The kingdom's exploration fleet rested properly for several days among the Kumeyaay's Ipa Great Tribe. Scholar Miki worked hard to communicate with the tribe's elders and learned more intelligence about the northern continent.
The various Kumeyaay tribes were powerful peoples occupying the northern coast of the peninsula—the great salt lake—the Colorado River and the lower reaches of the Gila River. The territory they controlled was the southwest of what would later be Arizona in the United States, the southernmost tip of California, and the northern tip of Baja California in Mexico.
In the barren northern deserts, where water sources were scarce, this land with rivers and lakes, suitable for farming, was fertile soil that countless northern tribes fought and struggled over. Those who could occupy this land were inevitably powerful tribes that had survived after countless battles, or even tribal alliances. And at present, the various Kumeyaay tribes were in a state that was both scattered and connected, faintly showing the beginnings of a tribal alliance.
"Brothers who came from the sea, we Kumeyaay have more than sixty tribes, large and small!... And the three strongest great tribes are the Salton Sea Tribe, which occupies the Salton Sea; us, who occupy the river mouth on the western bank; and the Long River Tribe, which occupies the junction of the Wikuwaa River and the Hanan Chuuk River! Each great tribe, counting the small vassal tribes around it, has at least four or five thousand people and can pull together over a thousand warriors!..."
Red Stone Chief Matutumbe thought back as he pondered, holding a branch in his hand and drawing a map in the sand. Scholar Miki wrote furiously, sketching a simple map with charcoal on tough bark paper, then marking the positions of the various tribes. He would gather as