, what river is this one?"
"Oh! You mean this river? Now this one is something else!"
The Maya merchant Tikalo looked at it for a moment, then answered with a smile.
"This is the Big Grass River (Río Champoton)! The upper reaches of the Big Grass River twist constantly eastward and run on for several hundred li, even connecting with the barren Central Basin. During the Classic Period of the Maya, this river channel was a golden waterway said to have stretched over a thousand li. Many goods from Calakmul, the Snake Capital, were carried along this waterway all the way to the coast, then turned north. But after the divine disaster descended, the upper reaches of the Big Grass River gradually dried up and were cut off, leaving only this lower half. Even so, to this day, many Maya tribes still settle or hunt along this freshwater-rich river."
"Settle or hunt?"
Chiwako was slightly startled. On this rain-abundant Yucatan Peninsula, there were tribes that lived by hunting? Somewhat puzzled, he pressed on.
"This long river is so broad and extended, and the freshwater is plentiful. The land